WEVA Intermediate meeting with the French Equine Veterinary Association (AVEF) collaboration in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1st and 2 May 2010

The Russian Equine Veterinary Association (REVA), with her president Ekaterina Zabegina has organized the 1st and 2 May conferences to celebrate the 10th anniversary of AVEF-WEVA-REVA collaboration which was initiated by Dr Richard Corde who was, at that time, the AVEF president and member of the WEVA board.

These conferences are one of the intermediate meetings organized by WEVA to offer quality continuing education for equine practitioners, in countries such as Russia with limited access to high quality, broad-bases professional education. For this meeting, WEVA was supported by the French Equine Veterinary Association (AVEF) which sent 4 speakers in St Petersburg. This is part of the international solidarity implemented by WEVA for continuing education in the world to improve and facilitate exchanges between equine vets in different countries.

These conferences were held in a very nice place inside the LENEXPO centre in St Petersburg, where there was also a horse exhibition (Picture 1).

Picture 1. LENEXPO center where there was the horse exhibition and the WEVA intermediate meering. Credit Anne Couroucˇ-Malblanc.

Four French speakers sent by AVEF (Picture 2), presented conferences during these 2 days. The first day was devoted to respiratory problems in the horse and was shared by 2 speakers. Fisrt speaker was Dr Guillaume Fortier, head of Frank Duncombe Laboratory Animal Health Department, Caen (France), who talked about virology and bacteriology through 3 conferences (Picture 3). Second speaker was Dr Anne Couroucˇ-Malblanc, lecturer in Nantes veterinary school (Oniris) and member of the WEVA board, who talked about endoscopy at rest and during exercise in the horse and also about the poor performer approach in the field and on the treadmill. The second day, in the morning, Dr Jean-Marc Betsch (Clinique de Mˇheudin, Orne, France) talked about reproduction, from the mare to the stallion. Then, in the afternoon, Pr Jean-Marie Denoix, CIRALE, Maisons Alfort Veterinary School, talked about lameness in the horse through didactic clinical cases. A translation from English or French to Russian was done by two translators who did a fantastic job to pass on the speakers messages to the vets.

Through these conferences and this WEVA intermediate meeting in Russia, the speakers were happy to pass on their experience to Russian equine vets, enthusiastic and studious, who asked a lot of questions and showed a real willing to learn. These meetings are very rich experiences which allow, much further than simple scientific messages, a real exchange between cultures and nations in order to to advance the health and welfare of horses worldwide through continuous education.

Picture 2. Jean-Marie Denoix, Guillaume Fortier, Jean-Marc Betsch, Anne Couroucˇ-Malblanc and Anna Shafranovskaya, one of the 2 translators. Credit Anne Couroucˇ-Malblanc.

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