Equine Health Update EHU Vol 20 Issue 02 | Page 4

Chariman ’ s Report

Terry Casey Chairman SA Equine Veterinary Association Cell : 083 327 0237
This year certainly has been an interesting one in all respects . The change in the country ’ s President , the Gupta scandal and the debate about the “ land issue ” all seemed to have made reverberations throughout the country . On the equine side the Steinhoff saga has had serious implications in the thoroughbred racing industry . However , there are not to many equine industries in the world that can claim to have lost their biggest owner in the space of a couple of months and seemingly carry on as normal . By comparision , Saeva has had plain sailing the last few months . Individual committee chairs will no doubt have issued reports if they feel that their is anything tho report back but from my perspective I would like just like everybody to take note of the following issues .
It has been decided to try a slightly new format for next years congress . The congress will take place very largely over a weekend . This is too limit the time away from the practice and hopefully encourage more delegates to attend . The congress will be from the 22nd of February to the 25 th of February 2019 . The two main speakers will be Natalie Crevier-Denoix and Lee Morris . Natalie will be talking about arena surfaces and the impact thereof on horses landing , whilst Lee is reproduction specialist from New Zealand . The venue is as yet undecided but by rotation the congress should be in Kzn . All comments wrt . this new format will be gratefully accepted . The annual wetlab will take place on the 2nd of March 2019 and will be presented by Jean-Marie Demoix .
Saeva also decided at its last executive meeting to make a sum of money available to support the regional congresses in other parts of the country . The aim of this would be to provide more “ hands on “ education for the practitioner who primary interest is not equines . Several members of the group have been identified and asked to assist in this regards . Many thanks to theses speakers . Initially these congresses will be used to promote the new Equine disease reporting system devised by John Grewar . Camilla Weyer has already attended several of these regional congresses on behalf of Saeva where she has actively been urging the delegates to get involved with this system . It is an online internet based and very simple to use . If there are any queries I would advise contacting either Camilla or John . The ultimate goal of this system would be to enable an easier movement of Equine out of South Africa . I think we all agree that the more horses the are exported the bigger the benefit it would have to the horse industry in general . In this way it would have a knock effect to the veterinary industry as well .
Whilst we are on the export of horse we all know that there are several passport requirements for entry into the Western Cape . The veterinarians involved , however , report that on the whole the certification of the horse is not being done correctly . Please , I would urge everybody to check up on the correct procedure to follow when certifying passports .
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