We just start a brand new year, and I really hope 2013 will bring every member of our PRO community lots of good experiences in their day-to-day feline and canine activities! The holidays are now over and, as you can see, our technical service is back on line: so keep an eye on the website, as announced at the end of last month, many new features will soon appear !
Since it is the beginning of the year, let’s start on a positive note then, illustrating how professionals and veterinarians can work together in order to optimize their breeding activities! A colleague of mine recently sent me the proceedings of the AFVAC’s breeders day. I guess at this point everybody wonders what AFVAC means. It stands for Association Française des Vétérinaires pour Animaux de Compagnie (Yes, I know, it’s written in French, but Canada is a bilingual country, isn’t it?). AFVAC is the French Association regrouping Veterinarians dealing with Companion Animals, located in Paris.
Every year, they organise a full day of lectures, dedicated to feline and canine breeders. To help you picture it: there are two rooms (one for feline breeders, one for the canine breeders) regrouping 50-80 breeders in each. This is going on for years now, first time I attended was in 2004 (I even gave some lectures!), and I can tell you this is a great place where breeders can discuss with involved veterinarians about everything concerning their daily activity.
Just to give you an overview of the topics that were discussed this year:
– In dogs: hip dysplasia, consequences of inbreeding, the reproductive career, how to prepare the maternity…
– In cats: new techniques to control the reproductive cycle, hereditary diseases, ocular defects and genetic tests in feline breeding…
DR. EMMANUEL FONTAINE 