A new device call the Animalarm, which sends dog owners an SMS text message if the temperature in their car exceeds a preset threshold, has been launched this week.

Apparently, you can also ring the device to check what the temperature is inside your car.

The Animalarm sells for £108 inc. VAT from www.animalarm.co.uk.

Now all we need is a bit of sun. 

Ceva Animal Health, maker of Ketofen, has published a guide and accompanying videos for farmers which promote best practice in the management of cattle lameness.

The step-by-step guide offers guidelines to help farmers improve their herd's mobility.

It highlights the importance of implementing a robust and ongoing treatment plan to improve cow comfort and reduce lameness in the short-term, which will lead to increased production and herd welfare in the longer-term. 

The guide includes advice on reviewing a whole herd by an independent RoMS (Register of Mobility Scorers) accredited mobility scorer, seeking veterinary advice or contacting a mobility mentor (someone who has been trained to deliver the ADHB Healthy Feet Programme) if lesions are identified, treating within 48 hours of identification with a combination of trim, block, topical antimicrobial spray and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID), as appropriate, and the importance of ongoing treatment, prevention and monitoring every fortnight. 

The guide also includes tips for the successful use of NSAIDs, which include the importance of using a NSAID with a zero milk withhold.

There are four lameness management videos which were produced in collaboration with James Wilson BSc (Hons) PhD, a foot health consultant from Herd Health Consultancy and include contributions from Alex Burrows, professional foot trimmer and Chair of the National Association of Cattle Foot Trimmers (NACFT), Dave Bacon, a dairy farmer from Gleadthorpe Farm in Nottinghamshire, Shannon Trinder, assistant herdsperson at Gleadthorpe Farm and Harry Walby BVetMed MRCVS, veterinary surgeon and ruminant technical advisor at Ceva Animal Health. 

They cover the benefits of regular mobility scoring, prioritising mobility and lameness prevention in heifers and maintaining lameness management success with practical and effective lameness treatment and prevention programmes.

www.wavegoodbyetopain.co.uk/pdf/step-by-step-guide.pdf.
www.wavegoodbyetopain.co.uk/training-videos.html. 

Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health has announced the replacement of its Bovilis^® IBR with Bovilis® IBR Marker Live vaccine, a move that brings the UK into line with the rest of Europe where marker vaccines are favoured.

Many EU member states, including Scandinavia and Austria are now declared IBR-free, and others (Germany and Hungary) operate national eradication programmes. Using a marker vaccine will help farmers wishing to export animals, or semen, or those working towards an eradication programme in their herds.

Recent bulk milk and blood screening via Intervet/Schering-Plough's complimentary BeefCheck and DairyCheck has revealed that 72% of herds tested were positive for IBR exposure. Given the latent nature of infection, and the rumbling losses associated with subclinical disease, it should come as no surprise that farmers are increasingly interested in controlling IBR. Studies have shown that IBR infection can result in a milk yield reduction of 173 litres per infected animal, or over £400 a year, for a 100-cow herd.

According to Intervet/Schering-Plough, Bovilis IBR Marker Live is Europe's leading IBR vaccine. It can be given intra-muscularly or intra-nasally to calves as young as two weeks old, as well as pregnant dams. It is also licensed to be given together with the pneumonia vaccine Bovilis^® Bovipast RSP. The primary course involves one dose in cattle over three months of age, with immunity in just four days from the intra-nasal method, and 14 days from injection. Stock need re-vaccination every six months.

The vaccine reduces the amount of virus excreted into the environment, so minimising the risk to stressed cattle which may have been brought into the herd, and be latently infected.  It also makes it an excellent choice for producers with breeding bulls, which should not be vaccinated. Bulls have to be kept naïve, however, the marker vaccine can be used on females in the herd to minimise virus circulation. This way the threat is minimised, and bulls can be kept infection free.

VetSurgeon member Anthony Todd has started a petition amongst veterinary surgeons and nurses, calling for the installation and routine monitoring of CCTV in all pre-slaughter areas of licensed abattoirs in the UK.

The petition was triggered by a news report in the Daily Mail exposing shocking cruelty to pigs at an Essex slaughterhouse run by Cheale Meats. Staff were seen stubbing their cigarettes out on the pigs' faces, punching them and failing to stun the animals correctly, in undercover footage filmed by Animal Aid.

The Food Standards Agency, which is responsible for breaches of welfare at abattoirs, has refused to submit the footage to Defra for prosecution, on the basis that it was filmed illegally.

Anthony said: "Prosecution will automatically follow with legal video evidence.

"The exposure of the Cheale incident was fortuitous and may well be the tip of the iceberg which must be eliminated."

To sign the petition, please visit: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/abbatoir-abuse/

Improve International has announced a partnership with the University of Cambridge to share its specialists' evidence-based knowledge with veterinary surgeons. 

