The Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) has joined forces with the Professional Development Foundation (PDF) to revolutionise higher veterinary education in the UK.

The two organisations – SPVS through its Masters and Doctors Group (MDG) – have officially announced that they will deliver the new modular Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (CertAVP) and the CertAVP (VetGP) qualifications through the new Vet Learning group.

SPVS recognised that vets were finding it difficult, if not impossible, to combine working in practise with completing the old-style certificates and decided to work with the RCVS to create more flexible and relevant qualifications and the PDF to provide more guidance and support.

Students taking the Vet GP qualification will also work from a syllabus that firmly complements the experience of the practising modern vet. 

Richard Hillman, SPVS President Elect and SPVS CertAVP project leader, explained: “I registered for the RCVS Certificate in Welfare and Ethics three years ago as, as a practice owner, I am very interested in these fields but have found it very difficult to juggle work, home life and study.”

He added: “I’ve been on the CPD and I’ve read the books so I’ve done the personal development parts of the certificate but I just can’t get the cases written up. If I had the structure, support and mentoring that the SPVS and Vet Learning will now supply, I could have gone on and got the qualification I wanted. I am delighted that Vet Learning has now been created.”

Both qualifications will be assessed at MSc level and will be quality controlled by the University of Middlesex and the national Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). SPVS will shortly announce the date of a road show that will supply practitioners with further information on this ground-breaking development in veterinary education, including how to structure their CPD.

Welsh Environment Minister, John Griffiths, has announced changes to some bovine TB cattle and surveillance controls to provide a higher level of protection against the disease.

The Minister confirmed that from 1 April 2013, some existing Pre Movement Testing exemptions will be amended. The main changes concern movements from markets and common land.

New key measures are:

• The exemption relating to movements from markets will now only include 'Bovine animals returning from market to the holding from which they travelled'.
• The exemption for movements between premises sharing a right of common will now only cover 'Bovine animals travelling between their registered holding and commons in relation to which their keeper has rights of grazing'.

The Minister announced that a new dedicated TB epidemiologist was to be appointed for Wales and that he or she would work within the AHVLA and focus on specific areas or clusters of disease. The postholder will be in place by April 2013.

He also announced new advice and support to farms dealing with breakdowns: "I have also asked officials to develop a way to provide additional advice and support to farmers to clear up breakdowns more quickly and efficiently. We have started to explore how private vets could become more involved with this new initiative called the Integrated Breakdown Management Project.

"I know that bovine TB is a devastating disease that has a big impact in rural communities. Since I launched the Strategic Framework for Bovine TB Eradication last March, we have kept the programme under constant review. With the new tools I have outlined today, we are addressing TB in livestock and wildlife and maintaining an effective eradication programme for the benefit of farmers, rural communities and the economy in general."

The WSAVA is calling on veterinary surgeons and nurses to volunteer to help with outreach projects in Africa in September 2014.

The projects are part of a new initiative from WSAVA called the 'WSAVA Global Outreach', which is designed to help share the knowledge and experience of its members more widely around the world.

The first two projects will take place as an extension of the WSAVA World Congress in Cape Town, from 16th-19th September:

• The WSAVA - Animal Wellness and Welfare Committee (AWWC) Programme
  The WSAVA's AWWC is offering the opportunity for up to ten veterinary surgeons registered to attend World Congress to volunteer for Community Led Animal Welfare (CLAW), a respected animal welfare organization whose work is supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).  Volunteers will provide their services during a six day placement from 8-13 September 2014, assisting CLAW personnel in running mobile veterinary clinics which provide basic health care and education for the animals of impoverished communities and their owners. 

• The WSAVA-SAVA Community Veterinary Clinics Programme
  The WSAVA is also offering the opportunity for ten veterinary surgeons registered to attend World Congress to volunteer for a five day placement working with the South African Veterinary Association's Community Veterinary Clinic (SAVA-CVC). They will assist with a range of activities including running mobile veterinary clinics and providing basic care such as vaccination and parasite treatments.  Volunteers will also have the opportunity to carry out basic diagnostics and treatment including neutering.

