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WVA Newsletters

Category: Opinion & Comment
The news items published under this category are as follows.

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Opinion & Comment: Improving wildlife surveillance for its protection
Posted by: JimEdwards on Friday, July 18, 2008 - 09:05 PM
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<bWhile protecting us from the diseases it transmits
Source:

Wildlife diseases are of growing concern worldwide. In addition to threatening populations of wild animals themselves, wildlife disease can affect domestic animals and human health. This is particularly true in present days, when emerging diseases shared by both animals and humans increasingly come to our attention in the new context of globalisation of movement of commodities and climate change. Furthermore the legal and illegal market of wildlife which is estimated at a minimum of 6 billion US dollars is growing rapidly and also contributes to the global dissemination of new pathogens and emerging diseases. Therefore, a better understanding of diseases present in wildlife and their effects on wildlife, domestic animals and humans is of key importance to develop control measures.

The OIE calls the international community as a whole to support national Veterinary Services in order to strengthen their surveillance capacities of diseases in wildlife particularly in order to closely monitor what has the potential to become a threat to domestic animals and eventually to humans. The OIE will also continue to plead to safeguard natural ecosystems together with wild animal species which have survived the planetary upheavals, because they are global public goods.

For all this, the surveillance of wild animal diseases, the sanitary control of international trade of domestic and wild animals and animal products using OIE standards recognized by the World Trade Organisation, as well as the control of non appropriate transfer of invasive species and non desirable animals or plants are essential actions.
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Bernard Vallat

Opinion & Comment: Editorial from the Director General
Posted by: JimEdwards on Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 05:24 PM
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Dr Bernard Vallat

Animal identification and product traceability from the farm to the fork must be progressively implemented worldwide.

Marking animals to know who their owners are is a very ancient practice. Traditional livestock marking systems have existed since time immemorial. They were not generally motivated by health reasons. However, with the progressive intensification of animal production, new tools have been developed to enable animal marking methods to meet a multitude of new needs.

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Opinion & Comment: Animal identification and product traceability
Posted by: JimEdwards on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 03:01 PM
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Must be progressively implemented worldwide
Source:

Dr Bernard Vallat
Marking animals to know who their owners are is a very ancient practice. Traditional livestock marking systems have existed since time immemorial. They were not generally motivated by health reasons. However, with the progressive intensification of animal production, new tools have been developed to enable animal marking methods to meet a multitude of new needs. Today, animal identification and traceability are important management tools in animal health and food safety. In many countries traceability of live domestic animals and of products of animal origin is a legal requirement.

The pillars of a traceability system are founded upon the identification of individual animals or homogenous groups of animals, the ability to track their movements, proper identification of premises, and recording of this information in appropriate registers.

In its capacity as a leading international standard-setting organisation for animal identification and traceability, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) helps its Member Countries and Territories to implement animal identification and traceability systems in order to improve the effectiveness of their policies and activities relating to disease prevention and control, animal production food safety, and certification of exports.
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Opinion & Comment: New paraprofessionals wouldn’t ease vet shortage
Posted by: JimEdwards on Sunday, March 30, 2008 - 12:19 PM
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Debra Trnovec
Grand Forks Herald
Source:

A recent Herald editorial addressed the shortage of food animal veterinarians in rural America.

Trnovec, a veterinarian, and president of the North Dakota Veterinary Medical Association writes in this opinion

The North Dakota Veterinary Medical Association and American Veterinary Medical Association agree with many of the editorial’s points. In North Dakota, an aging and shrinking population of food animal veterinarians is not being replaced by new graduates.

The reasons are many. They touch on different aspects of rural culture, but the editorial cited two very accurate reasons: lack of sufficient wages to attract and keep practitioners and too few veterinary-college graduates to fill the available positions.

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Opinion & Comment: Improving animal health worldwide is a priority
Posted by: JimEdwards on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 02:35 PM
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Dr Bernard Vallat

By adopting the OIE's Fourth Strategic Plan in May 2005, our Member Countries and Territories confirmed their decision to update our mandate. The OIE was created in 1924 with the aim of controlling the international spread of infectious animal diseases, but now, over and above this original mission, our new mandate is ‘to improve animal health worldwide'. This considerably broadens our responsibilities, since not only does it require all our Members to share the same political will, but new institutional and technical mechanisms for preventing and controlling animal diseases will have to be developed at a national, regional and worldwide level.

