The icing on the cake of BEVA Congress being a face-to-face event this year, is that the Association’s prestigious live Awards ceremony returned. This year three winners were recognised for their brilliance within the equine veterinary profession and were presented with awards in the main auditorium by BEVA President Lucy Grieve on Monday 6th September 2021.
The BEVA Equine Welfare Award, sponsored by the Blue Cross was presented to Lode E A De Smet MRCVS.
Originally from Belgium Lode has been a partner at Gibson & Jones veterinary surgeons in Llanelli for the past 20 years. He has dedicated his time to improving equine welfare and undertakes the RSPCA equine welfare work in South Wales, and has dealt with more than 500 cases. With many cases unfit to travel, Lode will happily take them home to provide further rehabilitation. His case work is often very long, hard, cold and stressful and he never complains. His friends and colleagues feel he is a truly deserving recipient of the BEVA Equine Welfare award.
The Equine Welfare award was presented by David Catlow, Director of Veterinary Clinical Services for The Blue Cross.
The BEVA Richard Hartley Clinical Award was presented to Gemma Pearson for the paper Difficult horses - prevalence, approaches to management of and understanding of how they develop by equine veterinarians by G Pearson, R Reardon, J Keen, N Waran, first published in EVE in July 2020.
The award is given in memory of Richard Hartley, a founder member of BEVA and president from 1974 to 1975. It is awarded for evidence-based papers with direct clinical application and the prize is intended to support travel of the senior author and/or co-authors.
The Peter Rossdale Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ) Open Award was presented to Amie Wilson for the paper Equine influenza vaccination in the UK: Current practices may leave horses with suboptimal immunity by A Wilson, G Pinchbeck, R Dean, C McGowan, first published in EVJ in October 2020.
This award is given for the paper that best achieves the EVJ’s mission to publish articles which influence and improve clinical practice and/or add significantly to the scientific knowledge that underpins and supports veterinary medicine in relation to the horse. The award is made in recognition of Peter Rossdale’s immense contribution to BEVA and EVJ.
Sam Hignett Award: All Clinical Research presentations from general equine practice are eligible for the Sam Hignett Award. A continuous process of assessment will take place throughout the Clinical Research Sessions and the winner of the award will be announced after Congress through the BEVA website and newsletter.
Deidre Carson was awarded Honorary Membership of BEVA for her outstanding contribution to the profession. Deidre has always played a vital support role, both as a clinician, an educator and as an advocate of wellbeing. She is very much an inspiring ambassador for the equine veterinary sector and is highly regarded by fellow vets and nurses as a colleague who cares both for individuals and for the profession as a whole.
Two awards were presented virtually in 2020 by BEVA President Tim Mair. The Richard Hartley clinical award was presented to April Lawson for her paper Application of an equine composite pain scale and its association with plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone concentrations and serum cortisol concentrations in horses with colic. The Peter Rossdale EVJ Open Award was presented to Monica Venner for her paper Changing policy to treat foals with Rhodococcus equi pneumonia in the later course of disease decreases antimicrobial usage without increasing mortality rate. No other awards were presented in 2020.
For further information on the BEVA Awards click here.