Module 7: One Health and Public Health

  BSAVA Policy works closely with subject experts and Government to support members and the wider profession with challenging scenarios that may be encountered on a daily basis in practice, including zoonoses such as Brucella canis. In this article, Emi Barker, from Langford Vets, Bristol, shares her expertise with some top tips for vets in practice when dealing with suspected cases of Brucella canis infection. These tips are intended to support the BSAVA Scientific Information Document (SID) on the topic (available in the BSAVA Library at: https://tinyurl.com/brucella-sid), and to be read alongside it. Further information is available in the Brucella canis Hub (https://tinyurl.com/brucella-hub), which brings together key resources on B. canis from the BSAVA and from government sources.

How to be Salmonella Savvy

• The occurrence of salmonella and its relevance to small animal vets in practice, pet owners and pets.
• The legislation relating to salmonella and companion animals and, the obligations of vets in practice.
• The zoonotic potential of salmonella for vets and owners.

Parasiticides & the Environment

 The concept of One Health has emerged into the mainstream in recent years and will be familiar to most veterinary and human medicine practitioners. How does animal healthcare fit into the health of humans and the environment, and what impact can veterinary professionals make? BSAVA Scientific Editor, Lizzie Croose, focuses on the origins of One health, the veterinary profession’s role in One Health and how One Health can be adopted in everyday practice.

Leadership perspective: what is needed right now and how to change minds? This non-hysterical look at the big picture provides information regarding the crisis we are facing, and details the leadership skills for you to personally take it forward into practice and your lives to feel like you’re making a difference. The time is past where we can all sit back hoping against hope that someone else will lead us out of this situation. There are things that every individual can do, but more power to effect change comes with better strategy – this lecture focuses on the practical delivery of change into existing structures.

What is happening in the veterinary sector: a high level perspective: Medical journal The Lancet has called climate change “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century”, but also the greatest public health opportunity. The veterinary sector has a moral obligation to mitigate against and adapt to the triple threats of global heating, resource scarcity and biodiversity loss. The transformative change required for this endeavour has been forced by the global pandemic; the question is how we choose to emerge from one crisis, in order to deal with the next? Small animal veterinary practice has a unique set of environmental impacts, not least the greenhouse gas effects caused by release of volatile anaesthetic agents, but also single use plastic consumption, hazardous waste production, and resource use. Some opportunities are clear; others present a wicked problem with interdependent impacts, inadvertent consequences of changes, and embedded behaviours all contributing to the tangled puzzle. We will need to show the best of what we can do; work collaboratively, think laterally, dissect the detail whilst seeing the bigger picture, and showing leadership in the workplace and in our communities. This lecture will highlight the excellent environmental sustainability work that is underway in the small animal sector, and the opportunities for growth and participation.