To succeed, the OIE must now provide policy makers with the right information, arguments and tools for this political will to be exercised effectively and sustainably. These arguments must first and foremost be founded on a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the political, social and economic benefits to be gained by investing more in new national, regional and worldwide animal health systems.
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Opinion & Comment: Bovine Tuberculosis in Cattle and Badgers
Posted by: JimEdwards on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 - 03:19 PM
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Commenting on the publication of the Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir David King’s report on Bovine TB in Cattle and Badgers BVA President Nick Blayney said: “We welcome this response to the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG) report, not least the conclusion that removal of badgers should take place alongside the continued application of controls on cattle.

“TB control and eradication has for too long been polarised between those that argue that either cattle or badgers are responsible. Science clearly shows that both species are significant in the spread of TB and both must be tackled if TB is to be controlled and eradicated.

“There is no doubt that specific control policies need to be tailored to reflect regional variations in disease risk and we welcome the report’s recommendations in this respect. We would commend the report to Government and would reiterate the veterinary profession’s genuine commitment to an overall TB strategy designed to successfully control TB both in cattle and in the wildlife population.”

Opinion & Comment: World Animal Week
Posted by: JimEdwards on Thursday, October 04, 2007 - 02:44 PM
animalwelfare

The World Veterinary Association marks World Animal Week by reflecting on the services that veterinarians provide to animals around the World. By definition, a veterinarian is an animal doctor and that is still what we are primarily recognized as, despite our wider contributions to society, especially in the provision of safe food.

Veterinarians care for the health and welfare of all animals and provide these services to animal owners and managers around the World.

Animals kept for companionship and recreation provide enormous benefits for their owners, especially for those who have little contact with other animals or people. Having the company of, and caring for, another living being has benefits for psychological health and self esteem of the person involved. In these days of ever increasing urbanization, the companionship of animals is invaluable. Animals are treated as an important member of the family and often in the community in which they live.

Animals are a very important source of protein and other products necessary for human health and welfare. Veterinary care for the health and welfare of these animals is very important for food security and food safety. The provision of a veterinary service to all these animals is important, not only to the animals, but also represents the most important veterinary contribution to society.

The World Veterinary Association supports the international networking of veterinarians around the World. Communication between veterinarians helps share expertise and provide support for colleagues. Networking helps manage the risk of spread of diseases, not only those affecting animals but also those that have the potential to affect humans too.

Dr Jim Edwards, Editor

Opinion & Comment: DeHaven 'Our profession is at a critical crossroads'
Posted by: JimEdwards on Thursday, April 19, 2007 - 03:44 PM
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May 1, 2007

Dr. W. Ron DeHaven, the recently named successor to Dr. Bruce W. Little as AVMA executive vice president, answered several questions for JAVMA News regarding a variety of topics—including the pet food recall and the veterinary workforce, his years at the Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and why he's coming to work for the AVMA. The APHIS head believes the veterinary profession to be at a "critical crossroads," where animal health and public health are converging. The AVMA's strategic planning goals, Dr. DeHaven says, will help veterinarians maintain their viability within an ever-evolving world.

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Opinion & Comment: Protecting the world from emerging diseases linked to globalisation
Posted by: JimEdwards on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 02:45 PM
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Dr Bernard Vallat

As a result of globalisation and climate change we are currently facing an unprecedented worldwide impact of emerging and re-emerging animal diseases and zoonoses (animal diseases transmissible to humans). Improving the governance of animal health systems in both the public and private sector is the most effective response to this alarming situation.

The animal disease crises we have recently experienced have provided a clearer understanding of the benefits to the international community of applying the appropriate animal health policies and programmes in order to safeguard public health and ensure food safety.

It is now clearly established that the cost of preventing sanitary crises of animal origin by early detection of outbreaks and rapid response mechanisms included in national veterinary surveillance systems are insignificant compared to the social, economic and environmental cost of disasters resulting from epizootics, such as BSE, foot and mouth disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza.

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Opinion & Comment: Self Governance of Medical Profession Threatened
Posted by: JimEdwards on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 - 04:51 PM
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A warning that governments around the world are working on a global strategy to reduce the influence of the medical profession has come from the Secretary General of the World Medical Association, Dr Otmar Kloiber.

