Boosting veterinary medicine services in China

Description

Yuchi Chen, a first year PhD student at the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences and the Graham Centre, completed an intensive lecture trip under the CSU banner in seven cities in China in May this year. He was invited by Zoetis China, one of the biggest international veterinary pharmaceutical companies, to deliver seven full-day educational lectures and wet labs on Clinical Pathology (Haematology and Cytology) to veterinarians, in seven cities (Shenzhen, Xiamen, Qingdao, Changchun, Tianjin, Xi’an and Chengdu) within eight days. A total of 445 participants attended his lectures. In China, the need for proper veterinary medicine services has increased tremendously in the last 10 years, along with the demand for good continuing education to veterinary clinicians themselves. Yuchi has worked in China as a veterinarian consultant and lecturer for the last six years before joining CSU, and has built a reputation as an expert in clinical pathology among his Chinese colleagues. The professional material and topics presented were not only based on his previous work, but also involved knowledge and experiences he has gained at CSU. After his intensive lecture trip in China, Yuchi attended the 8th World Congress of Veterinary Dermatology (WCVD8) (http://www.vetdermbordeaux.com), held 31 May - 4 June in Bordeaux, France. WCVD is held every four years in different cities around the world and is the biggest International Veterinary Dermatology conference. This year 2,250 veterinarians from over 70 countries attended. Yuchi was granted two scholarships to attend this congress; the first was the World Association for Veterinary Dermatology (WAVD)-WCVD8 scholarship (30 successful applicants in total), that gave him a free congress registration and financial aid to cover flight and accommodation costs, while the second scholarship,  International Society of Veterinary Dermatopathology (ISVD) scholarship, (only two successful applicants among 30 WAVD-WCVD8 scholarship recipients),  gave him a free registration to a special ISVD lecture day (1 June) during the congress. Yuchi’s PhD project is on photosensitisation related to plant toxicity in livestock, which is highly related to dermatology and dermatopathology. Attending this conference has been of tremendous benefit to his research as well as extending and maintaining social research networking opportunities that may benefit his research work in the future.