The 11th Equine Colic Research Symposium, held July 7-10, 2014 in Dublin, Ireland, presented a unique opportunity for equine vets to absorb and digest the latest knowledge, clinical practice and scientific advances in the treatment and prevention of colic, from the world’s leading international equine gastroenterology experts.
The triennial event, which has been running for 30 years, is hosted alternately by the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) and the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP). This year it was BEVA’s turn to organize the two-and-a-half day symposium, which was held at Trinity College Dublin.
The meeting comprised 15-minute oral presentations, covering diagnostics, epidemiology, microbiome and physiology, surgical techniques and post-operative management.
Richard Hepburn, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Specialist in Equine Medicine, delivered a plenary lecture on equine gastric ulceration: “After 30 years of gastroscopy what are we really seeing?”.
Over 50 oral presentations and 70 poster presentations delivered the most up-to-date view of equine colic management and clinically-relevant research.
Chris Proudman, RCVS Specialist in Equine Gastroenterology, who chaired the organizing committee, said: ” This is the Olympics of equine colic research. The leading practitioners and researchers from around the world will be present at the meeting to share their ideas and to discuss future challenges.”
One presentation of particular interest came from the University of Liverpool, as data from a research project evaluating horse owner response to colic situations was reported. “Could It Be Colic? Horse-Owner Decision Making and Practices in Response to Equine Colic” by Claire Scantlebury and her team of co-authors compiled responses from 673 horseowners in northwest England.
The horseowners’ responses were based on deciding factors that are familiar to US horseowners as well: the age of the horse and the cost of the surgery were factors, as well as questionable insurance coverage if the horse had a previous history of colic.
To begin to “digest” the research, study or download the conference program at this link:
In what will hopefully become a trend with more conferences, Biomed Central’s BMC Veterinary Research published ten papers (eight research and two methodology) from the conference in open access format and has made them available on the Internet.
