One of the reasons for my failure to write
Blogs is that the interval between my weekly hospital visit for my “bee
desensitisation injections” (mentioned in Blog 8) has been extended to every
4-6 weeks, which means that I have no longer got 2 – 3 hours to kill every
Monday morning. I was very sceptical
about the whole process of the desensitisation injections but I have to say it
seems to be working. The first injection
I received was equivalent to one hundredth of a bee sting, which stimulated a
really marked reaction over the first 36 hours, which remained for 3-4
days. The dose increases weekly; my most
recent injection was equivalent to 2 full bee stings, which induced a minimal
short-term reaction. In a perverse kind
of way I’d say I’m almost looking forwards to being stung during this season’s
hive inspections. If I don’t appear for
sometime it could be that my optimism about the success of the treatment is somewhat
misguided.
February
was a really hectic month. It started
with the tail end of a weekend in Stockholm at the Nordic Equine Veterinary
Conference (NEVC), mentioned at the end of my last blog, www.nevc2015.se. This is only the second time this event has
been held, the first one was held 3 years ago in Denmark. It is a collaborative venture between the Scandinavian
countries Denmark, Norway and Sweden’s Equine Veterinary Associations, which is
hosted in rotation between the countries every 3 years. The format is very similar to BEVA but just
on a smaller scale. There were approximately 400 delegates and 2 sessions
running concurrently. There were several
International speakers including Andy Durham, Patrick Pollock and Caroline Hahn
from the UK. The Conference organisers
were extremely welcoming and hospitable, for which I am most grateful. I am no linguist but understand that the
Swedish, Norwegian and Danish languages are quite markedly different and for
that reason the respective nationals will often communicate in English…they
really do put us to shame. Furthermore,
all of the lectures were delivered in English – and a bit of Scottish.
At their formal
Congress dinner on the Saturday night, one of the highlights was that each
countries delegate’s had to get onto the stage and sing a song or rhyme from
their country as chosen by the organisers.
Fortunately, by the time that it was the UK’s turn they were all too
legless to remember or had lost the will to live and therefore we didn’t have
to sing “Old Macdonald Had a Farm”.
En route to the Conference, between the
airport and the hotel, approximately 40 miles by train at 0100hrs, I managed to
lose my mobile (I promise that alcohol did not play a role). It did cause me a lot of angst initially but
by the following morning I accepted my fate and the following 5 days, without a
mobile, was quite a liberating experience – you should try it sometime. However, there were numerous missed calls,
voicemails and texts, when I was finally back on air. My period of radio-silence coincided with the
airing of my BBC Countryfile interview about West Nile Virus (WNV) &
African Horse Sickness (AHS). Not
surprisingly, most of the voicemails were mocking, disdainful and derisory – I
would expect nothing less! I also
received several sardonic emails; the one from Dave Rendle (Congress Organiser)
was entitled, “I’ve just choked on my supper”
The following weekend involved a trip to
Pisa to SIVE (the Italian Equine Veterinary Conference). Again the hosts were extremely welcoming and
hospitable, for which I am extremely grateful.
The Congress size and delegate numbers were very similar to Sweden with
3 sessions running concurrently. A
familiar face presenting was Michael Schramme and also Karen Richardson from
The Donkey Sanctuary. Again the majority
of presentations were delivered in English with simultaneous translation
available. Talking to other delegates it
was clear that the economy in Italy is struggling with the inevitable effect that
will have on the equine sector, including vets.
In addition to that Italy has a staggering 13 vet schools. Unsurprisingly, the economy is currently
unable to sustain the number of graduates entering the profession and a large
number seek employment elsewhere in Europe.
The number of new RCVS registrants from outside the UK (predominantly
Europe) is approximately equal to the number of registrants from within the UK,
i.e. new graduates.
On my way back from Pisa, I stopped off in
Paris (as you do) and met up with Renate (Weller) to attend a, “Radiographic
Expert Veterinarian Meeting”. That’s why
I took Renate, I was definitely the monkey; but there was relevance to the
membership about harmonisation amongst European vets about the significance of
radiographic findings at PPE.
