Vet advice

The unholy alliance between viruses and insect vectors like midges has become a signature of emerging diseases around the world. Culicoides, among the most abundant of bloodsucking insects, occur throughout most of the inhabited world. The tiny fly known as the biting midge, or no-see-um because of its diminutive size (one to four mm in […] Read more

Animal welfare is instinctive for veterinarians. While not always transparent, animal welfare has been an integral part of veterinary education and daily life in practice from the very beginning. It is the real reason many pursue veterinary medicine as a career. As society alters its attitude about animal care, veterinarians have much to do to […] Read more

A segment of the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association’s account of its history between 1991 and 2010 was a question to members about what they thought were the three most important things that changed veterinary practice during those two decades. The responses provided insight into how dramatically veterinary practice and the livestock industry has changed during […] Read more

The theme of this year’s CanWest veterinary conference sponsored by the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association was prudent drug use and antimicrobial resistance. Approximately 750 veterinarians, animal health technicians and human health professionals attended. The meeting provided several key messages about antimicrobial use. First, this is a complex issue and there are no easy answers. In […] Read more

Those involved in raising animals destined for food recognize disease and accidents are unfortunate realities and that euthanasia under these circumstances becomes a necessity. When end-of-life decisions must be made it’s important that they be carried out in a safe and humane fashion. Euthanasia is geared to irreversibly obliterate awareness, sensibility and consciousness by disrupting […] Read more

The veterinarian is the only practitioner in life sciences sanctioned to end the life of a patient. Parcelled with the professional responsibility to provide needed care for animal patients is the unassailable ethical obligation to relieve suffering, and ensure suffering ends humanely. Most would consider the animals we depend on for a living “friends” to […] Read more

The global onslaught of emerging diseases never ceases. The role animals play in the emergence of new diseases and the transmission of those diseases to humans is under constant scrutiny. BSE, SARS and influenza are examples of pathogens that jumped the species barriers over the last decade. While their encroachment on human health was less […] Read more