WSAVA President Colin Burrows said: "WSAVA Global Outreach is a vehicle to enable us to create a lasting legacy in every region which hosts World Congress because, if we all work together, we can help to build a better future everyone in the profession."

Further details on how to apply for both volunteer programmes can be found at www.wsava.org.

The Chief Veterinary Officer has declared a Prevention Zone to help protect poultry from a strain of Avian Flu in Europe.

Government Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens has declared a Prevention Zone introducing enhanced biosecurity requirements for poultry and captive birds, in order to help protect them from a strain of avian flu circulating in mainland Europe.

The zone covers England and will remain in place until 6th January 2017. Declarations have also been made by the Scottish Government and Welsh Government.

Keepers of poultry and other captive birds are now required to keep their birds indoors, or take appropriate steps to keep them separate from wild birds.

Outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N8) have been confirmed in poultry and wild birds in several countries across Europe. No cases of H5N8 have been found in the UK and this order is a precautionary measure to help prevent potential infection from wild birds.

Public Health England (PHE) advises that the threat to human health remains very low.

Defra is continuing to monitor the situation closely and has increased its surveillance activity, while keepers are being urged to reinforce biosecurity measures on their premises.

Nigel Gibbens said: "While no cases of H5N8 avian flu have been found in the UK, and PHE advises the public health threat is low, we are closely monitoring the situation across Europe and have scaled up surveillance in response to the heightened risk.

"As a precaution, and to allow time for poultry and captive bird keepers to put in place appropriate biosecurity measures, we have declared a 30-day Prevention Zone to reduce the risk of infection from wild birds.

"Even when birds are housed a risk of infection remains so this must be coupled with good biosecurity - for example disinfecting clothing and equipment, reducing poultry movement and minimising contact between poultry and wild birds."

More information available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-measures-to-protect-poultry-against-avian-flu 

The BVA has welcomed Defra Secretary of Sate Hilary Benn's announcement on the arrival of the first batch of Bovilis(r) BTv8 vaccine in the UK.

Congratulating Intervet on the speed with which the vaccine had been developed BVA President Nick Blayney said: "This news represents a crucial stage in our fight against Bluetongue. The last few months have been a particularly busy time as the end of the vector-free period approached bringing with it the threat of more cases of Bluetongue."

BTv8 is devastating in its second season and the BVA was delighted to join with organisations from across the livestock sector to launch the Joint campaign Against Bluetongue (JAB).

"Our aim has been to achieve the mass vaccination of Bluetongue susceptible animals, including goats and camelids and since the veterinary profession is the corner stone of the vaccination programme, with responsibility for vaccine delivery, proper usage and monitoring for efficacy, BVA has been in overdrive through much of March and April trying to ensure that vets were fully up to speed in advance of the arrival of the vaccine. Now that the vaccine is here, having been granted a provisional marketing authorisation for use inside Protection Zones and classified as a POM-V, we have further updated our advice to the profession. Our one-page summary sets out key considerations for vets including meeting the "under our care" prescribing requirements, movement controls, doses, off-label use, distribution and storage and communication in the hopefully unlikely event of any suspected adverse reactions."

Mr Blayney was highly complimentary of the co-operation and shared sense of purpose demonstrated by all those involved with JAB and was proud that the message - Bluetongue - Don't Hesitate - Vaccinate! Contact Your Vet Today - had emphasised the unique role of the vet in the protection of animal health and welfare.

Students at the University of Cambridge Veterinary School have again been revealing almost all for the 2009 Trust Charity Calendar. 

This year's calendar is comprised of shots taken in and around the veterinary school, with various animals and props used to spare the blushes of the models. There's also a suggestion for how vets might put their clients more at ease in the consulting room (see right), though I can't see it really ever catching on.

The calendar has been produced to help raise money for the HOPE appeal which is working to raise £2 million needed to pay for the extension of the Cancer Therapy Unit and the new radiotherapy machine.

It was organised by Fiona Jacobs who also posed. She said: "We are all very happy to be involved in producing something fun and light-hearted, which could potentially help us raise a large amount of money for a very worthy cause."

