Over 450 animals rescued in major operation

Assessment reveals ‘high’ likelihood infected dogs will enter country.

The UK government has released a qualitative risk assessment of the likelihood of Brucella canis (B. canis) entering Great Britain.

Its analysis examined how the global movement of dogs could lead to dogs and foxes in the country becoming infected with brucellosis.

The risk assessment concluded that there was high annual likelihood of at least one infected dog entering Great Britain from many other countries. However this likelihood varied depending on the country of origin.

For example the likelihood of an infected dog travelling in from New Zealand and Australia, either by commercial route or on a short visit, was deemed to be very low.

From all other countries, however, the risk of an infected dog entering Great Britain through a commercial route was considered high. Similarly, the government assessed that all countries outside of Western Europe, except New Zealand and Australia, had a medium risk of allowing an infected dog to travel to Great Britain for a short visit.

Where B. canis did enter Great Britain, the government believes the likelihood of further cases to be high for breeding animals and low for all other dogs. However, the transmission risk to a naive dog in Great Britain was assessed to be high if they are the offspring of an infected dog, and medium for the breeding mates of an infected dog.

The government says that there remains a high degree of uncertainty throughout the risk assessment due to a lack of reliable data.

Evidence gaps included limited understanding of B. canis prevalence in other individual countries, infected dogs’ country of origin, and the frequency of which native dogs would mate with infected dogs. There was also uncertainty about transmission between wildlife and domestic dogs.

The full risk assessment can be viewed here.

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“More balanced regulation is desperately needed” - Redwings.

National horse sanctuary Redwings has launched a petition calling for the Government to reduce the maximum permitted noise level of fireworks from 120 to 90 decibels.

It follows the publication of a report into the findings of the charity’s Fireworks and Horses online survey, which attracted some 5,128 complete responses from people across the UK during five weeks in December 2024 and January 2025.

Helen Whitelegg, Redwings' campaigns and policy manager, said: “Research, including our own survey of over 5,000 UK horse owners, supports our belief that reducing the permitted noise levels for fireworks could help to achieve that balance.  

“The sound of fireworks, more than the light, is believed to be the main issue for horses, which is perhaps no surprise as animals have more sensitive hearing than people and research suggests that horses’ ears amplify sounds by around 10-20 decibels.”

The survey formed part of Redwings’ Keep Horses in Mind campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the danger posed to horses and other equines by fireworks and gather information to limit it.

Redwings also held a roundtable discussion earlier this year exploring the viability of the Animal Welfare Act as a means of holding individuals to account in cases where fireworks are believed to have inadvertently led to the injury or death of an animal.

Helen said: “We know there is widespread support for calls to tighten fireworks regulations and we hope [the petition] is a positive way for people to make their voice heard and appeal to policymakers.

"Redwings is not alone in having lost much-loved horses to fireworks and the current lack of regulation also has far wider impacts, from pets, livestock and wildlife to people living with PTSD or sensory issues like autism. We fully appreciate that many people enjoy fireworks, but more balanced regulation is desperately needed.”

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The awards recognise vet practices across three categories.

The Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) has opened nominations for this year’s Veterinary Business Excellence Awards.

Veterinary practices are invited to nominate themselves in one of three categories: Leadership & Management Skills, Team & Self Development, and Veterinary start ups.

The ‘Leadership & Management Skills’ category celebrates practices with visionary leadership, strategic planning, and resource management. Practices must be able to demonstrate how leadership skills have led to innovative development.

The ‘Team & Self Development’ category will recognise a practice with a strong and supportive culture. The winning practice will showcase excellent morale, collaborative team-working and effective communication.

Finally, for practices which started in the last 2.5 years, there is the ‘Veterinary start ups’ category. 

There are three key criteria for a winning start up: understanding of business finance, positive workplace culture and a demonstrably high level of care.

Practices can nominate themselves via an online form, but can only submit an application in one category. Their nomination should explain why they meet the winning criteria for their category, and should share how SPVS has supported their practice to grow.

Nominations will close at 5pm on 17th October 2025.

The SPVS Board will review submissions and select the top five nominated veterinary practices in each category. Each of these practices will be awarded a book of their choice from 5M Books.

The five nominated practices in each category will then be asked to submit a 90 second video that showcases their accomplishments. A panel of veterinary influencers, as well as the SPVS president and junior vice president, will evaluate the final submissions and vote for a winner in each category.

The category winners will be announced at the end of December 2025, with the overall winner revealed at the SPVS Congress opening ceremony in February 2026.

Last year’s overall winner was The Manchester Cat Clinic, which was also the winner of the ‘Veterinary start ups’ category.

Daniel Lee, director and veterinary surgeon of Manchester Cat Clinic, said: “We entered SPVS Business Excellence Awards to celebrate our team’s hard work and our unique approach to feline care.

“The process gave us fresh insights into our business, encouraged reflection on our growth and connected us with like-minded practices striving for excellence.”

Nominations can be submitted on the SPVS website.

Image used with permission from SPVS.

Copyright (C) J Duckworth

Report reveals incidents are being systemically overlooked. 

