The Faculty of Veterinary Science (FVS) recently co-hosted the Veterinary Management of African Wildlife Conference with the South African Veterinary Association Wildlife Group (SAVA WG) from the 21st to 25th February. This was the first time the annual SAVA WG joined with the faculty to host their annual conference. We had a great turnout with 219 registrations, including 8 international delegates, 43 students and 18 trade representatives.
It was a busy five days starting with two workshops: “Critical monitoring during immobilization” by Dr Leith Meyer and “Carnivore immobilization, anaesthesia and nutrition” by Dr Adrian Tordiffe, both from the FVS. The following four days had themes. The first being “Rhino and Elephant Conservation Medicine” with the keynote speaker Dr Michael Knight of the IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group talking on “Medicine to save Africa’s rhinos”. The second day’s theme was “People and Wildlife” with Dr Mike Kock talking on “Protected areas and people: where have all the elephant and rhino gone, and more important why?”. He gave great veterinary and medical anthropological perspective on transfrontier conservation areas.
Friday’s theme was “Wildlife Disease” with Dr William Karesh opening with the talk “Can we call them wildlife diseases anymore?” which gave a global perspective on emerging diseases. The theme of the last day was “Applied Clinical Practice” with Dr Johan Marais started the day with the insightful “Rhino in the room”. We were fortunate to have a great variety of speakers from Southern Africa, North America, Europe and Asia. They covered a diversity of topics from tuberculosis diagnosis to immobilization drug protocols and side effects. The talks are available on the member section of the Wildlife group website www.vets4wildlife.co.za.
There were vibrant social activities with a fun quiz night on the first night with a variety of veterinary related questions, some submitted by members. The last night was a gala dinner where the best talks and poster were announced. Prizes were given to the best talk of each of the four days and the best poster as voted by the delegates. The Lycaon award was awarded to Dr Markus Hofmeyer for his contribution to conservation as a member of the SAVA wildlife group. The award makes him an honorary member of the group.
The feedback from delegates and trade has been overwhelmingly positive. Dr William Magnone wrote: “I’m now again in Italy in my zoo work but i want to thank you all! It was absolutely a great conference fron both scientific and not scientific aspects.I found all presentations of great interest and it was very useful for me to understand the south african wildlife situation. The workshop was great too! Thanks Leith and Jacques to share with us your experiences! We hosted EAZWV conference in 2012 and I know what it means!! Thanks again and my compliments!
We would like to thank all the speakers that take the time to present their experiences and thoughts as well as the organisers Vetlink, FVS, SAVA WG. A big thank you to the sponsors who make a significant contribution to the success of the conference: the main sponsors V-Tech and Wildlife Pharmaceuticals, Kyron (Carnivore workshop), Lomaen Medical, Professional Wildlife Equipment, Global Supplies, Sonorite, Motsumi and Midlands Veterinary Wholesalers.