The new Improve Veterinary Academy Series is comprised of five month-long semesters, each of which will focus on a different clinical topic.

Each semester will consist of videoed lectures, discussion forums, journal clubs, as well as the ability to access the university’s latest evidence-based research in these areas.

The clinical topics to be explored are:

• Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS)
• Canine and Feline Oncology
• Canine and Feline Cardiology
• Canine and Feline Neurology
• Equine Oncology

Each semester counts towards your annual CPD requirement. 

Professor James Wood, Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at University of Cambridge, said: “This new partnership will allow veterinary surgeons to get the latest evidence-based knowledge directly from our top specialists.

"They will also learn to apply valuable skills in their everyday practice life and engage with others on Improve International’s global, interactive online platform.

Charlotte French, Head of Curriculum & Quality at Improve International, said: “We are thrilled to be working with University of Cambridge Department of Veterinary Medicine as another innovative way to help the veterinary community take their careers to the next level.”

Professor Mike Herrtage, Trustee of the University of Cambridge Veterinary School Trust and former Dean of the Cambridge Veterinary School, said: “The new joint agreement brings together Improve International, with its outstanding record of high-quality and innovative CPD provision and the staff of the Department of Veterinary Medicine with their excellent specialist clinical knowledge and experience, as well as their recognised quality in small group teaching to stage the Improve International Academy Series.

"This will provide a new milestone in CPD course delivery.” 

HT Vista has had a paper published in Frontiers of Veterinary Science which it says validates the use of its thermal imaging and AI device for accurate screening of dermal and subcutaneous masses¹.

The HT Vista device measures heat transfer rate differences between masses and adjacent normal tissues and then processes that data using machine learning algorithms to classify the masses.

The study evaluated a diverse canine population of 299 dogs with 525 cutaneous and subcutaneous masses.

In the study, the device correctly classified 45 out of 53 malignant masses and 253 out of 378 benign masses (sensitivity = 85% and specificity = 67%).

The negative predictive value of the system (i.e., percent of benign masses identified as benign) was 97%.

This study concluded that the data supports the use of the HT Vista device "as a screening tool and decision support tool for the everyday diagnosis of dermal and subcutaneous masses in general practice, enabling clinicians to differentiate between benign lesions and those requiring additional diagnostics".

Liron Levy-Hirsch, Managing Director of HT Vista’s UK subsidiary said: “We are thrilled to have scientific research validating the success of the HT Vista device.

"The veterinary teams who have already adopted the device into their practice are having great success with it, and with the backing of this newly published paper we hope to reach more practices and ultimately save more dog’s lives.”

www.ht-vet.com / www.ht-vista.uk 

Reference

1. Dank G, Buber T, Rice A, Kraicer N, Hanael E, Shasha T, Aviram G, Yehudayoff A and Kent MS (2023) Training and validation of a novel non-invasive imaging system for ruling out malignancy in canine subcutaneous and cutaneous masses using machine learning in 664 masses. Front. Vet. Sci. 10:1164438. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1164438 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2023.1164438/full 

BSAVA has launched its Postgraduate Certificate website.

The site contains all of the online materials and activities which support the BSAVA postgraduate certificates. The BSAVA says students enrolled on the programmes will find it invaluable.

There are also sections of the site  for those who have agreed to act as mentors for students enrolled on the programme, and exclusive material for BSAVA members who missed out on enrolment in 2012, but have pre-enrolled for 2013.

The BSAVA Postgraduate Certificate website may be found via the CPD section at http://www.bsava.com/ (direct link http://www.bsavaeducation.co.uk/). If you would like to know more about the BSAVA Postgraduate Certificate programmes, please email certificate@bsava.com.

The BSAVA is working with the European Society of Veterinary Endocrinology (ESVE) to inform veterinary surgeons about a change in the antibody used to test for cortisol.

The ESVE has become aware through its Endocrine Quality Assurance (EQA) Scheme that there will be a permanent change in the antibody used for the cortisol test for the Siemens Immulite 2000. 

The change affects the antibody pool from kit Lot 550 onwards, meaning that it has already affected some laboratories and others will be affected in the next few weeks to months. At present, the new antibody lots are not being released to the USA market. Other analysers are unaffected.

The ESVE has been working with the laboratories in its EQA scheme to quantify the impact on results and reference limits. The Society says an initial review by the ESVE-EQA based on >400 canine serum and >40 urine results suggests that canine serum cortisol results are lower (average bias -23% in canine serum) than diagnostic laboratories and clinicians have been used to in the past. The effect is more marked in canine urine cortisol (average bias -70%). 

