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On March 8, 2010 an e-mail message to Dean Joan Hendricks, prominent One Health supporter/advocate at the University of Pennsylvania school of veterinary medicine in Philadelpia, Pennsylvania (USA) from John Trumper, MD, a longstanding valued One Health supporter in the state of Vermont modestly advised Dr. Hendricks of his remarkable One Health activities this past year.

Dr. Trumper told Dr. Hendricks:
“It's been a year since you helped us launch our One Health Initiative up here, and I promised then to give you some follow up.

We have been concentrating on communicating at the practitioner level of physicians and [veterinarians]. At the state society level, there was a brief One Health Initiative (OHI) presentation at the State Medical Society meeting last fall. I attended the State Veterinary Society meeting, and we now include a veterinarian presenter at the Academy of Pediatrics spring meeting and [veterinarians] are invited to all our membership meetings.

To help at the local community level, we formed a joint committee that meets every 2 months or so and has developed a power point presentation on OHI that [veterinarians] can use at local hospital presentations to physicians. There have been just two talks by [veterinarians] at local hospitals so far, with two more scheduled in April. Subjects have included: "Animal Bites from the Perpetrators Point of View", "People, Pets, & Parasites," and The Raw Milk Sale Debate. We have a request for a speaker on The Ididerad, and on pet obesity and childhood obesity; a connection?

The local veterinarians are invited to all these local hospital presentations and so far attendance by both groups has been gratifying. So, we have a long way to go, but our modest plans of starting at the local level, thanks to your help, are underway.”

Note: The One Health team of Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP, Bruce Kaplan, DVM, Thomas P. Monath, MD and Jack Woodall, PhD strongly endorses Dr. Trumper’s model activities and hope that other visionary physicians nationally and internationally will consider following suit.

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WHO is releasing the first ever guidance on procuring safe and efficient anti-malarial medicines. The guidelines will help countries select and obtain effective, good quality medicines and save lives by improving the way patients are diagnosed and treated.

Read the news release on the new malaria guidelines
Read the guidelines for treatment of malaria

"Future Challenges in Veterinary Medicine"
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In summer 2010, IVSA Denmark will be hosting the 59th annual Summer Congress.

It’s the third IVSA congress in Denmark, since the association was founded here in 1951.

Application for the congress opens March 1st on congress homepage www.ivsadenmark.dk

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Vets have welcomed the Government consultation on reforming dangerous dogs legislation but called on politicians not to let the issue become a political football during the forthcoming election campaign.

Responding to the announcement by the Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs that Defra will consult the public on reform of the legislation and compulsory microchipping, Professor Bill Reilly, President of the BVA, said:

“The BVA has been lobbying the Government and Opposition hard for a change in dangerous dogs legislation and so we are delighted that the Government is now considering reforming the hugely unpopular and ineffective Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

“The BVA believes very strongly in the principle of deed not breed – targeting dogs for their actions, not what they look like – and we hope to see new legislation that tackles the actions of irresponsible pet owners that can cause dogs to become aggressive.

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The European Parliament has voted 618 votes to 17 for an extension to the transitional arrangements contained within the regulation on the non-commercial movement of pet animals (Reg. 998/2003) which afford the UK additional protection against rabies, ticks and tapeworms.

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) and British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) have been lobbying MEPs to support the extension and have strongly welcomed this decision.

The transitional arrangements allow the UK to impose stricter measures on the entry of pet animals and are designed to protect the UK from rabies, ticks and tapeworms (Echinococcus multilocularis).

The vote in the European Parliament today supports an extension of these arrangements until the end of 2011 and puts in place a system so that permanent measures can be imposed in the future for entry to specific Member States based on scientific evidence. The decision will have to be ratified by the European Agriculture Council before coming into force.

Commenting, Professor Bill Reilly, President of the BVA, said:

“The Pet Travel Scheme affords the UK’s pet, wildlife and human populations protection from serious diseases and parasites and we have long argued for these arrangements to remain until scientific evidence can prove that the risk is manageable.

“The BVA and BSAVA have worked closely with Defra to secure this extension to the arrangements and we will now be pushing for investment in additional scientific research that will give us a clearer picture of the threat of the parasite Echinococcus multilocularis and other exotic and emerging diseases.”

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Upper respiratory infections in cats are similar to colds in humans, and while they are often nothing to worry about, they can have serious consequences, particularly in shelters, where they are among the top reasons why shelter cats are put down.

In this podcast, Dr. Kate Hurley, director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California-Davis, talk about feline upper respiratory infections and her current research on the subject.

Listen to the podcast ...

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Publications
The State of Food and Agriculture - Livestock in the Balance

Standards, policies and strategies
Food 2030

Codes of Prcatices and Recommendations
Dairy Cattle - Code of welfare 2010

Multimedia
Food, Inc.

Websites
Global Animal Partnership

Project
The evaluation of the EU Policy on Animal Welfare (EU PAW)

This and more on:
http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/themes/animal-welfare/en/
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Citing a growing need by private practitioners for information about the profitability of their practices, the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues (NCVEI) and VetPartners announces the release of the Profitability Estimator. “Profitability is the one single metric that allows business owners to judge the level of their economic success. Unfortunately, most practice owners don’t get financial reports that give them this information” said Dr. Karen E. Felsted, CPA, MS, CVPM, CEO of NCVEI. “The Profitability Estimator is designed to fill that gap and give practice owners and managers the information they need to make intelligent business decisions.”

NCVEI and VetPartners collaborated on the design of the tool. “In recent years, members of the Veterinary Valuation Resource Council of VetPartners have seen an increase in the number of practices with no value or an exceptionally low value when appraised—i.e. No-Lo Practices” said Dr. Christine Merle, MBA, CVPM, Executive Director of VetPartners. “Quite unexpectedly, appraisers were also seeing low values in practices you would never normally expect it in. This low value was driven primarily by a lack of profitability and, to make matters worse, most owners of these low–profit practices were not even aware of their poor financial situation.”

By: Dalip K. Gosain, Ph.D
Head Krishi Vigyan Kendra & Dairy Training Centre National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal

Dr. K.M.L. Pathak, Deputy Director General (Animal Science), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)

Karnal (India): A three days National Cattle Fair (Dairy Mela) was organized here at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) from 24-26 February. Dr. K.M.L. Pathak, Deputy Director General (Animal Science), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi in the inaugural programme as a Chief Guest stressed that the dairy farmers should learn the new technologies evolved by the NDRI adopt them at their dairy farms and get benefits through enhanced milk production. He added that although India ranks first in the world in milk production but to meet the growing demand of milk newer technologies need be evolved for further increasing the milk production.

Ch. Ved Pal, Member, Board of Management, NDRI lauded the contributions made by the NDRI in increasing the milk production and said the dairy farmers should undergo different training programmes organized by this institute so that with the adoption of newer technologies they were benefited.

Dr. A.K. Srivastava, Director, NDRI spoke on the issues pertaining to Mastitis and the use of oxytocin in dairy animals. He said that there is shortage of green fodder, straws and concentrates used for feeding the dairy animals and in this context the farmers should use cost effective feeding technologies.