WEVA Intermediate meeting organised by Russian Equine Veterinary Association (REVA) in association with the French Equine Veterinary Association (AVEF), Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1st and 2nd May 2010

The Russian Equine Veterinary Association (REVA), with its president Ekaterina Zabegina organized a conference on the 1st and 2nd May, 2010 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of AVEF-WEVA-REVA collaboration. This fruitful partnership initiated by Dr. Louis Touratier from the OIE, Dr.Patrick Langlois and Dr. Richard Corde, who were, at that time, a president and a vice-president of AVEF/WEVA Board member accordingly.

This conference represented one of the intermediate meetings organized by WEVA with the aim of offering high quality continuing education for equine practitioners. These meetings are conducted in the countries where may be limited access to high quality, broad-based professional education. As part of this meeting AVEF supported WEVA by sponsoring air tickets for three speakers in St Petersburg. REVA supported WEVA by organization of the conference and sponsoring accommodation for three speakers and one speaker's full travel package. This exemplifies the international solidarity implemented by WEVA to assist in providing continuing education opportunities around the world with the aim to improve and facilitate exchanges between equine veterinarians differing countries and diverse regions of the world.

This conference was held at the LENEXPO Exhibition Center in St Petersburg. The 12th International horse exhibition HIPPOSPHERE-2010 was held there also (Picture 1).

Picture 1. LENEXPO Exhibition Center where the 12th International horse exhibition and the WEVA intermediate meeting were held on May 1&2, 2010. (Picture c/- Anne Couroucé-Malblanc).

The four French speakers (Picture 2), presented papers during the two days of the conference. The first day was devoted to respiratory problems with two speakers. Dr. Guillaume Fortier, head of Frank Duncombe Laboratory Animal Health Department, Caen (France), gave 3 papers on virology and bacteriology (Picture 3). The second speaker was Dr. Anne Couroucé-Malblanc, lecturer at Nantes veterinary school (Oniris) and a member of the WEVA Board. Anne discussed about endoscopy of the upper airway at rest and during exercise. She also addressed the horse with poor performance using in field and treadmill testing. On the morning of the second day, Dr. Jean-Marc Betsch (Clinique de Méheudin, Orne, France) talked about reproduction, from the perspective of the mare and also the stallion. During the afternoon session, Prof. Jean-Marie Denoix, CIRALE, Maisons Alfort Veterinary School, discussed lameness in the horses using didactic material and reference to clinical cases. Translation from English or French to Russian was undertaken by two fantastic translators who did an incredible job passing the speakers messages on to the vets.

This conference gave the speakers an excellent opportunity to further progress the missions of WEVA and AVEF by passing on their knowledge and experiences to Russian equine vets. The speakers found the Russians were extremely polite, enthusiastic, studious, they asked a plethora of questions and showed a great willingness to learn. Such meetings are rich experiences allowing discussion to occur at a complex level during which significant scientific and cultural exchanges occur. The end result is to advance the health and welfare of horses worldwide through a process of continuous education.

Picture 2. Jean-Marie Denoix, Guillaume Fortier, Jean-Marc Betsch, Anne Couroucé-Malblanc and Anna Shafranovskaya, one of the 2 translators. (Picture c/- Anne Couroucé-Malblanc).

Picture 3. Ekaterina Zabegina, president of the Russian Equine Veterinary Association (REVA), introducing Dr Guillaume Fortier at the beginning of his conferences. (Picture c/- Anne Couroucé-Malblanc).


Click here for the detailed program and more information.