Luke Gamble gives presentation at The Dick Vet on 17 January 2014.

The Dick Vet - LT2 @ 4pm

Title: "The role of the WVS in improving animal welfare"
 

Luke Gamble graduated from Bristol University in 1999 as a vet and then went on to Cambridge to specialise in large animal medicine and surgery. Although primarily based in his New Forest practice, Pilgrims, his voluntary  work with the Worldwide Veterinary Service charity 'which he founded in 2003' takes him much further afield and was the subject of two TV series on Sky 1. He also runs an emergency service for animals in Dorset and a pet travel company.

Open to staff and students.

PRESTIGIOUS ANIMAL WELFARE AWARD GOES TO UK VETERINARY ORGANISATION

Each year, the Trustee’s of the respected international grant making charity the Marchig Animal Welfare Trust, recognise through its top Award individuals or organisations for their outstanding services to animal welfare.  The Trustee’s are therefore pleased to announce, that the recipient of the prestigious “Jeanne Marchig Animal Welfare Award 2013” is Luke Gamble MRCVS, the Founder and CEO of the Worldwide Veterinary Service, based in the UK. 

Luke Gamble established the Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS) in 2003 to alleviate animal suffering and improve the moral perception of animals worldwide by co-ordinating teams of veterinary volunteers to assist the work of animal welfare organisations; supplying medicines, equipment and advice where they are most needed; and providing sustainable input, building long term relationships and establishing education programmes for the benefit of local animal and human populations. 

Since its inception, WVS has sent many hundreds of volunteer ‘veterinary teams’ to almost every continent of the world, including when required ‘Emergency Response Teams’ to help the needy ‘front line’ animal welfare and protection organisations alleviate the cruelty and suffering inflicted on animals in their areas and thus enable them to cope better with the demands placed upon them.  WVS has also sent to these and other organisations each year, hundreds of thousands of pounds of free veterinary medicines, equipment and materials which it had sourced from supportive veterinary companies. 

Luke Gamble through WVS, established an International Training Centre (ITC) in India, which provides a platform for both vets in India and worldwide to learn best practice techniques in areas such as humane stray animal population control and vaccination programmes.  In addition, this year he spearheaded a new initiative in India entitled ‘Mission Rabies’ which aims to undertake mass anti-rabies vaccination programmes in ten ‘hotspots’ whilst at the same time, running surgical training courses for local vets. The initial goal of this project was to vaccinate 50,000 dogs against rabies in one month.  However, instead with a team of Indian and international vets, local charity workers and volunteers, incredibly over 61,000 dogs were vaccinated in just 28 days.

In announcing the 2013 winner of the Award, the Chairman of the Trustees, Les Ward commented:
“As in previous years, the Trustees of the Marchig Animal Welfare Trust received a large number of nominations for the Award from all over the world.  With so many worthy candidates, the decision was not easy.  Nevertheless, in the end the Trustees were unanimous that the “Jeanne Marchig Animal Welfare Award 2013” should be made to Luke Gamble, the Founder and CEO of the Worldwide Veterinary Service in recognition of his outstanding and tireless practical work over many years in the international field of animal welfare and protection.  Under his voluntary direction, WVS has become one of the most effective international animal welfare and protection organisations.  Through providing much needed support to other organisations throughout the world, WVS is making a huge difference in the fight to help, protect and alleviate the suffering of animals.  Both Luke and WVS are worthy recipients of this Award”.

In receiving the “Jeanne Marchig Animal Welfare Award 2013”, Luke Gamble said:

“It is a huge honour to receive this award and I would like to thank the Trustees very much. The Marchig Trust has long been a source of inspiration to charities and individuals involved in animal welfare around the world, and for WVS to be recognised in this way is a huge lift to both me and the whole team. The pledge is to now direct this fantastic award towards making a difference where it counts – on the front line of animal welfare, championing the united ideals of both WVS and The Marchig Trust.”

 

International Veterinary Education meeting held in Thailand

Staff at the JMICAWE have just returned from a successful visit to the Kasetsart University in Thailand, where they delivered a workshop on integrating animal welfare and problem-based learning into the veterinary curriculum. Delegates from the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia as well as from Veterinary schools across Thailand, and also the WSPA, attended the workshop.

 

The workshop covered essential aspects of international veterinary training including critical thinking skills, problems-solving approaches and providing education for different leaning styles utilising the theme of animal welfare to demonstrate how best to introduce new subjects into exiting teaching.

