Travel Report: Sarah Rosanowski, 2013

The World Equine Veterinary Association (WEVA) held its biennial world congress in Hungary in October 2013. The congress provided an update on the latest issues and research findings in the equine veterinary field including internal medicine, parasitology, reproduction and epidemiology. There were approximately 500 delegates at the conference, split into three presentation sessions for each time slot. Some sessions were of a more practical and applied nature, with a real time ultrasound demonstration being one of the highlights.

I submitted two first authored abstracts to the WEVA selection committee, one of which was accepted for oral presentation and the other was accepted as a poster presentation. Therefore, the purpose of the trip was to enable me to attend the conference and give the oral presentation of the results from the project entitled “The prevalence and risk factors for respiratory illness on New Zealand stud farms” (financial support by NZERF) to a global veterinary audience. I also presented the results of the project “Estimating the prevalence of health problems in New Zealand general horse population” (financial support by NZERF) in a poster format.

Both the oral presentation and the poster presentation were well received by the international audience. I received a few questions during my oral presentation and also questions following my session. Delegates were interested to know about the vaccination regimens followed on New Zealand stud farms, regimens that are quite different to those in Europe and the United States (mainly due to New Zealand’s lack of equine influenza and differences in the importance of equine herpes virus in our horse population).

The conference was an excellent opportunity to present my work to an international audience. As an emerging researcher it also allowed me to meet and have face to face interactions with some of the top equine veterinarians in the world. This time was invaluable and interesting.

One highlight of the trip was the conference dinner, where delegates travelled for 1 hour to attend a Hungarian horse show and then have dinner. One of the performers in the show was the WEG champion driver, and he performed with his carriage pulled by six horses. The performers displayed the traditional horsemanship of Hungary, including one performer driving three horses in front, with two horses behind, while standing on the two horses behind, going at a fast canter, almost a gallop. The skill was incredible (see the image below).

Finally, I wish to thank the NZERF for their financial support for this travel and also for the support for this project. Without the support of the NZERF, this work would not have been conducted, nor would the trip to the WEVA conference been possible.