AVMA Virtual Convention Offers Latest in Veterinary Issues

AVMA Virtual Convention Offers Latest in Veterinary Issues



The AVMA Conference August 20-22 features pet and Veterinary trends among which will be COVID and cannabis and its effect on pets; use in medicine; etc. AVMA tips and info on these topics can be found HERE. Speakers include current and future AVMA Presidents Dr. John Howe (COVID) and Dr. Douglas Kratt (Cannabis). Note that the ASPCA reports an over 700% increase in hotline calls due to the ingestion of edibles in pets.



Also among the speakers is Dr. Tracey McNamara, DVM, DACVP, who helped identify West Nile Virus when she worked at the Bronx Zoo and is now sounding the alarm on the need for more biosurveillance to detect impending disease outbreaks in animals before they spill over to humans.



While we're monitoring for COVID in both domestic animals and humans, wildlife has gone unmonitored. There are outbreaks of West Nile in these animals that is becoming more of an issue and can spread to humans. There is very little research on this--and this could possibly be the cause of the next pandemic and a threat to many species. In spite of repeated wake up calls, dogs, cats, shelter animals, zoos and local wildlife, all species that can and have given early warning of emerging public health threats, continue to be left out of any formal surveillance in the United States.



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