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RVC awarded funding to conduct COVID-19 research
A traditional food market in Sacaba, Bolivia.

Project to identify ways of reducing transmission in traditional food markets.

The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has received £749,735 of funding to contribute to the global effort on COVID-19 research.

Awarded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the money will support a collaborative project which seeks to reduce COVID-19 transmission in traditional food markets in Bolivia and Peru.

Javier Guitian, a professor of veterinary public health at the RVC, explains: “Bolivia and Peru have been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The more vulnerable sectors of the society have been affected, not only by the pandemic itself but also by control measures such as school closures, strict lockdowns and collapse of health care services, which disproportionately affected those with fewer resources who largely rely on the informal economy and lack a safety net.”

In the project, researchers will co-design bespoke plans to reduce transmission of the virus in Sacaba, Bolivia and Huancayo, Peru, and will also share their experience and online resources to help facilitate similar efforts in other countries. Contributing researchers comprise the RVC, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and Universidad Mayor de San Simon.

Eloy Gonzales-Gustavson, an assistant professor at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and researcher at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, said: “During the quarantine in Peru, markets were the focus of transmission and the government did not know how to establish response strategies, resulting in one of the highest rates of infection and mortality.

“With this project, we hope to develop new and innovative strategies that would help address another outbreak of COVID-19 as well as future epidemics, and to establish this with the help of the local market sellers and scientists from the UK, Peru and Bolivia.”

Image (C) Christine Leyns.

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RCVS Knowledge appoints Veterinary Evidence editor-in-chief

News Story 1
 RCVS Knowledge has welcomed Professor Peter Cockcroft as editor-in-chief for Veterinary Evidence.

A world-renowned expert in evidence-based veterinary medicine, Prof Cockcroft will lead the strategic development and editorial quality of the open-access journal. He was previously in the role from 2017-2020.

Katie Mantell, CEO of RCVS Knowledge, said: "We are excited about the extensive knowledge of evidence-based veterinary medicine and clinical veterinary research that Peter brings, and we look forward to working with him over this next phase of the journal's development." 

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CVS Group hit by cyber attack

CVS Group, which owns more than 450 veterinary practices in the UK, has been hit by a cyber attack.

In a statement, the group said the incident involved unauthorised external access to a limited number of its IT systems. As soon as the attack was discovered, the group took its IT systems temporarily offline, causing 'considerable operational disruption'.

It has warned that the security steps taken and ongoing plans to move its operational systems and IT infrastructure to the Cloud are likely to have an ongoing impact over a number of weeks.

Due to the risk that personal information was accessed, CVS has informed the Information Commissioner's Office. The company is working with third party consultants to investigate the incident.