EQUINE | YMG Report
Unfortunately our turnout wasn’t as I had hoped, but I think that was a fault on my side with regards to poor advertising
and movement of venues shortly before the talk. Dr van Laeen also asked me to invite the equine clinicians and the
helminthology lecturer (Proff Schwann), which I did the day before the event, but non of them came. I think I shoud
have sent them emails long beforehand and made a bigger deal of it in person. I have definitely learned from my
mistakes, and hope to increase attendance in future events. I love learning about parasites, and I greatly admire Dr
van Laeren’s work, thus I would definitely recommend having another talk with him in future.
African Horse Sickness Talk by Dr Tina Schliewert
Written by Zarah Vermeulen (Sport Horse Portfolio
We decided to ask the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital (OVAH) Equine Unit to do a talk for us this year;
mostly to build a relationship between the SAEVA YMG students and the hospital staff, but also because they have
the greatest idea of what is lacking in the equine part of the veterinary course.
Dr Schliewert was selected by the unit to give the talk, so she and Nicola Griffin (SAEVA YMG chair 2019) decided on
a topic. They settled on African Horse Sickness: Where we are at and the need to know; as AHS protocol is a day 1
competency, and with the major losses last season we cannot afford to not know what the steps ahead are. The date
was set for 24 October 2019.
The talk was a great overview/ review of AHS, and I am sure a lot of students learnt a lot from it. Most importantly,
she opened our eyes to the immense amount of research that still needs to be done in this regard, and the risk of
spreading the virus to Europe. There was also coverage over the movement and vaccination protocols as well as
advisement on where to obtain the current restrictions. It was a useful event, and I hope it inspired some students
to go into researching the topic. A total of 26 students attended this talk as well as Dr Mickael Robert and Sr Lynn
McHardy
SAEVA Endurance Portfolio 2019
Written by Lucinda Helburg (Endurance Portfolio)
This year was once again a success in terms of the events arranged for SAEVA’s Endurance portfolio.
SAIC (from 26 to 29 April at Bona Bona game lodge) was once again an amazing experience. The hands-on experience
is so much more than what students get at Onderstepoort and seeing many of the conditions that we learn about
theoretically is a great help in renewing a student’s memory. The event was attended by 13 students from different
years. The student’s rotated between working at the lanes and treatment area. At the lanes each student got the
opportunity to work alongside a veterinarian, where they were taught exactly what to look for when doing a
lameness evaluation. This is the perfect opportunity for becoming comfortable with differentiating an abnormal gait
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• Equine Health Update •