ESVCE News

14th ESVCE ANNUAL CONGRESS: October 2008

Report on the annual combined congress of the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Ethology (ESVCE) and the European College of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine – Companion Animals (ECVBM-CA)

The annual combined congress of the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Ethology (ESVCE) and the European College of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine – Companion Animals (ECVBM-CA) was held in Bellaterra-Barcelona on October 16-17, 2008; the selected topics were “Aggression in companion animals - from physiology to prevention” and “Physiological indicators of behavioural disorders”.

The meeting, which was attended by about 200 delegates, included 18 oral and 15 poster presentations.

On the first day of the meeting, T. de Keuster spoke about the epidemiology and prevention of canine aggression; she emphasised the importance of more research and the role of education in the prevention of dog bites. C. Halsberghe highlighted important issues concerning aggression in the veterinary practice and stressed the importance of keeping up with the latest scientific developments.

In his talk about the ethology of canine aggression, J. Fatjó assessed the differences in classification and understanding of canine aggression between different authors. K. Houpt gave an overview about physiological and biological correlates of aggressive behaviour in companion animals, such as hormonal, neurological, nutritional or genetical factors.

B. Schöning presented results of a study, which indicate that formal and standardised temperament tests can give some information on the probability of biting. The importance of training methods and puppy socialisation classes was examined in a study about the identification of risk factors for aggression towards conspecifics (Richards et al.,). C. Syracusa spoke about the influence of housing systems on fear and aggression of dogs housed in no-kill shelters in Italy, and based on these findings, gave recommendations to promote welfare and adoption of these dogs.

However, as J. Fatjó pointed out, aggression may potentially impair the social bond between two individuals; a study conducted by Cozzi et al., disclosed evidence for reconciliation in dogs.

A study presented by J. Kiddie did not only identify risk factors for owner directed aggression in domestic cats, but showed that the way questions about aggressive behaviour were asked influenced the outcome.

D. Mills transmitted results about the influence of Rabbit Appeasing Pheromone on young rabbits, and E. Walsh spoke about factors, which influence the perception of three breeds of dog in Ireland.

The second day started with a talk given by P. Pageat.   Measurements of the heart rate before, during and after transport showed that horses experience stress also during transports of short duration. A study conducted by Léon et al, examined peripheral 5-HT concentrations in the blood of dogs with different aggressive behaviours.

M. Alnot-Perronin pointed out that anxiety-related behaviours are very common in parrots, and presented evidence that measurements of the Heterophil to Lymphocyte Ratio could be used to assess anxiety in these birds.

R. de Meester spoke about a new test and scoring system capable of differentiating behavioural differences in guide dogs to improve breeding populations of guide dogs. D. Mills related the results of a study, which had examined the visual processing of human faces by dogs.

G. Landsberg added more knowledge on the long-term effect of DAP collars on socialisation of puppies. Finally, S. Normando gave an overview on the prevalence of problem behaviours of rabbits, ferrets and rodents kept as pets, as mentioned by the owners.

A round table on the prevention of canine aggression concluded the programme.

The coffee breaks were employed to discuss the presented posters with the authors and to obtain information about products offered by the exhibiting enterprises; the mild autumn weather permitted to pass the coffee breaks outside on the campus. The Gala dinner, which took place on Thursday evening, permitted to taste various samples of delicious Catalan food and to cultivate contacts to other delegates.

June 2007

6th International Veterinary Behaviour Meeting

Palazzo del Turismo di Riccione (Rimini) Italia

17-20 June 2007

Further Information (.pdf 38kb)

In 2007 the ESVCE annual congress is being held in association with the International Veterinary Behaviour Meeting

The ESVCE day will be held on June 20th and the theme of the half day meeting will be Challenges in veterinary behavioural medicine

September 2006

ESVCE ANNUAL CONGRESS: Ghent Belgium. September 22nd 2006. THEME: “Welfare – the science behind the art"

Conference Details  http://www.behaviour2006ghent.be/ This site will cease to function on 1st January 2007.

October 2005

CALL FOR PAPERS: JOINT AVSAB/ACVB PAPER SESSION, AVMA ANNUAL MEETING HONOLULU, HI JULY 2006

The AVSAB/ACVB joint scientific veterinary behavior meeting will be held on July 16-17th, 2006 in conjunction with the AVMA in Honolulu, HI. Scientists and practitioners from all related disciplines are encouraged to submit abstracts for consideration. These may be in the form of original (unpublished) research results, case studies or scientific reviews.

Final presentations will be in the form of full spoken papers, spoken short communications and posters. Speakers of full and short presentations will receive complementary registration for the conference including published proceedings.

Further details of submission and review procedure are available from www.avsab.us

August 2005

From the 5th to the 9th of October there will be an extraordinary event in the veterinary behaviour calendar taking place in the beautiful location of the Palm Beach Softiel Hotel Marseille.

3 independent congresses (ZooPsy, ESVCE and ECVBM-CA ) all situated in the same attractive location. Further information (.pdf 1MB)

March 2005

ESVCE ANNUAL CONGRESS: MARSEILLE, FRANCE. SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER 2005

" Behavioural aspects of internal medicine".

January 2005

Proceedings of the 10th European Congress on Companion Animal Behavioural Medicine (.pdf 1MB)

The proceedings from the congresses of the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Ethology (ESVCE) and the European College of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine - Companion Animals (ECVBM-CA) are now available to download from this site by clicking on the above link. In addition, there are a limited number of hard copies of the proceedings book still available at a price of 40 Euros (including postage and packing) and anyone wishing to purchase these copies should contact Sarah Heath.

December 2004

The Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine invites applications for the position of Research Specialist. More Details (.pdf 312 kb)

September 2004

The 5th International Veterinary Behavior Meeting The 5th International Veterinary Behavior Meeting (IVBM) will be held 14-16 July 2005 at the Minneapolis Marriott City Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Details.....

August 2004

The ESVCE Summer 2004 newsletter is now available (.pdf 5MB)

10th European Congress on Companion Animal Behavioural Medicine

Centro Studi SCIVAC - Cremona, Italy - 22-23 October 2004

• Current research in veterinary behavioural medicine: the importance of accurate diagnosis and appropriate therapy
• Round table on aggression
• Understanding emotional disorders in companion animals

The event will happen parallel to the national SCIVAC meeting Registration forms and programm details are now available on the scivac web site www.scivac.it/index2.php3

August 2003

As a result of ongoing changes to the site, the ESVCE Officials, National Representatives and Membership Application pages can all be reached via the links on the About the ESVCE page.

June 2003

The ESVCE web site has a new look.  We hope that the new site works efficiently but if you do have any problems or find any broken links please report them to Tiny De Keuster so that they can be rectified.  

We plan to supply all downloadable documents as Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files in future and will be removing all Word documents from the site over the coming weeks.  If you do not have a copy of Adobe Acrobat reader it is available as a free download from Adobe.com. If you wish to download .pdf files to read offline right click on the link and choose 'save target as'. You will then be able to choose where to save the file on your computer.

The ESVCE Terminology Project continues.  More information is available at ESVCE Online