'We must improve our pet poultry services'

Abstract

Owners often struggle to access healthcare for pet poultry, but during the avian influenza outbreak, these birds have been neglected further by veterinary practices argue Henrietta Kodilinye‐Sims and Alex Royden. This must be addressed, both in the short term and for future provision of care.

Concerning feline infectious peritonitis outbreak in Cyprus

“…Outbreaks of FIP have been documented in the UK, the USA and Taiwan but were restricted to catteries and rehoming centres. [2][3][4] This outbreak became widespread in different districts of the island very quickly, with local veterinarians reporting clinical cases even in indoor-only cats. This is extremely alarming and suggests that a highly virulent strain of FCoV is present in Cyprus that may potentially be transmitted by mechanical vectors.…”

Analgesia in backyard chickens

“…Kodilinye‐Sims and Royden 2 stated that they ‘do believe that they [first‐opinion vets] should be confident at providing first aid and pain relief’ to poultry. At the Royal Veterinary College we are looking into the current use of NSAIDs in backyard chickens to try to understand the challenges around backyard chicken treatments, including how easy it is to recognise pain in chickens.…”

Poultry health course addresses ‘desperate need’

“…The ‘massive open online course’ (MOOC) was launched as a result of an appeal published in Vet Record in March 2022 by Henrietta Kodilinye‐Sims and Alex Royden 1 who found that pet poultry owners were struggling to access basic veterinary care and small animal practitioners lacked experience or confidence to deal with backyard poultry cases.…”