Islandmagee man takes reins at veterinary surgeons’ association

Paul Crawford, a former Carrickfergus Grammar School pupil and a Royal Veterinary College graduate, received the chain of office from Phil Walsh at the association’s AGM.

After thanking Phil for all his hard work in the previous year as well as that of the rest of the council, Paul outlined some priority areas for the incoming year as well as the excellent range of events in planning.

He stated: “There will be a need to continue to try and inject fresh energy and impetus into the drive to eradicate bovine TB.

“Antimicrobial use patterns are changing and for the positive over the past year but there are areas where further work can still be done to improve the control of supply of, and the need for, antimicrobials by all classes of animal keepers.

“A new area for focus this year will be on sheep scab which is getting out of control in Northern Ireland and with reports of resistance emerging on the mainland to some of the commonly used treatments a new strategic approach is needed.

“A meeting will be arranged shortly for the key stakeholders to get together to discuss the issue and to hear of work in other parts of the UK to bring control to this devastating parasite.”

Paul went on to note that an extensive range of CPD (Continuing Professional Development) events are planned for the incoming year with hotel conferences in the La Mon, Belfast, 2-4 May and Slieve Russell, Co Cavan, 27-29 September as well as a dairy themed summer meeting and an autumn meeting with a cardiology theme. Full details of all events will be on the VetNI website:www.vetni.co.uk