Victorian Division President's Report - February 2025

Can you believe it’s the end of February already – the year is getting away from me! Of course, it also means that another academic year is about to begin with O-week for vet students happening around the country. I was honoured to present to the incoming University of Melbourne DVM students this week to welcome them to the profession and let them know what the AVA has to offer them now, as students, and for the future. Always a joy to see the faces of the future of our profession from the beginning of their journey and encourage them to join the association that is the voice of the profession. And great to chat with the Vet Students’ Society of Victoria (VSSV) president Luke Tavener about the challenges facing students and the advocacy opportunities for the VSSV. I was also pleased to pass on a few anecdotes about O-week back 30+ years ago – good to know the barn dance is still a fixture!

A shout out to University of Melbourne Associate Professor Laura Dooley, one of our Victorian Division executive committee members who has received an award for outstanding contributions to student learning at the Australian Awards for University teaching – congratulations Laura!

The Victorian Division Executive Committee held our first meeting of the year last week, with a new face on board: Goerge Bath. George is a new Senior Advocacy Officer for the AVA, providing support for the Victorian Division among his other roles. Having been with AVA since late January he has hit the ground running with calls for feedback on the Victorian Biosecurity Strategy and the AVA’s submission lodged at the end of the week – thank-you to everyone who contributed and George for collating the feedback and drafting the submission.

We have also met with RSPCA staff regarding the Victorian Cat Management Strategy and, in particular, a Cat Containment Campaign the RSPCA will be launching later in the year. We are working with the ASAV to collaborate with the RSPCA on how vets can be involved in promoting the benefits of cat containment to clients to add the trusted voice of the veterinary profession to the campaign. There may be the opportunity for feedback forums with interested vets moving forward – we will keep you posted.

We were pleased to have Becky Dickinson attend our meeting to talk about the Victorian Livestock Veterinary Scholarship which is in its inaugural year. It was great to hear about the 8 candidates in the program, how they were selected and the funding process via the Cattle Compensation Fund.  It is a funding model that could be used for other projects, and that the AVA is exploring in conjunction with University of Melbourne for a production animal Practitioner-in-Residence program.

With the change in newsletter communication to a weekly almanac in combination with AVA National, you won’t see messaging from me on a weekly basis, but I will post information to keep you informed on the activities of the Victorian Division as relevant material comes to light.

In the mean time, take care and keep on vetting.

^{University of Melbourne O-week for the incoming DVM students}

Dr Cathy Deague