He said that by steady steps, governments were taking away degrees of freedom from the profession's self governing bodies. 'And this is not a cosmetic change - it means democratic participation is being dismantled.'

'We've seen it across Europe, we've seen it in New Zealand, in Hong Kong and elsewhere,' he said. 'This is something that is going on very silently, with small steps in many countries. I believe that this is an action that is to some extent concerted.'

He said that the World Medical Association had to develop its advocacy to combat this on an international level, arguing the case that the medical profession does at least as good a job as government. 'In most cases, the self governing bodies do much better, but governments often do not like to accept that.'

Dr Kloiber also referred to the trend in many countries towards downgrading the role of physicians. He said the recent World Health Organisation report on healthcare workforce may be read as suggesting a shift in financial resources away from the training of health professionals to the use of less well trained lay personnel. He described this as a return to the concept of 'barefoot doctors'.

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Opinion & Comment: How Can Biomedical Journals Help to Tackle Global Poverty?
Posted by: JimEdwards on Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - 02:52 PM
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Source:
PLoS Medicine

Out of the eight United Nations Goals (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals), one of the most crucial is the goal of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty—most of whom live in developing countries and who survive on less than US$1 per day—by 2015. The scientific and medical communities have an important role to play in reaching this goal through, for example, tackling the infectious diseases that promote poverty (such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and intestinal worms), reversing the loss of environmental resources, and disseminating new technologies to developing countries. And scientific and medical journals, the “arbiters of formalized scientific knowledge” (http://ejournal.nbii.org/archives/vol2iss1/editorial.bozuwa.html), are central to this enterprise.

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Opinion & Comment: Prevention, detection and control of animal diseases, including zoonoses: Veterinary Services, the core of the global system
Posted by: JimEdwards on Sunday, March 26, 2006 - 01:37 PM
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Editorial from the Director General, Bernard Vallat
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Today, more than at any time in the past, outbreaks of certain animal diseases, especially zoonotic diseases, can cause considerable economic and social disruption and be a source of panic on an increasingly global scale. The recent sanitary crises involving bovine spongiform encephalopathy and foot and mouth disease are ample illustration of this new trend.

The current avian influenza epizootic also shows the extent to which a serious sanitary event affecting the animal kingdom can have global consequences both for the rural economy and food security, while causing threats to public health.

Globalisation is one of the factors conducive to the appearance of emerging and re-emerging diseases and greatly increases their impact. The national Veterinary Services (VS) are the very core body for the prevention, detection and control of animal diseases, including those transmissible to humans. The VS play a major role in every country as guarantors of animal health and associated public health issues. They include public and private components to implement their duties.

The development and growth in many countries depends on the performance of their agriculture in terms of production, quality and safety of animal products, and this, in turn, directly relates to the quality of their VS. To be effective, VS should operate using transparency and scientific principles and be technically independent and immune from pressures from politicians and stakeholders. However, efforts to strengthen official services, require the active technical and financial participation involving both the public and the private sectors. The OIE considers VS to be a Global Public Good and their bringing into line with international standards (structure, organisation, resources, capacities, role of the private sector and the paraprofessionals) as a public investment priority.

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Opinion & Comment: Developing a proper partnership
Posted by: JimEdwards on Sunday, November 07, 2004 - 12:57 PM
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Source: The Vet Record COMMENT 6th November 2004

Answering a question at the BVA's annual general meeting last month, the outgoing President, Professor Tim Greet, remarked that the BVA wanted to work with government and DEFRA at all levels but, at the same time, intended to be eloquent with regard to any shortcomings (see pp 602-603 of this issue). At a time when the Government is developing a new Animal Health and Welfare Strategy (AHWS), the need for mutual cooperation - or partnership, as the Government likes to call it these days - is clearly apparent. The veterinary profession, after all, has a key role to play in helping to develop and implement the AHWS, as the Government itself has acknowledged. Partnership, however, is a two-way process, and it is unfortunate that, so far at least,the Government's approach has been less than encouraging. The difficulties were eloquently expressed by the new BVA President, Dr Bob McCracken, in a speech in Northern Ireland on October 14. In its numerous consultations on the AHWS and the associated strategy on surveillance, the Government has repeatedly emphasised that it cannot take the strategies forward on its own, and that successful implementation will require the partnership of everyone involved, all of whom must play their full part. This is fair enough, and the veterinary profession, for one, is keen to take the strategy forward. Also, many of the Government's comments regarding partnership relate to how costs should be shared and, in supporting the partnership approach, the BVA is in no doubt that the costs will have to be borne by all the beneficiaries. This must include the Government. As Dr McCracken remarked in his speech, 'The commitment to a partnership approach must not allow the Government to negate its own responsibility in this regard.'

