25 Sept 2026
Gwen Rees said she wants to champion “one veterinary profession” that can unite in the face of major animal disease outbreaks.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
The BVA senior team for 2026-27 (from left) are Rob Williams, Gwen Rees and Fieke Molenaar.
New BVA president Gwen Rees has urged the profession to be prepared for national animal disease outbreaks as she revealed disease resilience will be a “major focus” of her tenure.
The farm vet succeeded Rob Williams in the hotseat for 2026-27 at BVA Day in London yesterday (24 September), with Dr Williams moving into the role of senior vice-president.
Giving her first speech as president, Dr Rees described taking on the role as an “enormous privilege” and unveiled her presidential theme, “A profession prepared and united behind national disease resilience”.
She noted that while there is “enormous strength” in veterinary medicine becoming increasingly specialised, specialisation can also leave vets in “silos” and challenges such as major animal disease outbreaks do not respect such boundaries.
She said: “If the UK faces the next major notifiable disease emergency, I want us to ask whether we are genuinely ready – not just whether government is ready, or whether our farm veterinary colleagues are ready, but whether we, as a profession, are ready.
“Do we understand the role we could play? Do we have the right skills and training? Can we mobilise people when they are needed? And can we bring the enormous breadth of expertise across this profession together quickly enough to make a difference?
“That doesn’t mean everybody needs to become an expert in foot-and-mouth disease or avian influenza.
“It means recognising that we are part of something bigger than our own particular job, practice or species.”
Dr Rees said she wants to champion the idea of “one veterinary profession” and that all BVA members “feel that their voice has a place here” regardless of which area they work in.
The clinician noted the BVA also has a “significant year ahead” as it helps the profession implement Competition and Markets Authority reforms and continues to advocate for reform of the Veterinary Surgeons Act.
Dr Rees, a lecturer in veterinary science at Aberystwyth University, graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2009.
She served as BVA’s Welsh Branch president from 2023 to 2025 and also sits on the Welsh Government’s Bovine Tuberculosis Technical Advisory and Antimicrobial Resistance in Animal Health Delivery groups.
She has been succeeded as the BVA’s junior vice-president by Fieke Molenaar, past-president of the British Veterinary Zoological Society and RCVS specialist in zoo and wildlife medicine.