Presentation of awards

A number of awards were presented during the BEVA congress. The BEVA Equine Welfare Award, sponsored by the Blue Cross, was presented to HRH the Princess Royal. Horses have been a consistent feature throughout the Princess Royal’s life. She is president or patron of a large number of equine organisations, including the Riding for the Disabled Association, World Horse Welfare, the Animal Health Trust, the Horse Trust, the Animals in War Memorial and BEVA. Her direct impact on equine welfare was, delegates were told, exemplified by her leading role in the establishment of the National Equine Welfare Protocol in the wake of the 2008 Amersham welfare case. The BEVA Richard Hartley Clinical Award was awarded to Stephanie J. Valberg, professor and director of the University of Minnesota Equine Center, USA, for the paper ‘Pasture myopathy/ atypical myopathy in North America associated with ingestion of hypoglycin A within seeds of the box elder tree’ which was published in Equine Veterinary Journal (vol 45, pp 419-426). The award is given for evidence-based papers and the prize is intended to support travel of the senior author and/or co-authors. It was collected by co-author Beatrice Sponseller. The BEVA Trust Peter Rossdale Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ) Open Award was presented to Weston Davis from Palm Beach Equine Clinic, USA, for the paper ‘Return to use and performance following exploratory celiotomy for colic in horses: 195 cases (2003–2010)’ published in Equine Veterinary Journal (vol 45, pp 224-228). This award is given for the paper that ‘best influences or improves clinical practice and/or adds significantly to the scientific knowledge that underpins and supports equine veterinary medicine’. The Voorjaarsdagen and BEVA Award was introduced in 2005 to mark the close relationship between the two associations. The award is selected and presented twice annually, once at the Voorjaarsdagen congress in the Netherlands, and once at BEVA congress, and is open to all those presenting a clinical research paper. This year’s winner was Ignacio Lizarraga of Ross University, St Kitts, West Indies. His paper ‘Sedation and mechanical hypoalgesia induced by four different dosages of butorphanol in xylazine-premedicated donkeys’ was first presented at the Voorjaarsdagen Congress in April 2014 and was presented at BEVA congress in the clinical research session.