On 16th June 2022, the EASVO General Assembly took place in London, UK.
We were delighted to be able to meet in person in London, ably supported by Wiebke from the FVE team. We agreed to support all of the items for vote on the FVE General Assembly agenda and enjoyed interesting discussions on several issues.
As usual a significant proportion of our discussions were on Animal Welfare and we were pleased to be joined by Mette Uldahl (FVE VP) to discuss the FVE papers for vote, on animal welfare labelling and animal welfare during transport. We then heard a report on the AW audit in slaughterhouses in Switzerland and a very interesting presentation on the practical challenges and delivery approaches of welfare in transport in Austria. During these discussions we agreed to recommend that FVE, and the AWWG, continue to highlight the role of veterinarians in advocating for animal welfare, delivering successful welfare outcomes and influencing both the quality and potential ways to reduce, long distance journeys.
Importantly we also discussed EASVO business, and we agreed to develop an EASVO strategy. This will be aligned with the FVE strategy but will highlight our unique role and look to address the specific challenges faced by our members as state veterinarians.
We also heard that our finances were in good health following the disruption of the last few years. This meant that we were able to agree to FVE secretariat and professional support which will be hugely valued as we develop our strategy.
And, last but not least, in our roundtable we discussed the different approaches taken by our members in relation to supporting our Ukrainian friends and the “silent refugees” – their pets. Then it was time to discuss the response to African Swine Fever and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza by our members, and our interest in developing vaccination instead of culling for control programmes. And finally an update on the ban on breeding certain dog breeds in Norway and, although we did not have much time to discuss the important subject of veterinary wellbeing and resource challenges, we agreed that will weave this into our strategy.
