Your data on MRCVSonline
The nature of the services provided by Vision Media means that we might obtain certain information about you.
Please read our Data Protection and Privacy Policy for details.

In addition, (with your consent) some parts of our website may store a 'cookie' in your browser for the purposes of
functionality or performance monitoring.
Click here to manage your settings.
If you would like to forward this story on to a friend, simply fill in the form below and click send.

Your friend's email:
Your email:
Your name:
 
 
Send Cancel

BEVA Awards take place at Congress
Recipients were able to celebrate in-person this year, as BEVA Congress returned to its face-to-face format.

The live awards ceremony celebrated excellence in the profession. 

On Monday 6 September, the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) held a live awards ceremony at the BEVA Congress event.

Three veterinary professionals were honoured with awards at a ceremony in the main auditorium of the event, for brilliance within the equine veterinary profession.

The awards were as follows;

The BEVA Equine Welfare Award, sponsored by the Blue Cross

This award was presented to Lode E A De Smet MRCVS for his dedication to improving equine welfare. Lode has been a partner at Llanelli's Gibson and Jones veterinary surgeons for 20 years, and takes on the RSPCA equine welfare work in South Wales. 

Having dealt with over 500 cases, Lode not only cares for each one, but also willingly takes them home to provide further rehabilitation if they are unfit to travel. 

Lode's colleagues have said that his case work is often long, hard, cold and stressful, but he never complains, and consider him an incredibly deserving recipient of the award. 

The BEVA Richard Hartley Clinical Award
Gemma Pearson was awarded the BEVA Richard Hartley Clinical Award for the paper 'Difficult horses - prevalence, approaches to management of and understanding of how they develop by equine veterinarians', first published in EVE in July 2020.

The Peter Rossdale Equine Veterinary Journal (ECJ) Open Award
This award was presented to Amie Wilson for the paper 'Equine influenza vaccination in the UK: Current practices may leave horses with suboptimal immunity', first published in EVJ in October 2020. 

Sam Hignett Award

All Clinical Research presentations from general equine practice are considered eligible for the Sam Hignett Award. Throughout the Clinical Research Sessions at Congress, there will be a continuous assessment process to decide the winner of this award, who will be announced after Congress on the BEVA website and newsletter. 

More information on the BEVA awards can be accessed here. 

 

Become a member or log in to add this story to your CPD history

Annual submission deadline small pet animal exemptions

News Story 1
 Companies marketing medicines for small pets exempt from authorisation must submit their annual return to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) by 30 November 2026.

Submitting this annual return ensures continued compliance with regulatory requirements for products marketed without a full Marketing Authorisation. The exemption specifically applies to products intended for animals, cage birds, terrarium animals, small rodents, ferrets and rabbits.

For further details and submission guidelines, visit the gov.uk website.  

Click here for more...
News Shorts
Bluetongue RZ extended across Scotland

The Scottish Government has announced an extension to a Bluetongue Restricted Zone that is in place in south-west Scotland.

From 3 October, the Restricted Zone will be extended to cover the whole of Scotland. The Animal, Plant and Health Agency (APHA) says this is in response to further disease spread, as well as simplify trading conditions ahead of the autumn.

Since the whole country will share a disease status, it will no longer be necessary to have a movement license to move susceptible livestock around the country. Restrictions on germinal products remain.

As of 1 October 2026, there were 1,979 cases of BTV-3 in England, 389 cases in Wales and 40 cases in Scotland.