 

The workshop also challenged existing paradigms in veterinary education and discussed the importance of animal welfare in practice, exemplified by the use of non-animal models and manikins into the curriculum, something which has been championed by Professor Apinam, the Dean of Kasetsart Veterinary School, and developer of rubber latex alternatives to animals.

 

Heather Bacon of the JMICAWE said ” We are delighted with the success of the workshop and with the strong focus on utilising alternatives to animals in veterinary teaching that we found at Kasetsart. Through our collaborative activities, Professor Apinam in Thailand has already sent some of his models to our colleagues in veterinary schools in China, and we at the JMICAWE hope to continue to support these collaborations across Asia”.

 

 

 

Congratulations to our MSc Animal Behaviour & Welfare graduates

Congratulations to our MSc Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare students of 2012-13 who graduated recently. 

 

It was a fantastic ceremony in the amazing McEwan Hall, with everyone enjoying wearing their gowns, being presented with their certificates and even singing along with the Graduation Choir! 

 

Following post ceremony celebrations with numerous photos being taken and many hugs being given from proud families and friends (and equally proud staff members) - we all headed off to the beautiful Playfair Library for a Graduation Lunch. 

 

Well done to everyone.

 

Dr Susan Jarvis

Programme Director

 

MSc AABAW

 

'Farmed Salmon – Scotland’s largest agricultural export. But what about their welfare?'

Prof Jimmy Turnbull gave an excellent seminar here at the Vet School recently.   His talk was entitled 'Farmed Salmon – Scotland’s largest agricultural export.  But what about their welfare?'.   Jimmy gave us an overview of the Salmon Industry within Scotland including the production and management systems used, the training of staff in animal welfare, environmental and predation issues and welfare accreditation schemes within the industry. 

He then moved on to discuss many of the welfare issues that are of concern within the industry such as the effects of repeated handling, conspecific aggression, crowding, feeding methods and feed restriction, as well as issues related to disease and at the time of slaughter.  He presented scientific findings in relation to these welfare issues such as whether salmon show preference for shade, and the finding that crowding and feed restriction can lead to increased conspecific aggression.  We also talked about the importance of temperature gradients within the environment in enabling fish to cope better with disease challenges.

Although in animal welfare research, animal based measures are normally recorded at the individual level, we spent quite a bit of time discussing the difficulties of this approach in fish, and that in fish it is more practical to record welfare outcomes at the population level. 

Overall there are lots of challenges facing us in terms of fish welfare – how do we assess preference in fish?, can we measure fish welfare at the individual level?, can we develop robust fish welfare assessment tools?  Lots of food for thought.

The seminar attracted many undergraduate vet students, our MSc students, staff and even those from the Scottish Government.

Many thanks to Jimmy for a stimulating presentation

 

 

 

 

18th CVA Asian Regional Meeting and UoE Conference - Feb.2014

18th CVA Asian Regional Meeting and Conference ,Bangalore India.

The Commonwealth Veterinary Association (CVA) in association with The University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, will be hosting the 18th CVA Asian Regional Meeting and Conference on 20 – 24 February 2014, in the NIANP Auditorium, Adugodi, Bangalore, India.

Both Professor Nat Waran and Heather Bacon from the JMICAWE will be presenting at the conference, where a variety of speakers will be covering topics on “Advances in Veterinary Research: Impact and Opportunities”.

 

Click here for draft programme - http://commonwealthvetassoc.org/

4th China Veterinary Conference Champions Animal Welfare

4^th China Veterinary Conference Champions Animal Welfare

 Last week the JMICAWE team headed for China once more to support the Animal Welfare session a t the 4th China Veterinary Conference. Accompanied by international colleagues, we shared a range of practical and research experiences relating to both the development of animal welfare in veterinary education and practice and, the influence of evidence-based research on livestock husbandry, transport and food safety, an issue that is currently of enormous importance in China. The conference was supported by the Animals Asia Foundation and WSPA, and attended by colleagues from the SRUC, the World Veterinary Association, the Federation of Vets of Europe, and the OIE.

 By linking Animal Welfare to its practical benefits, such as improved health, improved productivity,  improved food safety and improved research and education outcomes, even those with little interest in the subject may be inspired to develop better practices that benefit animals around China. But that is not to say that there is no interest in developing better practises simply for the sake of the animals – the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) has recently been working with the Ministry of Education to integrate Animal Welfare into the National Veterinary Exam – making it a core subject for all veterinarians in China.

 Over the next year the JMICAWE will be working with the CVMA to develop successful teaching practises and integrate animal welfare throughout the Chinese Veterinary curriculum.