Dr Gwenllian Mair Rees was elected president for 2026-2027 at BVA Day.
The new president of the British Veterinary Association (BVA) has called on the profession to be “prepared and united” in tackling national animal disease threats.
Dr Gwenllian Mair Rees was elected president for 2026-2027 at BVA Day in London on Thursday (24 September). In her inaugural address, she highlighted how the rise of specialised veterinary medicine, while beneficial, can create professional silos that hinder responses to animal disease outbreaks.
Dr Rees said: “Veterinary medicine has become increasingly specialised, and there is enormous strength in that expertise. But specialisation can also leave us in silos: farm vets, small animal vets, equine vets, government vets, public health vets, researchers, academics and many more. Some challenges simply don't respect those boundaries. A major animal disease outbreak is one of them.
“If the UK faces the next major notifiable disease emergency, I want us to ask whether we are genuinely ready – not just whether government is ready, or whether our farm veterinary colleagues are ready, but whether we, as a profession, are ready. Do we understand the role we could play? Do we have the right skills and training? Can we mobilise people when they are needed? And can we bring the enormous breadth of expertise across this profession together quickly enough to make a difference?
“That doesn't mean everybody needs to become an expert in foot-and-mouth disease or avian influenza. It means recognising that we are part of something bigger than our own particular job, practice or species. And that idea reaches beyond disease preparedness.”
Under her presidential theme, ‘A profession prepared and united behind national disease resilience,’ Dr Rees aims to highlight the diverse ways the BVA represents its members.
She added: “One of the things I most want to champion this year is the idea of one veterinary profession. BVA represents vets working in extraordinary numbers of different ways – in clinical practice, government, academia, research, industry, public health, conservation and veterinary science. I want every one of our members, whatever they do and wherever they work, to feel that their voice has a place here.
“I am also particularly proud to take on this role as a Welsh vet, living and working from Wales while representing colleagues across all four nations of the UK.
“In Wales we say, Gorau chwarae, cyd chwarae — the best play is team play. And that is perhaps the thought I want to carry into this year. We are a diverse profession, but we are stronger when we act together — greater than the sum of our parts.”
A graduate of the University of Liverpool, Dr Rees worked in farm and equine practice in West Wales and New Zealand before becoming Teaching Fellow in Population Medicine at Bristol Vet School. In 2019, she was awarded a PhD for her research on prescription veterinary medicine use by UK dairy farmers.
She served as BVA’s Welsh Branch President from 2023 to 2025, and is one of the founding academics at Wales’ first School of Veterinary Science at Aberystwyth University, where she now works as a lecturer. Dr Rees is also project lead for Arwain DGC’s Veterinary Prescribing Champions Network, a Welsh Government-funded national antimicrobial stewardship programme, for which she was recognised with an RCVS Fellowship last year.
Dr Rees will be joined by Dr Fieke Molenaar MRCVS, who was elected Junior Vice President, and outgoing President Dr Rob Williams FRCVS, as Senior Vice President.
Image (C) BVA.
Companies marketing medicines for small pets exempt from authorisation must submit their annual return to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) by 30 November 2026.
