NEWS & REPORTS
Vets recognised in King’s Birthday Honours
By Georgina Mills
MEMBERS of the veterinary
profession and those who work
alongside it have been recognised
in the King’s Birthday Honours for
2023.
Roly Owers, CEO of World Horse
Welfare, was awarded an OBE for
charitable services to equine welfare
in the UK and abroad. Owers has
been in position since 2008 and
leads the charity’s efforts to improve
welfare by strengthening the horse-
human relationship.
He said: ‘It is a true privilege
to be entrusted with leading the
work of World Horse Welfare, and
I am hugely thankful to my team
and my family as this is as much
for them as for me. What I find
inspiring is that recognition at this
level demonstrates the continued
relevance of horses to society and
the part we all play in protecting
their welfare for future generations.’
Co-founder of the British
Veterinary Ethnicity and Diversity
Society (BVEDS) Navaratnam
Partheeban was awarded an OBE
for services to inclusion. BVEDS
Cases of African swine fever found in new countries
AFRICAN swine fever (ASF) has been
confirmed in pigs on farms in two
European countries where the disease
has not previously been recorded.
In June two Balkan countries,
Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina,
confirmed ASF in domestic pigs
in their territories for the first
time, neither having previously
experienced outbreaks.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina the
virus was confirmed in one pig
on a farm close to the border with
Serbia on 22 June. Five days later,
the Croatian agriculture ministry
confirmed ASF in two pig farms.
Croatia is part of the EU but Bosnia
and Herzegovina is not. Both border
Serbia, which has previously seen
outbreaks on some of its pig farms.
VET RECORD | 8/15 July 2023 9
8-9 DPS 3.indd 9
was set up in 2016
to raise awareness
of issues regarding
race and ethnicity in
the profession, and
to share knowledge
and information about
tackling issues and
celebrating difference.
Partheeban said on Twitter
that he was ‘really humbled
and amazed’ by the award of his
OBE and was grateful to everyone,
especially his wife, who had
supported his journey and given
him the ‘strength to try to create a
positive impact for all around’.
Another OBE went to former
CEO of the National Pig
Association Zoe Leach.
Leach became the
organisation’s first
CEO in 2014 and
stayed in the role until
last year when she moved
to the National Farmers’
Union as its eastern regional
director.
John Millward, head of the
inspections and enforcement
division at the Veterinary Medicines
Vincent ter Beek, editor of the
magazine Pig Progress, tweeted: ‘ASF
season has started in Europe. Only a
few days after Bosnia and Herzegovina
reported its first-ever outbreak of ASF,
it is followed by Croatia.’
The cases Come amid concern
about wild boar populations in
Europe acting as disease reservoirs
and passing the virus on to outdoor
pigs.
At Animal Health Europe’s annual
conference in Brussels on 1 June,
Thomas Duffy, who at the time was
senior vice president of the European
Council of Young Farmers and whose
term in office has since ended, said
wild boar numbers were ‘frankly
entirely out of control across Europe’.
He added: ‘We are not handling
Directorate, was awarded an
OBE for services to animal
health and welfare.
Those working in the charity
sector were also recognised by
the King.
Claire Guest, co-founder,
CEO and chief scientific officer
of Medical Detection Dogs, was
awarded an OBE for services to
medical knowledge, public health
and wellbeing, while Claire Bessant,
former CEO of International Cat
Care, was awarded an MBE for
services to cat welfare.
Louise Russell, founder and
CEO of Give a Dog a Bone...and an
Animal a Home; Victoria Golding,
wildlife rehabilitator at Kent
Wildlife Trust; and Marion
Micklewright, founder and
manager at Shropshire
Cat Rescue, were each
awarded the British
Empire Medal (BEM).
From the research community,
Caroline Chadwick, director of the
biomedical services unit at the
University of Birmingham, was also
awarded the BEM for services to
humane animal research.
that situation well. There’s the risk
in terms of the spread of disease, but
also there’s a massive animal welfare
issue here because it could be the end
ASF season
of extensive outdoor piggeries.’
has started The EU has previously said that
in Europe ASF was not spreading in the bloc
but was merely ‘present’ there, and in
May Bernhard Url, executive director
of the European Food Safety Authority
(EFSA), said there were ‘encouraging
signs’ that measures to control
the virus in the EU were working
effectively.
According to the EFSA in 2022 ASF
outbreaks in domestic pigs in the EU
decreased by 79 per cent compared to
2021, while in wild boar there were
40 per cent fewer cases in the bloc
during 2022 compared with 2021.
04/07/2023 14:29:28