Fast Field Test for E.coli- K99 Pathogen The first lambs of the lambing season are here and full of the joys of the spring yet to arrive. Delivering as early as the second week in January, the most productive ewes will give birth to twins or even triplets, with quadruplets not uncommon and the occasional delivery of quintuplets.
Bird Flu Prevention Zone in England and Wales Just a few weeks into the New Year, England’s Chief Veterinary Officer has imposed a bird flu prevention zone over the whole of England. Intended to protect the UK poultry industry, following the discovery of dead wild birds infected with an H5N6-type avian flu strain, a similar bird flu protection zone was imposed in Scotland at the end of January.
2018 opened with yet more confirmed cases of Alabama Rot in UK dogs. With a fatality rate of 80%, the kidney disease, characterised by ulcer-like skin sores, has now affected over 100 dogs countrywide since the disease first appeared in the UK in Hampshire in 2012.
The approach of winter marks the beginning of the high-risk Avian Flu season (also known as ‘bird flu’ or ‘fowl plague’) for commercial poultry keepers. With UK chicken, duck, goose, turkey and wild bird flocks susceptible to H5N8 HPAI avian influenza now is a good time to understand what those letters and numbers mean for you.
Veterinary forensics is becoming increasingly important in the investigation of animal cruelty since it became apparent that people who do harm to animals are also more likely, than those who have no record of animal mistreatment, to do harm to people.
With Christmas on the way, animal charities and welfare organisations are flagging up the dangers around online and social media pet ads that can lead to impulse buying of very young, unhealthy and misrepresented kittens.
The breeding of assistance dogs, under the supervision of the UK Guide Dogs National Breeding Centre. Each mating is carefully planned to guarantee the health and welfare of each breeding bitch and their potential pups.
A survey of horse owners at the 2017 Royal Welsh Show found that better awareness of routine faecal egg counting (FEC) in horses could reduce the need for veterinary treatment. The UK’s county-based agricultural shows are an ideal opportunity for producers, consumers and their suppliers to gather and exchange information toward the improvement animal husbandry, health and welfare.
A recent survey showed that people knew more about animals that have never existed – except in films, fables and stories – than they do about real animals on the EDGE of extinction. Begun in 2007, Zoological Society London’s EDGE programme aims to raise the public’s awareness and concern for the Earth’s Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and invertebrates – including corals, whose existence is, quite literally, on the EDGE.
For the UK’s millions of laboratory animals, the 3Rs aren’t about Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Instead, they’re three letters that spell out the legal and ethical responsibilities of veterinary laboratories.
