Huvepharma held its third veterinary congress, which has already become a tradition to be organized every two years, in Golden Sands resort (near Varna), Bulgaria from the 8th to the 10th of June 2015. The congress focused on Swine and Ruminants, bringing together more than 250 veterinary practitioners from all over Europe.
Professor Silley (University of Bradford, UK) took the floor as the first keynote speaker. Professor Silley highlighted the three pillars of AST: quality control, test method and interpretive criteria. The first two pillars should be guaranteed by the labs, whilst the veterinary practitioner is the right person to interpret the results.
Professor Milanova (Trakia University, Bulgaria) gave a practical overview of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics: where antimicrobials concentrate, how they work and how they should be used.
Professor Marcelo Gottschalk (University of Montreal, Canada) focused on the pathogens Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Streptococcus suis - “two old diseases but still a lot is unknown about the infections”.
Dr. Marco Lasagna (Veterinary manager, Martini group, Italy) brought many years of practical experience to the stage with his presentation: How to Bring Biosecurity into Practice: “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”.
Professor De Backer (University Ghent, Belgium) spoke about the use of florfenicol. The molecule is well appreciated by practitioners because of its activity against the following pathogens: Streptococcus suis, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, Hemophilus parasuis, Pasteurella spp.: “Not being used in human medicine is safeguarding florfencicol’s use in animal health”.
Dr. Alain Kanora (Global Marketing Director) proved that worms are still a live question in modern pig production – massive secretion of very resistant eggs.
Prof. Emile Bouchard (Montreal University), Ruminants Session presented the topic of Health management in dairy herds, introducing herd health expertise in different areas: Reproduction, Nutritional disorders, Infection diseases, Replacement heifers.
Prof. Arwid Daugschies (Leipzig University) continued with “The importance of protozoal diseases in ruminants”, followed by Prof. Frederic Rollin (University of Liege, Belgium) – “Clinical evaluation of calves with neonatal diarrhea”. Identifying the etiological agent of diarrhoea was the topic of Dr Philippe Hivorel (Bio-X, Belgium). Huve-Check® calf scours 4 is a good method to discriminate on faeces samples between Rota, Corona, E. coli and Cryptosporidiosis, the 4 main diarrhoea causing pathogens in calves.
Keith Cutler (UK, Endell Veterinary Group) speaking on ‘Experience with Cryptosporidosis in Cattle Practice” concluded that in their Calf scour project results appeared better in the Paromomycin treated group.
Last but not least Dr. Wouter Depondt and Dr. Lieven Claerhout in the two species session, respectively ruminants and swine, elaborated on the properties and practical use of two new Huvepharma products – Parafor® and Pigfen®.
The congress ended with an option for a visit and tour at Huvepharma production site of Razgrad.