Brooke celebrates innovative vet training framework at BEVA Congress 2023
Brooke representatives attend BEVA Conference 2023
Brooke showcased a number of animal health and welfare initiatives including an advanced approach to mentoring, which has helped train over 4,000 vets and animal health practitioners worldwide, at an equine vet conference last week.
Brooke hosted a stand at The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) Congress, to promote resources such as its Animal Health Mentoring Framework (AHMF): a list of essential skills required to provide good quality animal health services for animal health practitioners - including vets.
The AHMF is one of several ways in which Brooke is working to strengthen animal health systems around the world. Today, Brooke’s Framework is used by vets across Brooke’s countries of operation in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as universities and governments.
Also at the stand, attendees could learn more about Brooke’s work to improve the lives of working horses, donkeys and mules, as well as human behaviour changes that benefit animals. This included a manual for working equid vets, resources on compassionate animal handling, Brooke’s Global Farriery Project and collaborative work on access to essential medicines for livestock.
Brooke attended as part of the International Coalition for Working Equids (ICWE), which consists of four leading NGOs in equid welfare: Brooke, SPANA (the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad), The Donkey Sanctuary, and World Horse Welfare. Globally, there are more than 100 million working equids (horses, donkeys and mules) around the world who make a vital contribution to the lives of 600 million people.
For the first time, all four ICWE members were present at the BEVA Congress, and will be working with the BEVA Trust to promote awareness of the welfare needs of working equids and responsible travel when visiting or volunteering overseas.
ICWE was founded to work with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and its member states to advocate for better visibility for working equids, and work together to provide technical guidance and assistance during disease outbreaks.
Brooke and other ICWE organisations were also on hand to discuss the new Working Equid Standards Library of Information (WESLI), which is an online library of resources providing guidance on the WOAH Chapter standards on the Welfare of Working Equids. This includes provision of water, diseases and injuries, and end-of-life concerns for working equids.
Brooke’s Head of the International Centre of Excellence for Animal Health, Dr Laura Skippen, gave a presentation on behalf of ICWE at the event which discussed using human behaviour change to bring about sustainable improvements in working equid health and welfare.
Brooke’s evidence based approach is leading to owners and communities making changes to improve their animal's lives, in the long term. This is as relevant for animals in the UK as it is overseas and we're very grateful to BEVA for the opportunity to highlight this approach.
The BEVA conference took place at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Birmingham from 14-16 September.