The calendar is available for £9 (£11 p&p). For more information on the Trust's work or to order a copy please contact 01223 764475 or send a cheque to: University of Cambridge Veterinary School Trust, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ES.

Pfizer has announced the results of research carried out as part of its Vet Support+ initiative, which shows that the three most important factors in engaging a veterinary team are: leadership, employee performance management and team effectiveness. Of the three, performance management is the most important.

The employee engagement survey was carried out to provide an insight to the veterinary market specifically. According to Pfizer more than 4,000 responses were received, providing insights from 749 practice owners, partners and practice managers and almost 3,500 individual veterinary practice employees. Analysis and modelling from an independent expert and the Vet Support+ team led to the identification of three drivers for an actively engaged team within a veterinary practice, and the creation of a national benchmark for employee engagement. Pfizer says Vet Support+ is committing to running the research on a regular basis so that employee engagement amongst all veterinary staff can be monitored on an ongoing basis.

Pfizer says that although recognised as the most important factor in generating good employee engagement, performance management was identified as an area of weakness in many practices. There were contradictory responses from management and staff regarding both formal appraisals and informal feedback taking place. In both cases, management tended to believe this was happening while staff disagreed. Of further frustration for staff was the management of poor performers, with 52% of staff stating that poor performers were not managed effectively.

Leadership is critical for any successful business, however the survey showed that while personal relationships between management and staff are good (79% of vets and 76% of staff agreed that the relationship between management and teams are generally good), there is a lack of trust between leadership and staff (80% of vets said they believe there is trust in the team, while only 62% of staff agreed).

Practice owners were more upbeat about team effectiveness: 76% said they believe the team was willing to put in more effort, while only 63% of staff agreed. There was another inconsistency regarding communication within the team, with only 49% of staff thinking that communication in practice is good versus 65% of practice owners.

Ned Flaxman, Director Business Innovation at Pfizer Animal Health said: "At face value this data makes for very interesting reading and the identification of the key drivers of engagement in practice is the practical benefit for practices to prioritise their focus of activity on staff management."

He added: "This research will enable us to work with practices to do their own employee engagement survey to be benchmarked against the national study. This will provide an evidence-based approach to identify the biggest gaps for improvement, and our Vet Support+ team can work with practices to deliver solutions for those challenges whether leadership, team effectiveness or performance management."

Practice owners and managers wishing to understand the data in more detail and measure levels of engagement within their own team against the evidence-based benchmarks the study provides should contact the Vet Support+ team at http://www.vetsupportplus.co.uk/

Key findings from the Employee Engagement Survey:

• 80% of practice owners believe there is a great deal of trust in the team
• 43% of staff state they do not receive a formal appraisal meeting
• 32% of practice owners admit their teams do not receive a formal appraisal meeting
• 23% of employees believe their management team are not accessible
• 31% of staff admit they are not willing to put in effort beyond the norm
• 30% of staff do not believe communication is good in their practice
• 52% of staff do not believe they receive on-going communications about their performance
• 52% of staff believe poor performers are not managed effectively
• 53% of both staff and vets believe they/their teams would be happy to spend the rest of their career with their practice
• 43% of staff do not believe everyone is treated equally
• 85% of practice owners believe everyone in their team is treated equally
• 17% of staff admit to actively looking for a new position
• 20% of nurses believe they are not given sufficient freedom to provide a personal service to their customers
• 51% of staff do not have a personal development plan
• 69% of employed vets do not believe their pay and performance are linked
• 17% of staff are actively looking for a new position
• 15% are unsure about their intentions to stay

Improve International has launched four new modules towards achieving a General Practitioner Certificate (GPCert) and Post Graduate Certificate (PgC) in Western Veterinary Acupuncture and Chronic Pain Management.  

The company says the new modules are designed to enable veterinary surgeons in practice to use acupuncture confidently and safely for a range of clinical conditions.

David Babington MRCVS, Managing Director of Improve International, said: "These new modules build on the Foundation course which has already proved very popular. Once delegates have completed this, they can progress to these new modules which focus on the role of acupuncture in relieving chronic pain and can lead to attaining a recognised qualification."

