The Vet Record Podcast

This episode of the Vet Record Podcast discusses avian flu and why it matters for small animal vets working with species such as cats. Veterinary microbiologist Scott Weese joins Vet Record's Josh Loeb to discuss the risk factors, his views on AMR and why AMR might be a misleading phrase.

David Black and Laura Roberts from the British Cattle Veterinary Association, and Philippa Page from the Sheep Veterinary Society, join Josh Loeb to speak about the impact of BTV-3 - the midge-borne virus responsible for the ongoing, unprecedented bluetongue outbreak - and what steps farmers and vets can take in the face of this threat.

Editor in chief Suzanne Jarvis talks to David Black and Anna Judson about how disease risk is likely to change in the UK as climate changes. Who should be responsible for monitoring it at the national, regional and local level, what should we expect with disease occurence and changes in range, and what can vets in practice do about it?

RUMA's Steve Howard and Kit Sturgess join editor in chief Suzanne Jarvis to talk about the new condition-specific toolkits released by RUMA. These cover canine acute diarrhoea and cat bite abscesses, and provide resources to help practitioners decrease their use of antimicrobials. They also discuss what the target reduction in use is and where we are on this. The toolkits can be accessed at: https://rumacae.org.uk/national-amu-reduction-targets

In this episode, Josh Loeb, Vet Record's senior news reporter, is joined by Michael Seals, chair of the Animal Sentience Committee, and committee member Richard Cooper, to discuss the origins of the committee and questions surrounding it. Set up in 2022, the committee has a remit to report to Parliament on the implications for the welfare of sentient animals arising from any area of policy. But how does it report to Parliament, and which of the many areas of policymaking does it consider most pertinent?