Charities | Veterinary Associations

BSAVA Supports Vets in Sub Saharan Africa

vetreportAugust 13, 2013

Thanks to support from BSAVA and its sister association in the Netherlands, vets across Africa are benefitting from first class CPD with the Sub Saharan WSAVA Education Programme. Though they still have to deal with the occasional power cut mid lecture.

A recent report from the WSAVA team told how Dr Sarah Boyd from South Africa has been busy delivering key lectures for African vets in June and July. Almost 50 veterinary surgeons in Botswana and Zambia gathered to hear her deliver stimulating sessions on surgical topics. Despite the disruption of a power cut in Botswana necessitating a change of room, her talks were a great success.

Sarah covered several topics including orthopaedic conditions in growing dogs, assessment of lameness in dogs, general principles of fracture fixation, principles of GI surgery, principles and techniques for skin surgery and mast cell tumours.

Dr Jill Maddison says, “WSAVA education in Africa would not be possible without the generous support of BSAVA and NACAM, and the hard work of Dr Lawson Cairns who works tirelessly to deliver practical and relevant CE in the region.”

BSAVA has been keen to engage with initiatives targeting developing countries and continues to support the WSAVA Sub-Saharan African education programme, with recent annual donations of £10,000.

BSAVA President, Professor Michael Day wants the association to take an even more international position.  He says, “The success of these kind of WSAVA programmes has reinforced to me the potential major impact that BSAVA can have through a more global, ‘outward facing’ approach, and we are now introducing a developing countries membership category for 2014 to help us stretch our remit of advancing scientific knowledge to a more international community of veterinary professionals.”