20 Jun 2017
A husband and wife team who formed a zoo consultancy business have hosted their first successful CPD event.
Holly Kernot
Job Title
Preventive health was one of the range of subjects covered by the CPD event.
A husband and wife team who formed a zoo consultancy business have hosted their first successful CPD event.
Zoo vet Sarah Chapman and husband Julian, a former zookeeper, pooled their knowledge and launched Chapman Zoo Consultancy in January to offer specialist services to smaller zoological collections, in addition to CPD for vets and VNs.
The inaugural two-day CPD event, entitled “Modern zoo animal health management”, took place at the Best Western Appleby Park Hotel near Tamworth, and saw 11 vets and 1 RVN attend.
All aspects of a vet’s role within a zoo were covered by the course, which focused heavily on the importance of preventive health practices, legislation regarding premises with a zoo licence and vet responsibilities.
An initial presentation outlined the role of the modern zoo and how vets are integral in promoting welfare, followed by a series of lectures covering environmental enrichment and clinical care, all illustrated with case studies.
Other topics included animal transfers, pathology and infectious disease control, while the ethical review process was also covered with simple strategies outlined for clinical and pathology auditing.
A later discussion covered emergency procedures with a scenario-based workshop where delegates worked through how they would approach specific problems. The course ended by discussing the role of vets in research, PR, media and zoo design.
