Abstract

GLIMPSES OF WORLD VETERINARY DAY

Dr. Sindhu K.*

ABSTRACT

World Veterinary Day was instigated by the World Veterinary association (WVA) in 2000 to be celebrated annually on the last Saturday of April every year. In 2008 the WVA and the World Organization for animal Health (OIE) agreed on the creation of the World Veterinary Day award aimed at rewarding the most successful celebration of the Veterinary Profession by national veterinary associations, alone, or in cooperation with any other selected veterinary body on the selected annual theme (WVA news). The World Veterinary Association (WVA) represents the veterinary profession at the global level. While there are many national, regional and specialist veterinary associations and organizations, there is only one true global representative of the whole veterinary profession. The WVA was founded in 1863 by Professor John Gamgee of the Veterinary College of Edinburgh and restructured in 1959. In 1906, world veterinary congress formed the permanent committee. Later in 1953, members of 15th world veterinary congress, Stockholm, Sweden created international organization. This permanent committee worked to develop the constitution of the WVA. This was presented at the 16th Congress in 1959, held in Madrid, Spain, and the WVA was founded. After much consultation with member nations, its organization was restructured in 1996 with a vision for betterment and adopted new constitutional policy via General assembly in 1997. Instead of an executive committee made up of seven regional vice-presidents, its main bodies now are the President‘s Assembly, the council, and the Executive committee (Erin Asch, 2016). Its Secretariat is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, but its Council members and member associations come from around the world. The WVA speaks and develops policies on behalf of veterinarians throughout the world. It has collaboration agreements with international organizations such as the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the International Federation of Animal Health. The views of the WVA are formed following consultation with its members and expert organizations. Today the WVA represents over 500,000 veterinarians through our 85 member associations across six continents (Edwards et al., 2005).

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