The modules are scheduled to start on 5 August 2015 at Improve's training centre in Swindon. Further modules in the PgC programme will be released in 2016.

For more information or to book, visit www.improveinternational.com or call 01793 759159.

RCVS Knowledge has launched a new initiative to support the veterinary sector in delivering contextualised care.

The initiative seeks to understand the barriers and enablers to delivering contextualised care in companion animal practices, and to set out what contextualised care looks like when done well.

As part of the initiative, RCVS Knowledge is gathering perspectives from across the veterinary community and from pet owners to design a roadmap for the profession.

The work started last week at the National Forum for Contextualised Care in London, which brought together more than 60 people from across the veterinary sector, including leaders from veterinary associations, veterinary educators, students, practice staff, veterinary charities and rescues, pet insurers, regulators, representatives from corporate and independent practices and animal owners.

RCVS Knowledge will now be working with an independent research partner to conduct focus groups, surveys and interviews to gather a representative range of views from across the sector and pet owners.

The work will culminate in a summit in the summer that will use the findings of the research to design recommendations on:

• How veterinary professionals’ and pet owners’ perspectives and circumstances can be better brought together in reaching decisions about the most appropriate care for the individual animal.
• The barriers and enablers to implementing contextualised care in practice. 
• What needs to be done, and by whom, to support veterinary teams to deliver contextualised care and shared decision-making as part of good-quality veterinary care.

Sally Everitt, Clinical Lead – Evidence at RCVS Knowledge said: “Contextualised care is the way of delivering veterinary care that acknowledges that there are different ways to approach the diagnosis and treatment of an animal, depending on the circumstances of the individual animal and their caregivers and the context in which the care is delivered.

"The term has been used increasingly over the past year, and is now the subject of much debate, alongside other aligned terms such as ‘spectrum of care’ and ‘pragmatic medicine’.

"However, we need to better understand what constitutes good-quality contextualised care, and the barriers and enablers to its delivery in practice.”

Katie Mantell, Chief Executive of RCVS Knowledge, said: “As an independent charity with a mission to advance the quality of veterinary care, we believe RCVS Knowledge is well-placed to bring together all parts of the veterinary community to seek consensus on what good-quality contextualised care looks like and how it can be delivered in practice.

"Our aim is to take a collaborative, robust approach to co-producing a roadmap for contextualised care that will support its widespread delivery for the benefit of animals, the veterinary professions and animal owners.”

To be updated about the progress of this work, and to hear about opportunities to take part in the focus groups, interviews and surveys to follow, sign up to receive RCVS Knowledge’s monthly email newsletter intheKNOW.

Farmers within the Protection Zone (PZ) are being urged by the Joint Action against Bluetongue (JAB) to vaccinate their animals if they have not already done so.

In a joint statement JAB said: "The vaccination campaign is going exceptionally well with more than 9 million does of vaccine made available to farmers in the PZ. However, we must not be complacent, as there are still more animals to vaccinate and we must not delay in protecting them from bluetongue. 

"As the weather conditions improve, the risk of new cases of bluetongue increases and the objective of the JAB campaign has been to try and protect the UK from the devastation this disease caused in much of the rest of Europe last year. We do not want to see in the UK the heavy losses of sheep seen by some other member states or the fertility problems seen in many cattle herds. The message is simple - if you want to protect your livestock, ‘don't hesitate, vaccinate'."

Commenting on the recent delays in vaccine delivery, JAB said: "It is unfortunate that we have seen a problem with the latest batch of vaccine, which for quality control reasons is undergoing further testing. JAB understands the frustration that this delay has caused. However, this is just one batch and Intervet has so far exceeded delivery expectations and we are hopeful that we will be back on track very soon."

A survey by Hill's Pet Nutrition has concluded that nine out of ten vet professionals believe UK pets are at serious risk of diet related diseases, mirroring the trends seen in human health, and the recession has increased the risk.

