Back in April 1863, Professor John Gamgee of the Veterinary College of Edinburgh, invited veterinarians from Europe to attend a meeting. This meeting became the first International Veterinary Congress later known as The World Veterinary Congress (WVC) and it was attended by 103 veterinarians from 10 countries. The meeting was about epizootic diseases and a discussion of possible preventive measures. In 1906, at the 8th World Veterinary Congress, the members formed the Permanent Committee whose aim was to serve as an organizational link between congresses.
Then, at the 15th Congress in Stockholm, the Permanent Committee and the members saw the need for an international organization and constitution. Hence, on the next Congress in 1959, held in Madrid, the World Veterinary Association was established. The mission of the World Veterinary Association is to focus on animal health and welfare, as well as on the environment and public health. Nowadays, the World Veterinary Association collaborated with other prominent organization, such as OIE, WHO, and FAO.
The World Veterinary Association has members from more than seventy nations and features national veterinary associations from all over the world. A new constitution was welcomed in 1997 and the organization was restructured. Each veterinary association which is a member of the World Veterinary Association pays membership fees.
In 2001, the World Veterinary Association established that there will be a World Veterinary Day celebrated on the last Saturday of April. The aim of the World Veterinary Day is to promote the veterinary profession and work on improvement of the animal and human welfare, the environment, food safety, and practices of animal transport and quarantine. Each year, there is a different theme of this day. For instance, the first theme of the World Veterinary Association was “Rabies” in an aim to raise public awareness about vaccinating and spaying dogs as well as preventing rabies.
The World Veterinary Association together with the World Organization for Animal Health decided that there should be a World Veterinary Day Award. This practice started in 2008 and its goal is to reward the best contribution to the veterinary profession.
World Veterinary Day has been celebrating in Bangladesh since 2006 by The Vet Executives (An Association of Private Veterinarians in Bangladesh). In 2011, Bangladesh Veterinary Association (BVA), The Vet Executives and Bangladesh Veterinary Student Federation (BVSF) started to celebrate the day jointly. In 2016, World Veterinary Day is started to celebrate by BVA, The Vet Executives, Bangladesh Veterinary Student Federation (BVSF) and The Department of Livestock Services (DLS) in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, while all Veterinary Universities and institutions in the country celebrate the day within their campus each year since 2016.
World Veterinary Association announces the theme for the World Veterinary Day each year. The theme of the World Veterinary Day 2021 is ‘Veterinarian response to the Covid-19 crisis’.
Bangladesh Veterinary Association (BVA), The Vet Executives, Bangladesh Veterinary Student Federation (BVSF) and The Department of Livestock Services (DLS) celebrated the World Veterinary Day 2021 in virtual platform using Zoom and Social Media. Virtual presentation and discussions were held in the meeting by the senior professors, government and private Veterinarians as well as the professional Veterinary leaders in the Bangladesh to protect human and animal health and to continue proper Veterinary services during the pandemic situation. All Veterinary Universities and institutions in the country celebrated the day separately in virtual platform. The President of Bangladesh Veterinary Association Dr. S. M. Nazrul Islam and the Secretary General Dr. Mohammad Habibur Rahman Mollah wished everyone on the occasion of World Veterinary Day 2021.
Edited by: Dr. Parvez