Pets with MRSA superbug infection: MRSA in dogs cats animals

Bella Moss Foundation Celebrates Charity Status Success

http://www.ourdogs.co.uk/News/2008/Mar2008/News140308/bella.htm

The Bella Moss Foundation at Discover Dogs

Jill Moss with Terry Manfield CBE Vice chairman of Hearst Media Corporation and his dog Inca, who has recently recovered from MRSA:

Students push MRSA message at Discover Dogs

Download vt37.46 Pg 03 News.pdf

INCA Helps Spread the Word for the Bella Moss Foundation

Inca, a six-year-old Rottweiler that had recovered from MRSA, was present at the Bella Moss Foundation stand at Discover Dogs last weekend to help show that it is perfectly possible to overcome the infection.

BMF in Dogs Today

CONFERENCE ON MRSA IN PETS

FURTHER research into MRSA in animals is desperately needed, according to expertshis end a conference into the subject is being held aimed at raising awareness among vets about the infection and providing them with more support.

Veterinary scientists from around the world were travelling to Liverpool University on June 18 to take part in the first international conference on MRSA in animals.

MRSA Conference Hailed a Great Success

Richard Dene reports on the first International Conference on MRSA in Animals

AROUND 65 delegates attended the long awaited First International Conference on MRSA in Animals held on the 21st The event, which was organised jointly by the University of Liverpool and The Bella Moss Foundation, brought together some of the vet- erinary world's leading authorities on aspects of MRSA and who presented new information of great importance to veterinarians around the globe. The event was opened by Dr Susan Dawson from the University and Jill Moss, President and founder of The Bella Moss Foundation.

Back, from left to right: Mark Dosher, Bella Moss Foundation; Professor Tony Hart, Liverpool Univeristy Head of Microbiology; Professor Peter Hawkey, Health Protection Agency; Dr Jodi Lindsay, St George's Hospital, London; Professor David Lloyd, Royal Veterinary College, London; Dr Leoffler, Royal Veterinary College, London; Dr Angela Kearns, Centre for Infection, Health Protection Agency, London; Dr Scott Weese, Ontario Veterinary College, Guelph, Canada; Dr Nicola Williams, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Liverpool University; Dr Susan Dawson, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Liverpool University. Front - Dr Luca Guardabassi, Veterinary Pathologist, Royal Vet and Agricultural College, Denmark, and Jill Moss, President and Founder, The Bella Moss Foundation

Animals And MRSA. International Conference Scheduled

The Bella Moss Foundation, in partnership with the University of Liverpool, will host in June the First International Conference on MRSA in Animals.The event will take place at the University’s Leahurst campus on June the 19th, 20th and 21st and will be addressed by some of the veterinary profession’s leading researchers and clinicians. You can read the entire news item at

http://www.k9magazine.com/viewarticle.php?sid=15&aid=1296&vid=1&npage=3

Our Dogs hails the Bella Moss Foundation fight against MRSA scourge

This thorough overview of the issues surrounding Dogs and MRSA infection can be found at the link below:

Download Bella Moss Article Our Dogs Annual

Please note - you will need Adobe Reader. For this article we recommend a broadband/cable connection - this is a large file

Our Dogs March 24 2006

THE BELLA Moss Foundation gave a cautious welcome to the public launch of the Royal College Of Veterinary Surgeon's Practice Standards Scheme scheduled for March 27th, 2006.

In accepting an invitation to attend the launch, Foundation President and Founder, Jill Moss, said, `This is a move in the right direction, but there is still a great deal for the College to do.,

'The RCVS Practice Standards Scheme was set up to establish a quality assurance framework to promote and maintain the highest standard of veterinary care and to make more information available about veterinary practices, and so give clients greater choice, but even some within the veterinary profession itself believe that the scheme lacks the ambition to make a truly effective difference to the way veterinary practice is carried out.

`The scheme fails to address the crucial issue of infection control. It may be very well to say that practices must be clean and well maintained, but in the Scheme there is no requirement that practices develop written policies to guide staff on effective infection control practice. We think it is unacceptable that practices will be required to have written policies on communication but nothing that says gloves and masks should be worn during surgical procedures. It reflects entirely the wrong set of priorities to require vets to communicate effectively before addressing poor clinical practice.'

Moss said that this was not the only criticism of the Scheme. `We think there is an unanswerable case for making the scheme compulsory. At present it is still up to individual vets whether they join or not, and this can hardly inspire confidence in pet' owners, particularly when some excellent practices have decided not to participate.

Although the College has effectively combined the two schemes that were previously run by the British Veterinary Hospitals Association and the British Small Animal Veterinary Association into one and put its name to it, there is little evidence that new practices have joined the scheme in any significant numbers. Even veterinary practitioners question the benefit of going through the cost and upheaval of being inspected and meeting other criteria when the practice down the street may not.

`Nor is it true that non-participation in the scheme is an indication of poorer quality service. We know that the College would like the scheme to become a benchmark of quality, but that is unlikely to happen whilst participation remains voluntary. The only way to make higher standards the norm is to make the scheme compulsory.

The Foundation also believes that by making vets responsible for their own practice and the conditions in which they work will force any bad practices out of business much more effectively than commercial competition. If a vet agreed to work in conditions that contravened or failed to meet the required standard then that vet would be in breach of the code of practice and would have to account for their decision to work under such conditions.

This would have the benefit of forcing standards higher and would remove the current incentive to ignore dangerous or sub-standard conditions or unprofessional working practice.

`On the whole The Bella Moss Foundation welcomes the steps the RCVS has taken on this matter, but it urges the College to set in place the mechanisms that will truly improve infection control and clinical practice,' concluded Moss.

• Websites: www.thebellamoss-foundation.com and www.pets-mrsa.com