MAVP Conference Highlights
To an old dog like me from the old school of training in pathology where we learn its ABC from left to right, it was quite refreshing to view histo slides and hear terms like Mast cells,mitotic figures, cytoplasm/nuclear ratios,Round Cell tumour,BLET...even though I couldn't understand half of it. Like my mum used to say, you stay long enough in mud, you emerge half a buffalo so I guess I can acquire some polish from the conference.
To me , some of the highlights include the info from Dr Kamarruddin that during the HPAI ( Bird flu) scare in W M' sia in 2004, 2006 and 2007, the economic losses were RM 30M,22M and 15M respectively. These include
the cost of managing the outbreaks,compensation, loss of trade, income ,etc. We shudder to think of the impact of Influenza A H1N1...
The bad news is that Nipah virus is still circulating in reservoir animals, plotting a comeback like Pakatan...
A "new" disease of goats I learnt is Gid (Staggers, sturdy) or Coenurosis caused by a metacestode. Thought that this disease only occurs in history books, the deserts, or Africa...Also CAE ( Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis) with head tilt,circling, shifting lameness, reluctance to rise.....a sobering thought is that I could have missed this in a few adult goats having nervous signs which went through our practice.
Another highlight and a compliment to the innovative and creative ability of the vet is the Cytopathology Rapid Stain put out by my old friend Dr Yeoh Eng Cheong...He was too modest to mention the brand but we are using the KY Rapid Stain in our clinic. Congrats are in order to Dr and Mrs Yeoh as the son is graduating this year as a vet from UPM....
I have to say that I enjoyed and learnt a lot from the presenters, including those from Myanmar, Iraq and Africa. I have a chance to asked an Iraqi presenter ( Assoc. Prof Dr Karim Al-Jashamy of MSU) an important question...where to find the best place for hommus in Kl...!
Dr Thomas Wong