Consultation, he pointed out, is not the same as partnership, and, 'while the Government must continue to consult, it must also play its part in providing an environment where meaningful partnerships and alliances can be built, and where they are truly synergistic.'

Areas where a positive approach has been lacking have included the Government's eager acceptance of the Competition Commission's recommendations on the supply of veterinary medicines, and its dismissive response to the concerns of the profession and the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee about the viability of rural practices (see VR, August 7, pp 157-158). As Dr McCracken remarked with regard to the Competition Commission's recommendations, 'It is inevitable that these changes will reduce the income of the farm animal veterinarian and, with it, the viability of farm animal practices. The BVA remains concerned that the doctrinaire views of the Competition Commission and the Department of Trade and Industry have been pursued without reference to the welfare of animals and public safety. The inevitable increased costs will result in fewer consultations, especially by those who need them most.' The profession, he emphasised, was not advocating 'some sort of paternalistic handout'. Rather, it was the BVA's view that the maintenance of rural veterinary practice was essential for the proper surveillance of many animal diseases and the welfare of livestock. 'This surveillance is necessary for public health as well as the economic welfare of the state. Failure of epizootic disease surveillance could potentially have a wide-ranging impact on the economy of the UK as a whole. Similarly, proper surveillance is a prerequisite of meeting international obligations relating to trade and, if we have aspirations to develop wider world markets, we must be able to demonstrate that capacity. 'There is public benefit in the prevention of expensive epizootic diseases such as foot-and-mouth, in disease surveillance, in the elimination of zoonotic diseases like bovine tuberculosis, and in food safety. The Government cannot simply wash its hands of such responsibilities, leaving everything to market forces, and must weigh the cost implications of its strategies against the cost to the nation if disease control fails.' The veterinary profession, he said, had much to contribute to the AHWS, in terms of manpower, knowledge and expertise, and was willing and able to play a greater part in turning the many threats facing the livestock industry into opportunities. However, it could only do this if practices were viable and veterinarians were available in adequate numbers.

It was the BVA's view that 'at the clinical level, we are no better equipped to deal with another foot-and-mouth disease outbreak than we were in 2001', and that improving the situation would depend on viable farm animal practices. There was a need to resolve this issue in partnership with government, not least because, if nothing were done, the situation would deteriorate and the AHWS and veterinary surveillance would be jeopardised. 'The Government must demonstrate its commitment to the livestock industry through its willingness to fund, at least initially until the benefits can be demonstrated to farmers, many of the initiatives contained in the strategy,' he said. The extent to which the Government responds to such calls remains to be seen, although it is encouraging that, at the recent BVA Congress, the deputy chief veterinary officer should have noted that 'pump-priming' funds might be available under the AHWS for schemes that could demonstrate sustainability and value for money (see VR, October 9 p 443). There is a need now to explore what can be achieved by these means and to move forward in developing the balanced partnership that can provide a proper foundation for the future.

Opinion & Comment: More of the same
Posted by: JimEdwards on Sunday, October 31, 2004 - 05:55 PM
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The most recent report on bovine tuberculosis (TB) from the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRACom) was hardly hard-hitting, and the Government’s response, which was published last week, is equally bland. The EFRACom’s report was published in July, following an inquiry which specifically looked at responses to the problem other than culling badgers (see VR, July 17, p 65). This must have come as something of a relief to the Government, which, in its response (available at www.publications.parliament.uk, seems to bend over backwards in trying to agree with the committee’s recommendations while avoiding any firm commitments for the future.

The lack of political cut and thrust in the exchange is illustrated by the EFRACom’s recommendation urging all concerned to respond positively to the challenges of bovine TB. This is reasonable, but not exactly controversial. Not surprisingly, the Government agrees and, on publication of its response, the animal health minister, Mr Ben Bradshaw, said it particularly welcomed this recommendation.