Countdown to BSAVA Congress 2019!

The JMICAWE team will be out in force next week for BSAVA Congress 2019!

Heather, Hayley & Jess are all making the trip to Birmingham to attend, with Heather & Hayley both making multiple presentations during the Animal Behaviour, Welfare & Ethics session on Friday 5th April in Hall 11 of the ICC.  Please go and say hello to them and enjoy the week's programme.

https://www.bsavacongress.com/BSAVACongress2019/en/page/our-programme

Critically endangered pangolins benefit from ultrasound exams

Critically endangered pangolins benefit from ultrasound exams

Earlier this month, Heather and Jess travelled to meet the team at Save Vietnam’s Wildlife in Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam where they spent 4 days working with the veterinarian Huong and the rest of the ‘Save Vietnam’s Wildlife’ team to exchange knowledge of endangered carnivore veterinary care and management.

Heather carried with her a Sonosite Titan ultrasound machine and two probes, courtesy of Ian and Jacky Macqueen, Nic Hayward, and Gavin Mitchell at IMV Imaging; and also an intravenous fluid pump and refractometer courtesy of Crown Vets, Inverness. This equipment provides essential support in safeguarding the health and welfare of the pangolin – the world’s most trafficked mammal - as well as other critically endangered carnivores such as Owston’s civet, and commoner carnivores including Asian short-clawed otters, binturong and leopard cats.

Over the course of the visit Heather and Jess delivered training in anaesthesia, diagnostic imaging and surgical techniques, and in return were keen to learn from the experienced team at SVW about the health and husbandry of captive pangolins and other small carnivores.

“This is an exciting opportunity for all of us” said Heather “The SVW team are incredibly experienced at pangolin care and it’s a real privilege to participate in their work on this critically endangered species, in return we’re delighted to deliver the donated ultrasound machine, and this week were able to support their work by delivering some training and detecting pregnancy in a female pangolin, which will enable the team to better manage these vulnerable animals. It’s been a great collaborative exchange of knowledge and experiences”

Wildlife welfare in action, and next steps in animal welfare education in India

Wildlife welfare in action, and next steps in animal welfare education in India

JMICAWE Director, Prof Cathy Dwyer, has just returned from a packed 2 weeks in India, catching up with friends old and new, and exploring new opportunities for collaboration in animal welfare. 

Cathy was a guest of Dr Abdul Rahman at the Bangalore Veterinary College, which was hosting the 7^th Pan Commonwealth Veterinary Conference, now in its 52^nd year. Bangalore with also be the host city for the 54^th International Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE, the learned society for research in applied animal behaviour and welfare) in 2020, where Cathy and previous JMICAWE director, Prof Nat Waran, will be helping with the scientific organisation.

The College is also setting up its very own Animal Welfare Research Centre, so an entire day of the conference was devoted to animal behaviour and welfare, and discussions relating to the functioning of the Centre. JMICAWE will be helping with capacity building for staff and students to help make the Centre a success story for Indian animal welfare.

As part of the visit Cathy, along with colleagues JMICAWE honorary fellow Dr Mike Appleby, Massey University Professor Emeritus David Mellor and ISAE Senior Vice President, Dr Birte Nielsen, spent a day out at the Bhannergatta Bear Rescue Centre seeing the work done by Wildlife SOS in rehabilitating ex-dancing bears. This was a wonderful opportunity to see the work in practice and the fantastic approaches used to engage the communities that used to rely on exploitation of sloth bears for their livelihoods. These families are now working with the Centre to care for and develop enrichment for the bears. Despite their previous difficult life experiences, the bears are now able to spend their days out in the park, with great care paid to their diets, health and behavioural enrichments and to have the opportunity to spend the rest of their lives being bears. Cathy and colleagues were greatly moved by the kindness and care of the staff, and their wonderful approach to practical animal welfare.

Cathy ended her trip with a visit to Delhi, spending a day at the Lala Lajput Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (LUVAS) to discuss opportunities to support development of courses at the National Institute for Animal Welfare, particularly focusing initially on teaching animal welfare and related skills to para-vets. Finally she visited the Indira Gandhi National Open University, where JMICAWE and SRUC colleagues are contributing to the development of a post graduate diploma in animal welfare, hopefully launching later this year.   

  

Dick Vet Animal Behaviour Society Conference 2019

A guest blog from the Conference organisers, EG & IK, both undergraduate vet students:-

On the 23^rd February 2019, animal behaviour enthusiasts from both Glasgow and Edinburgh vet schools, gathered at Easter Bush Campus to attend the annual Dick Vet Animal Behaviour Conference.

With over 80 delegates in attendance, the Veterinary Teaching Building buzzed with excitement, in anticipation of a day jam-packed with animal behaviour! Throughout the day, a dazzling line up of speakers took to the stage to deliver 6 fascinating talks:

Alasdair Bunyan: Rehabilitation and Training in the Rescue Environment.

Jenna Richardson: Rabbit Behaviour: A hop, thump, and a grunt – what does it all mean?

Samantha Lindley: Something’s got to give: The impact of pain on the behaviour of the dog and cat.

Francoise Wemelsfelder: Qualitative Behaviour Assessment: Assessing animals’ emotional expressivity.

Kevin McPeake: Medications and pheromones in the treatment of canine and feline behaviour problems.

Eva Bertilsson: Cooperative Care with Voluntary Handling.

Having received much positive feedback from this year’s delegates, it is fair to say that the 2019 conference was a resounding success! And with delicious food and drink provided throughout the day, a raffle with some fantastic prizes, and a brownies and beverage reception to close, the crowds left content and satisfied at the end of the day, their mind’s brimming with new animal behaviour knowledge!

For making this fantastic day possible, the Dick Vet Animal Behaviour Society extend their sincerest thanks to their sponsors. The DVABS are incredibly grateful to the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education; for their kind donation of raffle prizes; for providing some wonderful goodies for our delegate bags; and for their extremely generous financial contribution towards conference costs. Thank you, once again, JMICAWE, for helping us to help animals, through animal behaviour education!

JMICAWE deliver successful animal behaviour workshop at University of the Philippines, Los Banos

A successful animal behaviour workshop at University of Philippines, Los Banos

Last week JMICAWE Director, Cathy Dwyer, and SRUC colleagues, Fritha Langford and Marie Haskell, delivered a 2-day workshop at the College of Veterinary Medicine at University of Philippines, Los Banos (UPLB), focusing on the application of animal behaviour in animal welfare studies.

The workshop was attended by the Deans and representatives of nine other vet schools from across Philippines as well as students and faculty from UPLB. The workshop participants worked on different methods of animal behaviour measurement and testing, considered the different ways that animal behaviour is important in different aspects of animal lives, and had a great field trip out to the vet school’s farm to practice their new found behavioural observation skills on sheep and horses. Conducting a novel object test on a group of the Centre’s sheep really helped participants see the advantages and disadvantages of behavioural observation and behaviour testing.

This is a return trip for the JMICAWE team after a very successful workshop held in Manila last year, focusing on animal welfare education.  The enthusiasm and interest of the Philippine veterinary faculty in learning about animal behaviour and animal welfare was as much in evidence as our previous trip and there are now plans for UPLB faculty to disseminate the learning out to other vet schools that were not able to attend the workshop.

JMICAWE are delighted to be working with such an enthusiastic group of vets and students and are looking forward to future developments.    

Behavioural observation practical class