OV revalidation process – equine vets speak out

I won’t lie, the OV revalidation process – for all of us oldies who had previously held grandfather rights – came as a bit of a shock to me.

From an ambulatory equine vet’s perspective, the ungulate or equine export revalidation process, which we had to complete in July or August 2018, was more time-consuming than I had anticipated, particularly when we were obliged to do it at a busy time of year. I understand this restricted time period has now been extended so more people can revalidate at a potentially more convenient time.

Dissatisfaction

The BVA sent out a survey where almost 1,300 OVs responded (an unprecedented number, according to the association), most of them expressing their frustration at the revalidation process provided.

Having discussed the revalidation process with my colleagues and gained insight from equine vets across the country via my own short, equine-specific online survey, I found, generally, a feeling of dissatisfaction existed among the equine veterinary community about continuing our OV status.

No doubt this was always going to happen as often teething problems occur with new regulations and requirements, not least because, as we get older, we get a little “set in our ways” and don’t want to change, even if it might be for the better in the long term.

The APHA argues, quite rightly in my opinion, it is no longer acceptable to train OVs once and then leave them without any further training or guidance for, potentially, 50 years of their careers. Things change, protocols evolve and we, as individuals, have to move with the times. This is especially true in the ever-expanding world of equine travel, and imports and exports, which will only become more routine (unless, of course, we have an outbreak of an exotic disease, which will, no doubt, put the brakes on international exports and imports for a while). Therefore, our knowledge should be frequently updated on this topic in the same way we continuously develop professionally in other areas of our career, which is an RCVS requirement.

As equine OVs, we should be up to speed on all aspects of equine exports. We previously held the qualification for all ungulate exports, but last year we had the opportunity to either revalidate for all ungulate exports or just equine.

The vast majority (97% in my survey) confirmed that, if they did revalidate, they chose only to continue with equine exports, rather than all ungulates. However, only about half (47%) of all grandfather rights equine OVs revalidated at all, with 74% of those who didn’t citing the reason was due to the revalidation process, that is, the course, was too onerous. A further 14% said they didn’t due to the cost of revalidation, with only 13% saying they no longer used their OV status.

BVA input

When questioned, only 40% of the vets who did renew their OV equine or ungulate export status said they found the course useful. Personally, I would say it was relatively useful training, although, to be honest (and my colleagues agree), I often find a lot of the ministry documentation difficult to understand, and much of the equine export work and training seems over-complicated on paper.

Interestingly, 37% of equine vets surveyed thought OV revalidation should be done every 5 years, 26% every 10 years, with only 24% saying every 4 years or less. In fact, 13% of equine vets said they thought a revalidation process wasn’t necessary.

BVA has approached the APHA and Improve International to give them insightful input as to how they can improve their revalidation process, and both camps sound quite confident this will help and the process will become a more positive experience for all vets. I am due to revalidate my essential skills qualification in June 2019, so we will see.

The one major flaw with the equine and ungulate OV revalidation process, in my opinion, was the timing, as it was stipulated we needed to complete this training in July or August of 2018. My issue with this timing is spring and summer is often an equine vet’s busiest time of year (of course, not in all cases – any TB stud vets out there?), so I thought the course would have been better timed during the winter months. My surveyed colleagues agreed, with the overwhelming majority (93%) citing the winter months, from October to March, would be best (44% said October to December and 49% said January to March). Only 7% agreed July to September is the best time of year for them, and no one opted for April to June (AHPA and Improve International, please take note).

My final question asked whether equine vets thought the OV revalidation course was good value for money at £99 plus VAT per vet. The vast majority (85% of equine OVs) said it wasn’t good value, with the remaining 15% saying it was a reasonable cost. However, not one vet replied saying he or she thought it was very good value for money.

Within our practice team, seven out of eight of us are OVs and five of us revalidated last summer (the other two had only recently become OVs). After discussions with my colleagues, and combining these with the 51 responses I got from my online survey, it appears the APHA and Improve International need to address some of the apparent teething issues moving forward to increase the level of satisfaction among equine OVs. Hopefully, with influence from the BVA and listening to the OVs, this will happen.

In the equine veterinary world, I think most of us can see the benefits of having further and regular training in this area, but, perhaps, this can be done at a quieter time of year, and for a more reasonable cost.

Certainly, in my practice, we found last year’s revalidation process quite time-consuming and overly complicated, and hope our upcoming revalidation courses are slightly more user-friendly.