Posted on October 20th, 2016%
The Australian Veterinary Association has announced that its practice management special interest group, AVAPM, will be joining forces with the Australian Veterinary Business Association (AVBA) from 1 January 2017.
Amalgamation will create the Veterinary Business Group, a new body which will become part of the AVA, and will provide support to veterinary practice managers.
“This move is an . . . → Read More: Veterinary business groups to merge
Posted on October 18th, 2016%
Research by an international team of scientists, published at the end of August in the journal Nature Communications, shows two regions in the genomes of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) appear to be evolving in response to the fatal facial tumour disease that has ravaged populations in the wild for almost 20 years.
Evolutionary geneticist Andrew Storfer from Washington State University, and geneticist Paul Hohenlohe from the University of Idaho, compared tissue samples collected from Tasmanian devils by Menna Jones over a 17-year period. An Associate Professor and wildlife ecologist at the University of Tasmania, Jones is credited with first identifying DFTD during the mid-1990s, and she subsequently established long-term field sites to study the animals. In less than 20 years populations of devils in the wild have declined by more than 80 per cent.
Jones, who is a co-author of the paper, said two small genomic regions were identified in the recently collected DNA samples from three sites: Narawntapu in Tasmania’s north-east, West Pencil Pine in western Tasmania’s Cradle Valley, and Freycinet, on the east coast. They all exhibited significant changes in response to the strong selection imposed by the disease. Continue reading Signs shown of genetic resistance to DFTD
Posted on October 13th, 2016%
Adelaide Zoo has thrown a birthday party for the ninth birthday party of Fu Ni the giant panda.
The event was the female panda’s fifth birthday in Australia since arriving at Adelaide Zoo in 2009, and she was given a number of stimulating, panda-friendly treats.
Fu Ni and her counterpart male, Wang Wang, are part of an international . . . → Read More: It’s a panda party for Fu Ni
Posted on August 5th, 2016%
 The Federal Government removed a whistleblower vet from her duties following the presentation of evidence of cruelty on Australian live export ships.
The ABC’s 7.30 obtained evidence which they claim demonstrates that Lynn Simpson was dumped by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources after she made a highly critical report in 2012.
Simpson’s report included pictures of animals suffocating in overcrowded conditions, drowning in faeces and being forced to stand on hard surfaces for weeks on end.
The report was apparently intended to be an internal document, but it was accidentally published on the department’s website.
Simpson was relieved of her duties within weeks of publication, and claims her evidence was soon sanitised.
The then first assistant secretary of the department’s Animal Division, Karen Schneider, contacted Simpson in a letter obtained by the ABC and conceded she was removed from her role because of industry concerns.
“This is because the industry with which we engage has expressed the view they cannot work with you,” Schneider wrote. Continue reading Government removed whistleblower following export industry concerns
Posted on August 1st, 2016%
 New South Wales became the first Australian state committing to shut down greyhound racing after a Special Commission found overwhelming evidence of systemic animal cruelty.
The Special Commission of Inquiry into the Greyhound Racing Industry of New South Wales, led by the Honourable Michael McHugh AC QC, found that the rate of “wastage” of uncompetitive dogs was 50-70 per cent (between 48,891 and 68,448 dogs over a 12 year period). The Inquiry found evidence that 10 to 20 per cent of trainers engaged in the practice of live baiting.
Despite previous efforts to clean up the industry, deaths and injuries went unreported to Greyhound Racing New South Wales. The report found that “many trainers appear to prefer cheap and sometimes painful methods of treating greyhound injuries instead of using the services of qualified veterinary surgeons.”
On the subject of live baiting, the reported concluded that “there is a very real risk that, once the harsh spotlight of this Commission is removed from the industry, the practice of live baiting will thrive once more.” Continue reading NSW Government bans greyhound racing
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