Since being alerted by the ESVE-EQA, the manufacturer has derived mathematical adjustment factors that laboratories can incorporate into their systems to mitigate the impact on results. If the manufacturer adjustment is used, then the results will be around 8% lower on average in serum and around 60% lower in urine. Cut-offs to diagnose hyperadrenocorticism and rule out hypoadrenocorticism may need to be validated again with the new assay. There is not yet sufficient data in the ESVE-EQA collaboration to assess the impact on feline and equine samples.

Professor Ian Ramsey, President of the BSAVA and one of the founders of ESVE, said: “Individual laboratories may have different ways of dealing with this change and therefore it is important to keep in touch with your laboratory provider concerning their approach. Some may choose to make the mathematical adjustments to results so that common and historic cut-off values can continue to be used. Others may report their results directly but change their guidance on interpretative cut-off values."

Dr Peter Graham, ESVE-EQA Co-ordinator, concluded: “ESVE advises that all cortisol results from Siemens Immulite 2000 assays that are close to a threshold are interpreted cautiously. ESVE also advises that all endocrine results should be interpreted in the light of clinical findings and would like to remind clinicians that spurious results may occur in any assay, though this is rare.”

The BSAVA and ESVE  encourage laboratories to tell clinicians which analyser they are using. Suitable wording regarding the interpretation of any values of cortisol based on Siemens Immulite 2000 results should be provided by laboratories for the foreseeable future.

Photo: A dog with hyperadrenocortism, courtesy Professor Ian Ramsey

The RCVS has published new guidance for veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses on the use of social media and online forums, such as those on VetSurgeon.org and VetNurse.co.uk.

The guidance sets out the professional standards expected of veterinary professionals, as well as providing advice on good practice, how to protect privacy, maintaining client confidentiality and dealing with adverse comments from clients.

The guidance has been developed by the Standards Committee, partly in response to demands from the profession and partly in light of recent decisions by the courts and other regulatory bodies which demonstrate that professionals can be at risk of legal or disciplinary action where their online conduct is unprofessional or inappropriate.

Laura McClintock, RCVS Advisory Solicitor said: "Whilst social media is likely to form part of everyday life for veterinary professionals, who are just as free as anyone else to take advantage of the personal and professional benefits that it can offer, its use is not without risk, so vets and vet nurses should be mindful of the consequences that can arise from its misuse."

The new guidance explains that vets and vet nurses are expected to behave professionally online, whether publishing material as themselves or anonymously. The College highlights the fact that demonstrably inappropriate behaviour on social media may place registration at risk, as the professional standards expected online are no different to those in the 'real world'.

Laura added: "Understanding and applying our new guidance should help vets and nurses to meet their professional responsibilities and reduce the risks of receiving complaints from clients or others, as well as potential civil actions for defamation."

The new guidance can be found on the RCVS website at: www.rcvs.org.uk/socialmedia

Ed's comment: The new guidance seems like common sense to me. A couple of things stand out as useful reminders, though. The first is to anonymise details of the cases you discuss on vetsurgeon.org, or get your clients' prior permission to discuss their animal in a professional forum. The other is the fact that being disparaging about a colleague online is as much of a breach of the Code of Professional Conduct as if you do it offline. So don't!

Mrs Jill Nute has been invested as president of the RCVS at the AGM and Awards Day, held on 4th July in London.

Mrs Nute graduated from Liverpool University in 1970 and initially assisted in mixed practice in the Lake District, Droitwich and Leominster. In 1976, she established a mixed practice with her husband Geoff, a fellow Liverpool graduate, in Wadebridge, Cornwall. 

The practice is now an eight-veterinary surgeon concern, a veterinary nurse Training Practice, an RCVS Accredited Tier 2 Small Animal General Practice and Farm Animal General Practice, and an equine practice accredited to Tier 1; it is also a Meat Hygiene Service approved contractor. 

Mrs Nute has been an RCVS Council member since 1993, serving on all of its committees. She has chaired many of these committees and additional working parties, including the Advisory and Public Affairs Committees. She served on the Officer team as Treasurer for three years, from 1996-1999, and is currently Chairman of the Practice Standards Group. Spending several years on the Councils of the British Veterinary Association and the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS), she was elected President of SPVS in 1991.

RCVS Day also brought other changes to the RCVS Officer team: Dr Bob Moore, outgoing President, became Senior Vice-President, and Professor Sandy Trees took up the role of Junior Vice-President. 

Professor Sheila Crispin stood down as Senior Vice-President, with Dr Moore commenting that: “The veterinary profession is privileged to have such a knowledgeable and committed advocate.”

Retiring Council members included David McDowell, Debby Reynolds, Neil Smith and Wendy Harrison. New lay observer to the Preliminary Investigation Committee, Catherine Harvey, will replace retiring observer Diane Mark. The President paid particular tribute to long-standing Council member and past-President Stephen Ware, who retires from Council but will remain active in veterinary politics as Vice-President and Treasurer of the Federation of Veterinarians in Europe, he also remains Chairman of the RCVS Trust. 

