International efforts continue to promote profession

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Work from an international group aimed at promoting the “scientific and cultural veterinary heritage” is under way.

The International Bourgelat Committee met May 27 in Paris during the general session of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

“The IBC will help us capture our rightful heritage as a profession on a global scale. Just as important, the future focus of the IBC will also include promoting and highlighting the critical and varied roles played by veterinarians in contemporary society,” said Dr. Ron DeHaven, AVMA CEO and U.S. representative on the committee.

Brazil, Kenya, France, Iran, and Tunisia were also represented; representatives from Australia, Benin, and Sudan were invited but did not attend.

Drafts of the IBC’s international and national websites were adopted at the end of June. The sites are scheduled to be up and running at the beginning of December 2013, on the occasion of the third World Conference on Veterinary Education in Brazil.

Also at the meeting, Dr. DeHaven was named president of the International Bourgelat Committee for 2014.

The committee was established May 21, 2012, and named after Claude Bourgelat, who founded the first veterinary school, in Lyon, France. Its mission is to continue the success of Vet2011, which celebrated the 250th anniversary of the profession, by creating the aforementioned websites and to promote one or more global events featuring the profession (see JAVMA, Jan. 15, 2013).​