Saturday April 30th Is World Veterinary Rabies Prevention Day

Vets Focus On Rabies Prevention For World Veterinary Day

World Veterinary Day (WVD) takes place annually on the last Saturday of April and this year veterinary professionals from around the world join together on April 30 to raise awareness of the profession's role in rabies prevention and control.

The World Veterinary Association (WVA) created World Veterinary Day in 2000 as an annual celebration of the veterinary profession. The WVA, World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) have joined forces to promote this year's theme of rabies prevention.

Rabies remains one of the most serious viral zoonoses presently encountered worldwide. Despite being 100 per cent preventable, it is estimated that 55,000 people die worldwide from rabies each year, approximately one person every ten minutes: half are children under the age of 15.

"Prevention at the animal source is the key strategy in dealing with rabies, and veterinarians are therefore crucial to its control," according to the GARC. The alliance believes that national veterinary services around the world could eradicate rabies in animals and stop virtually all human cases by using just 10 per cent of the financial resources currently used to treat people after a dog bite.

Vets operate in all sectors of society: it is probably the only profession that understands the human-animal dynamic that exists in every community throughout the world. Recognising the profession's diversity in a changing world, BVA President Harvey Locke commented:

"World Veterinary Day provides an ideal opportunity to highlight the work of the veterinary profession around the world in food safety and public health, border controls and quarantine, clinical practice, animal health, animal welfare, environmental protection, research and development and wildlife conservation.

"I am particularly pleased that rabies control has been chosen as the theme this year and feel proud to be a member of a profession that can play a key role in bringing an end to this devastating but preventable disease."

2011 marks the 250th anniversary of the veterinary profession and has been declared 'World Veterinary Year'.

Mr Locke added:

"To celebrate World Veterinary Year the BVA's annual Congress will be held under the theme 'Vets in a changing world' in London on 22-24 September 2011. In anticipation that this year will witness the official declaration that another devastating disease - rinderpest - has been eradicated worldwide, I am delighted that the Wooldridge Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Dr Peter Roeder who led the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme from 2000 to 2007.

"And as a further illustration of the varied roles of the profession, the BVA's Overseas Group is organising a full day's programme exploring issues from livestock and global food security to veterinary involvement in disaster relief and management, as well as a session celebrating the 100th BVA overseas travel grant."

Source:
British Veterinary Association