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BEVA celebrates vet talent with 2024 awards
Phillippa Pritchard received the 2024 Nurse Empowerment Award.
Roger Smith and Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell presented the awards ceremony.

The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) has honoured achievements in the equine veterinary sector at an awards ceremony during its 2024 congress.

The ceremony saw BEVA president Roger Smith present the accolades alongside Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell, who also gave the congress’ opening address.

This year’s BEVA Equine Welfare Award, sponsored by the Blue Cross, was awarded to Jan Rogers. The prestigious award recognised her work at the Horse Trust, where she champions funded research work that is directly applicable to the wellbeing of horses.

In 2022, this saw the launch of the Horse Trust’s Weigh to Win project. The project aims to raise awareness of body condition in show horses by educating horse owners and rewarding healthy equine body condition with a special rosette.

The Horse Trust runs events throughout showing season, providing guidance to owners, riders and producers at the events and through online webinars.

BEVA’s Nurse Empowerment Award was first awarded last year and is designed to highlight team members who champion the role of equine nurses.

The winner of the 2024 Nurse Empowerment Award is Phillippa Pritchard. With over 20 years experience promoting clinical excellence among equine veterinary nurses, Ms Pritchard continues to support nursing teams, supervise trainees and teach within the equine hospital.

Her recent research, published in Vet Record, explored horse owners’ perceptions of registered veterinary nurses (RVNs). It is credited with driving significant change for RVNs, including the introduction of unaccompanied RVN visits.

The BEVA Richard Hartley Clinical Award recognised the work of Francesco Comino, for research exploring tension relieving techniques when closing traumatic equine wounds.

The Peter Rossdale Equine Veterinary Journal Open Award highlighted research produced by Brooke Boger. Meanwhile the new Peter Rossdale EVE Literary Award went to Camilla Lydiksen, who led research analysing the effect antibiotics had on dental sinusitis after a dental extraction.

BEVA will continue assessing clinical research entries for the Sam Hignett Award through a series of Clinical Research Sessions. The winner of the award will be announced after BEVA Congress.

Image © BEVA

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Applications open for MMI research grants

News Story 1
 RCVS' Mind Matters Initiative (MMI) has launched round two of its veterinary mental health research grants.

Researchers have until 11.59pm on Wednesday, 28 May 2025 to apply for a grant for research which reflects MMI's 2025 focus areas.

Only one Impact Grant was awarded last year, and so this year there are two Discovery Grants and one Impact Grants available. Each Discovery Grant is worth £5,000 and the Impact Grant is worth £15,000.

For more information or to apply, email researchgrants@rcvs.org.uk to contact the MMI team.

 

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News Shorts
Wales licenses Bluetongue vaccines for voluntary use

The Welsh government has approved three Bluetongue vaccines for emergency use in Wales.

From 1 March an online general licence will become available for the vaccines' use. They will then be obtainable on prescription and can be sold by veterinary practices.

After appropriate guidance, livestock keepers will be permitted to administer the vaccines themselves. The vaccines must be prescribed by a veterinary surgeon and detailed vaccination records must be kept for five years.

The decision comes as Bluetongue virus (BTV-3) continues to spread across England. The three vaccines are already licensed for use in England.

Richard Irvine, CVO for Wales, said: "This decision to licence these vaccines was informed by our recent risk assessment indicating that Wales is now at high risk of experiencing an incursion of Bluetongue this year.

"Our primary aim is to keep Bluetongue out of Wales through biosecurity, vigilance and safe sourcing of livestock."