VETERINARY associations from
around the world have joined
together to declare 2011 as World
Veterinary Year.
They include the World Veterinary
Association, the Federation of
Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), the
Federation of European Companion
Animal Veterinary Associations
(FECAVA), the American Veterinary
Medical Association (AVMA), the
International Veterinary Students
Association (IVSA), and national
associations from Africa, Asia, the
Middle East and Australasia. Companies
such as Pfizer and Merial have also
declared their support. UK involvement
is as yet unclear.
The year marks the 250th
anniversary of the founding of the
world’s first veterinary school in Lyon,
France, in 1761 (30 years before the
founding of the RVC in London), at the
initiative of French veterinarian Claude Bourgelat.
Organisations
which have
committed to
support the
year are
claiming that
by setting up
the world’s
first veterinary training institutions
– he was also involved with
the founding of the second
school at Alfort four years
later – he was instrumental in
creating the veterinary
profession itself, so that 2011
will also mark the profession’s 250th
anniversary.
The first official event of the year
will be an opening ceremony in
Versailles on 24th January. Other major
events include: a world conference on
veterinary education to be held at the
veterinary school in Lyon from 12th to
16th May; and an international closing
ceremony during the World Veterinary
Congress in Cape Town from 10th to
14th October.
Other significant international
events during the year include the 5th
Pan Commonwealth Veterinary
Conference in Accra, Ghana, from 21st
to 25th March and the WSAVA
congress in Jeju, South Korea, from
14th to 17th October (starting the day
the World Veterinary Congress finishes).
Details of World
Veterinary Year 2011 can be
found on www.vet2011.org; a
list of major veterinary
events in 2011 is on page 14.
n The organising committee
for World Veterinary Year adds: “As a result of Claude Bourgelat’s
fruitful collaboration with surgeons in
Lyon, he was the first scientist who
dared to suggest that studying animal
biology and pathology would help to
improve the understanding of human
biology and pathology, so 2011 will also
mark the 250th anniversary of the
concept of comparative pathobiology,
without which modern medicine would
never have emerged.
“Therefore, it is not just the
anniversary of the creation of veterinary
training in France that we should be
celebrating in 2011.
“The entire world should join with
us in celebrating our veterinary
profession, which has been working to
improve both animal and human health
for the past 250 years.”
