Not just practitioners
"The role of the practising vet now encompasses not just caring for individual dogs, but also a responsibility to contribute knowledge and evidence at a population level."
Opening the final session of the 'Practical aspects of dog breeding' stream at the BSAVA Congress, Dr Dan O'Neill from the RVC, London, said that the Bateson Report, Independent Inquiry into Dog Breeding, "did not place the veterinary profession in a particularly good light".
He pointed out that some inherited problems in dogs, associated with poor breeding practices, are so prevalent that they have become normalised. "What became normal for breed standards became normal for veterinary surgeons in practice," he said. "Veterinary surgeons have perpetuated problems by fixing them.
"The role of the practising vet now encompasses not just caring for individual dogs, but also a responsibility to contribute knowledge and evidence at a population level. Indeed, primary-care vets are uniquely positioned to provide high quality clinical data based on their day-to-day workload."
In order to facilitate this latter opportunity, the RVC recently launched the VetCompass programme – a data collection project that is really a philosophical approach to welfare. Veterinary professionals can become involved by uploading case data (with the owner's permission) and accessing the whole database in order to make evidence-based decisions.
The records are anonymised, and there are already 470 practices from across the UK taking part; which represents four million animals, including at least two million dogs. The findings from the VetCompass project are published in peer-reviewed journals and, more importantly, via informatics.
The SAVSNET project is run by the University of Liverpool veterinary school and it collates data in real time from veterinary laboratories and vet practices. At the end of every consult, participating vets complete a questionnaire and upload the relevant information. There are currently 58 participating practices and data from over 450,000 consults.
Katy Evans, from the University of Nottingham, described her 'take' on evidence-based medicine as illustrated by the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine which has a team collating research information.
This relies heavily on the BestBETS for Vets website which was described in the Veterinary Record (4 April 2015, 176(14): 354-356). There is also a network of 15 sentinel veterinary practices, shortly to be expanded to 40, and practising vets are encouraged to apply.
The Kennel Club's BioAcquisition Research Collaboration (BARC) projects are promoted via social media and involve requests for DNA or tissue samples and/or participation in surveys.
In the concluding paragraph of the abstract accompanying their presentation, Katy and Dan threw down the gauntlet to the veterinary profession. They stayed, "It behoves all of us to understand these opportunities and to contribute towards the generation of relevant evidence that will shape the future of the profession and also the health and welfare of dogs'.
Birmingham Dogs Home has issued an urgent winter appeal as it faces more challenges over the Christmas period.
