Bayer Animal Health acted as a platinum level sponsor for the 2017 World Feline Congress. This congress was held June 28-July 2, 2017 in Brighton, United Kingdom, to support continuing professional development for veterinarians and animal nurses from around the world. The two key themes of the 2017 congress were feline endocrinology and cardiorespiratory disease.
The World Feline Congress is an annual event for the International Society of Feline Medicine, or ISFM. Bayer Animal Health partners with ISFM to provide resources and information for veterinarians worldwide for the cat.
“The demands placed on animal health and veterinary care are rising,” says Ronan Fitzgerald, Global Veterinary Scientific Affairs at Bayer Animal Health. “Therefore Bayer Animal Health is proud to sponsor the 2017 World Feline Congress in order to support animal healthcare providers with access to the latest information and techniques.”
Two veterinary experts, invited by Bayer Animal Health, led a symposium covering scientific perspectives and real-world learning on vector-borne diseases in cats for conference attendees.
“It is often suggested that cats are less frequently affected by arthropod-borne infectious diseases than dogs”, explains Fitzgerald. “This has been based on clinical observation and the limited published literature on feline vector-borne infectious diseases.”
Dr. Michael Day, a Professor of Veterinary Pathology at the University of Bristol, addressed the question of whether cats are really less susceptible to vector-borne diseases than dogs. Developing this theme further, Dr. Michael Lappin, a professor of small animal clinical veterinary medicine at Colorado State University and the director of the “Center for Companion Animal Studies”, discussed several vector-borne pathogens, including Bartonella and Hemoplasmas, and warned the audience that cats are indeed capable of either harbouring pathogens or becoming clinically affected.
Ronan Fitzgerald observed that “hosting this Symposium not only enabled two world-class speakers to share their thoughts with a packed lecture hall, but delivered valuable insights into the area of feline vector-borne disease and how we need to challenge previously-held assumptions”.
Companion vector-borne diseases (CVBD) are a growing international public health threat. These diseases are transmitted by blood-feeding ectoparasites, including ticks (Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, and hemoplasmosis), fleas (canine bartonellosis and feline rickettsiosis), and sand flies (leishmaniosis). They are known to veterinarians and public health professionals throughout the world and in some cases have also shown zoonotic consequences.
Bayer supports, professional development, veterinarians, animal nurses
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