As part of the AGM, newly-elected Council members Richard Stephenson, Charles Gruchy and Bertie Ellis were welcomed. A fourth new member, Catherine Goldie, was not present. It was also announced that Professor Michael Herrtage and Professor Duncan Maskell have been reappointed for further four-year periods by the University of Cambridge, and Professor Sandy Tress has been reappointed for the same term by the University of Liverpool.

Dot Creighton was re-elected to the Veterinary Nurses Council and Katherine Kissick was elected for the first time. New lay member Penelope Swindlehurst and appointed veterinary surgeon Helen Torrington were also welcomed to the VN Council and the President thanked retiring VN Council members Diane Guinan, Donna Hunter and Neil Smith.

President Dr Bob Moore conferred a range of awards, including an Honorary Associateship upon Petplan and Petplan Trust founders Mrs Patsy Bloom and Mr David Simpson who, he said, have had a “remarkable effect on the veterinary profession, animals and their owners.” 

Honorary Associateship was also awarded to Mr Geoff Davies, who has dedicated his 30-year career at the University of Bristol Veterinary School to the training, support and development of future veterinary surgeons. He has also served as a valued member of the RCVS Extra-Mural Studies Committee for many years. “It is his enormous contribution in supporting and encouraging the students that is being recognised today,”
said Dr Moore. 

Honorary Fellowships were awarded to Mr Gary Clayton Jones, Professor Paul Flecknell and Dr Christine Gibbs, and the Dame Olga Uvarov Award, a cash prize for a researcher under the age of 40, was awarded on behalf of the RCVS Trust to Dr Harriet Smythe (in her absence)

The Society for Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) and the Mind Matters Initiative (MMI) have extended the deadline for this year's Vet Wellbeing Awards nominations to Friday 15 December 2017.

The awards, which were first launched last year, are open to UK practices, branch surgeries or other organisations who employ veterinary surgeons or nurses. They were created to highlight wellbeing in the veterinary profession and celebrate workplaces where:  

• health and happiness are valued;
• there are systems and initiatives that motivate;
• staff are engaged;
• communication is positive;
• there is commitment to being a better place to work.

The prize for each category includes two registrations and banquet tickets for SPVS/VPMA Congress 2018 where the winners will be announced to the media and will be available for interview.

Practices that are thinking about applying can now access a free five-minute Wellbeing Checklist that can help provide examples of some simple activities that can improve the health and wellbeing of the veterinary team.

Nick Stuart from SPVS said: "Taking five minutes to fill out the Wellbeing Checklist is a great way to get a sense of how your practice is doing, and to identify ways in which you could improve. Practices are often doing a lot more than they realise and the Checklist shows how even such small steps as a having a fruit bowl in the staff room, or having a five-minute huddle at the start of the day, can make a huge difference."

Lizzie Lockett, MMI Director, said: "Having a supportive and constructive culture is key not just for the welfare of the staff, but for the animals they take care of. It allows all members of the team to feel comfortable coming forward with questions, clarifications, or even mistakes, and can ultimately lead to  safer and more consistent care for patients."

Entries can be made now via the website www.vetwellbeingawards.org.uk, where the Wellbeing Checklist is also available.

The closing date for entries is Friday 15 December 2017. You can follow the awards on twitter @vetwellbeing and Facebook /vetwellbeingawards/.

BEVA has opened the box office for its 60th Congress, taking place from 8th–10th September 2022 at the ACC in Liverpool.

This year’s programme includes five live streams running in parallel throughout the conference with clinical research presentations also returning after the Covid-enforced hiatus.

The first plenary lecture will be presented by Pat McCue who will review events that have shaped current practice in equine reproduction before looking at what the future holds.

The second plenary lecture, being delivered by Celia Marr, will look at 'evidence in perinatology'.

David Lloyd, Congress Scientific Programme Chair, said: “Whilst we are sure most delegates will be clamouring to attend the lectures and discussions in Liverpool in person, the programme also includes a virtual stream available live online. 

“Also, to help reduce our carbon footprint, we are holding one virtual session concurrently across all lecture theatres.

"Global leaders in the field of infectious disease, imaging, nursing, reproduction and sports medicine and rehabilitation, will present virtually to the lecture hall rather than travelling to the congress.

"This session will have 25 of the “best of the best” speakers, presenting and discussing topics that challenge us in practice.”

Early bird tickets for BEVA Congress are available from 28th February 2022.

Early bird BEVA member prices are £499 for vets and £187 for vet nurses for all three days (with concessions available for those in their first three years post graduation or on a lower salary).

Virtual tickets are £199 for vets and £40 for nurses.

BEVA has a 'peace of mind' bookings policy to reassure those who are concerned that the Covid-19 situation may change between booking their ticket and the event.

For more information, or to book, visit http://www.bevacongress.org/