Urgent action is required to address wildlife crime and ensure incidents are taken seriously, according to a new report.

The report, published by the Naturewatch Foundation, draws on Freedom of Information responses from 33 police forces and a detailed survey of 128 frontline officers and call handlers. 

It reveals that over 4,400 incidents were recorded between August 2023 and October 2024. However, experts believe the actual number is far higher — and that poor and inconsistent recording practices make it impossible to determine the true scale.

Furthermore, it found that 78 per cent of recorded cases resulted in ‘No Further Action’, and only 16 per cent of wildlife officers surveyed had experience with wildlife or animal welfare prosecutions.

Jim Clark, wildlife crime campaign manager at Naturewatch Foundation, said: “The report highlights a disturbing pattern: wildlife crime is consistently treated as a low priority, despite the significant impact it has on biodiversity, public safety, and the rule of law. Inconsistent crime recording also means we still do not know the true scale of the problem, and if we cannot count it, we cannot combat it.” 

“This lack of urgency not only enables wildlife crime to persist unchecked but also signals to offenders that these crimes carry little consequence.” 

The report also found that 90 per cent of respondents wanted more face-to-face training, and 81 per cent believe wildlife crime should be made notifiable. A total of 87 per cent of respondents said they do not believe wildlife crime is dealt with robustly by the courts. 

In light of the findings, Naturewatch is calling for urgent reform to make wildlife crime notifiable, allowing for consistent national data collection, better trend monitoring, and stronger enforcement.

It also wants a commitment from DEFRA to review and strengthen wildlife protection legislation and the establishment of a mandatory wildlife recording framework.

Jim continued: “If we are serious about tackling the biodiversity crisis and building a society that respects all life, wildlife crime must be taken seriously at every level of policing and government.”

Image (C) Shutterstock.

It has been published ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections.

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has launched its new Welsh manifesto, in which it calls for political parties to prioritise animal welfare and strengthen the veterinary workforce.

The document, released ahead of the Senedd elections in May 2026, calls for support for Wales' forthcoming Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS).

BVA suggests Senedd candidates commit to funding for the SFS, which will incentivise better health and welfare outcomes for livestock. The scheme is designed to ensure farmers are supported to give their livestock a good life.

In the manifesto, the organisation recommends that the scheme is supported by strong veterinary involvement, which it believes will ensure the scheme brings the most benefit to Welsh livestock.

It is also urging a new Welsh government to tackle veterinary workforce issues which are affecting rural areas. BVA suggests that veterinary professionals are made central to the delivery of animal health and welfare policies, which could lead to more job opportunities for private and government veterinary professionals.

Among the other requests made by the BVA manifesto is increased oversight of animal licensing activities. It states that the current Welsh government's work on an outcome-focussed licensing regime should be developed further.

It calls for an evidence-formed approach to disease control, with the compulsory Bovine Viral Diarrhoea eradication scheme fully implemented by July 2026. The government is also asked to expand schemes that use a collaborative approach to eradicating sheep scab in Wales.

Similarly, BVA suggests a collaborative approach to tackling bovine TB – including enhanced data sharing among government and private veterinary professionals as well as incentives for good biosecurity practices.

Finally, the Welsh government is encouraged to continue its support for the Arwain Vet Cymru programme, furthering its work to reduce parasiticide use in both companion and farm animals.

Phoebe McCarter, BVA Welsh Branch president, said: “Vets play a vital role in keeping pets healthy, protecting both animals and the public from disease, and ensuring high standards across the food supply chain.

“Our manifesto highlights the key animal welfare and workforce issues that matter most to our members across the Welsh veterinary community and calls for cross-party commitments to take meaningful action”

Veterinary professionals are asked to read the manifesto, share it with their network and speak with their local member of Senedd. 

The full manifesto can be read here.

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The model analyses CT scans to identify disease. 

Researchers have developed an AI model using CT scans that could help vets manage their caseloads.

The study by the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The Roslin Institute, and the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics trained around 500 images of dogs’ middle ears — far fewer than the several thousands that would typically be required for AI studies.

Interestingly, the AI model was able to correctly diagnose disease in 85 per cent of the cases, which experts say is a strong outcome for a relatively small sample size — and could be improved if additional images were annotated.

Dr Chris Banks, from the Roslin Institute at the University, commented: “Our study showed that deep learning computer models can be trained to determine whether or not disease is present in a veterinary CT image. Even training our model on a relatively small number of images had encouraging results. 

“This outcome is a call to arms to gather resources to enable models of this type, for various veterinary conditions.”

Researchers believe the application of AI underscores its potential to aid in veterinary diagnosis. It is already used in human medicine and could potentially help vets diagnose conditions that are hard to detect by eye, saving both time and money.

Looking ahead, a bank of medical images annotated by vets would be required to train the algorithms, which are readily available at vet schools and hospitals. The AI model could then be applied across a range of conditions. 

Dr Tobias Schwarz, from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, said: “This is a great example of how AI can be put to use to help veterinarians, rather than replace them.”

Image (C) Shutterstock.