The study of more than 100 veterinary professionals suggests their daily case loads are weighed down with a host of serious man-made dietary-related problems including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, simply because owners are not feeding their pets appropriately. These problems are on the increase as a result of owners switching to lower quality food or feeding a man-made diet of crisps and chocolate.

Pet Obesity Task Force Committee Member and Veterinary Nutritionist, Dr Daniel Chan, DVM, DACVECC, DACVN, MRCVS said: "As a nation, our modern lifestyles of fast food, large food portions, and too little exercise are taking a toll on our health, our children's health, and now our pet's health. Excessive calories and lack of physical activity are leading to alarming rates of obesity, which has become the most common form of malnutrition in pets today. As the links between obesity and disease are becoming clearer, it is vital that pet owners adopt healthier practices such as feeding appropriate portions of food, avoiding too many snacks and treats, and exercise with their pets."

Despite obesity being the most physically obvious diet-related disease in the UK, the vet professionals who participated in the study agreed unanimously that owners do not realise their much-loved but overweight pet is actually suffering from malnutrition. 

The vet professionals were also in agreement that not all pet foods are the same, believing to some degree you get what you pay for. Yet worryingly, 83% of vet professionals believe our pet's health has been another casualty of the economic downturn, as cutbacks in the family budget saw trading-down on pet food. Vets suggest the effects of these cutbacks will lead to increases in cases of diet related diseases in the next two years, with a surge in potentially fatal conditions such as diabetes (61%), intestinal problems and pancreatitis (66%).

Adrian Pratt BVSc MRCVS, Hill s Pet Nutrition Veterinary Affairs Manager, said:  The results make sombre reading. Almost all (98%) of the vet professionals who participated report seeing a host of preventable diseases in practice which are the result of inappropriate feeding. While obesity tends to be caused by an excess of empty calories and too little exercise, inadequate nutrients or excess nutrients like salt, will also affect a pet s general health and wellbeing, leading to sickness or long-term diet-related diseases.

Other findings of the study included: 

• Diet-related problems that cause suffering on the most widespread scale include problems in the intestines and pancreas, which 40% of vet professionals saw at least once a day in practice. Pancreatitis is one of many dietary-related diseases that can be fatal.
• Vet professionals expect to see an increase in diseases associated with malnutrition such as kidney disease (55%), lower urinary tract disease and urolithiasis (58%), heart disease and high blood pressure (30%). Over half (56%) also anticipate an increase in growth abnormalities and/or skeletal deformities and skin diseases (51%). All of these conditions can be avoided or managed with the appropriate diet.
• On the point that you are what you eat, 93% of vet professionals agree that this is as relevant to pets as it is to humans.
• More than three-quarters of vet professionals agree that feeding quality will save money in the long term.
• In addition to trading-down on foodstuffs, owners have been tightening the purse strings and cutting back on vaccinations, worming and flea treatments (80%), routine surgeries, such as neutering (51%) and pet insurance (50%).

To improve our understanding of the attitudes of vets to treating OA pain, a survey is being conducted in seven countries across Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the UK) by a group of top European veterinarians.

The Pain Expert Panel intends to publish the results for each country and also the combined European results. These publications will allow comparisons to be made between countries and types of practices.

In addition, individual vets will be able to compare their own behaviours with the findings of the survey. It is hoped that the results will highlight any areas where continuing education would be beneficial and also topics for clinical research.

The survey is web based, completely anonymous and should take no more than 20 minutes to complete. Access details are as follows:

Website: www.painsurvey.net 
Password: pain

There is no right or wrong answer; your opinion is the only thing that matters.

The members of the European Expert Panel on Canine Osteoarthritis are: Dr. Bernard Bouvy (Fr), Prof. Stuart Carmichael (UK), Dr. Emilio Feltri (It), Prof. Jean-Pierre Genevois (Fr), Prof. Herman Hazewinkel (NI), Prof. John Innes (UK), Prof. Martin Kramer (Ge), Prof. Duncan Laschelles (USA), Dr. Carlos Macias (Sp), Dr. Sabine Tackle (Ge), Dr. Peter Vandekerckhove (Be)