BSAVA Companion - 2025, 10, October

A PDF of the full October Companion

Rover is ready to retrieve!; BSAVA PetSavers final call for research grant funding; New findings in laparoscopic ovariectomy research.

The Government has published official guidance (10 July 2025) for Local Authorities outlining their responsibilities in licensing (which will require veterinary involvement) and enforcement under new legislation concerning the private keeping of primates. The regulations will come into force on 6 April 2026 and are expected to improve the welfare of thousands of animals in England and Wales, considering estimates of up to 5,000 primates are being kept privately as pets in the UK.

  Veterinary surgeon Kirstie Pickles is a passionate advocate for mental health and wellbeing who discovered she was autistic in her 40s. Kirstie has recently undertaken training with AT-Autism and Anna Freud to become a co-deliverer of their groundbreaking National Autism Trainer Programme. In this article, Kirstie focuses on the experience of autistic individuals in practice and how simple adjustments can make a veterinary workplace more accessible.

  Elaine Yarwood, undergraduate from the Vet School of the University of Nottingham received BSAVA PetSavers’ funding for a student research project investigating the peri- and post-operative outcomes of neutering female dogs by ovariohysterectomy or ovariectomy. The study was carried out in her third year alongside Dr Rachel Moxon and Professor Gary England, and their findings are described here.

    All the entries in this the second year of running the Companion Student Research Project Competition, were of an exceptional calibre and once again the Companion Editorial Panel thoroughly enjoyed reading each entry. The panel is in agreement that by showcasing these outstanding projects we can champion the efforts of the students involved (and their supervisors) and hopefully encourage others to share their findings with the wider veterinary community.

  There are two ways to describe the career of Laura Gelder-Robertson, the new CEO of Vet Sustain CIC. The long version, suitable for formal settings, is that she is ‘an innovation strategy consultant with a specialism in systems thinking, wicked problemsolving and cross-sector collaboration’. But she can also offer a shorter and much pithier version, which suggests that her job is ‘chief dot joiner’. John Bonner spoke to Laura to find out more…

Article abstracts from the latest issue of JSAP.

A calendar of forthcoming online and in-person events.

  Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most critical global public health challenges we face. It is estimated to have been directly responsible for 1.14 million deaths and contributed to 4.71 million deaths globally in 2021, and it is predicted that 39 million people could die from antibiotic resistant infection over the next 25 years. Lizzie Croose, BSAVA Scientific Editor, reports…