WEVA Commences

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  Moscow, Russia
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The WEVA (World Equine Veterinary Association) Congress starts today. First order of business - breakfast. Buffet Breakfast included in my booking so off to find the restaurant. Quite a large buffet available - many things I recognised but also many I did not. I settled for an omelette, some bacon, something that looked like a pancake but wasn't quite and also a bean dish - somewhat like baked beans but with more flavour. I had woken with a headache this morning, after my first cup of coffee went down in a matter of seconds and I immediately felt 100% better, I realised that I had had no caffeine for the last 36 hours and my headache was a sign of withdrawal! Got to keep my caffeine levels up to ward of further headaches, will worry about my alarming addiction when I get back home.

After breakfast back on the Moscow Metro to head for the Congress Venue - The Holiday Inn Sokolniki. Back to Prospect Mira, one stop on the circle line then two stops up line 1 to Sokolniki. The Holiday Inn dominates the landscape once you reach street level. I followed the crowd across the pedestrian crossing and walked up to the Hotel. Once inside I looked for the cashier to try and pay my registration fees. I found the appropriate queue, which moved at glacial pace, and eventually got to speak with a Russian woman who usually lives in Dubai but is back in Moscow specifically to work at the Congress. She had excellent English but was otherwise a little hazy on the specifics of what was going on at the Congress - she had come home to help because of her English skills but had apparently not be fully briefed on the weeks events. Eventually we worked out how much I owed - student registration for me, guest registration for Belle. The next problem was the fact that they had no credit card facilities and I had virtually no Roubles. Anna, a horse Vet from Moscow who is working at the Congress as a 'Helper' lived up to her title. Taking pity on an Aussie and his apparently useless Aussie dollars, she took me to first one bank, who wanted nothing to do with my crazy money, and then to a branch of the Russian National Bank. After braving the snowy weather and slippery footpaths, we had finally located somewhere where I could exchange my Australian dollars for some local currency. We headed back to the Congress venue, I finally paid my dues and then went and collected my Registration information and name badge.

I wandered through the trade display, and ended up having a coffee at the Merial display where I met the Russian president of Merial and also the Merial Europe Communications Officer. She is a Brit who married a Frenchman and now lives in Lyon. She seems to spend her days traveling throughout Europe promoting Merial's products. It was somewhat of a relief to be able to speak to someone who understood me easily.  

The Congress programme kicked off at 2:00pm with a welcome from the Russian organiser, Ekaterina Zabegina and then a discussion of the role of WEVA by Richard Corde and Gary Norwood. This was followed by a fairly evangelistic presentation by Prof Derek Knottenbelt discussing the responsibilities that Vets in the developed world have in assisting those working equines (Donkeys in the main) in places such as Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He reminded us that in these areas of the world, families rely on their animals for their day to day livelihood and that the death of a families animal can spell absolute disaster for that family. This was followed by a review of current equine literature by Wayne McIlwraith and Scott Palmer. They kicked off their review with a brief discussion of the equine influenza outbreak in Australia, pointing out that in 2007 there were only three countries free of EI - Iceland, New Zealand and Australia. This was reduced by one as a result of the Australian outbreak but they did report that the current expectation is that by the end of March 2008 EI should have been eradicated from Australia. Wayne McIlwraith concluded the session by presenting on the future of the management of degenerative joints.

After a brief break the official congress opening ceremony was held. The ceremony kicked off with a performance by a military band - predominately trumpets and clarinets, one flute, several trombones, two alto saxophones, a couple of tubas and euphoniums and a percussion section. The band members were all young men and the band leader was an older man. They were all in their full uniform and stood very erect as they played. For the most part they played what you would expect - military marches, however, they did surprise with one very jazzy number, all the band members and conductor remained very erect and impassive throughout. The next surprise was their rendition of 'You're to Good to be True', again maintaining a very proper posture and attitude throughout. They also performed some traditional Russian songs with singing, and they did show some signs of animation during these numbers. They were excellent, and played throughout the first part of the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was almost entirely in Russian so I missed most of what was going on. There were a number of awards given out by WEVA so for the most part I got to understand who won the award, which company sponsored the award and also the acceptance speech - mind you some of these might as well have been in Russian given the thick French accents! Musical performances were scattered through the Opening Ceremony, the military band performed during the first third, we next were favoured by a quartet - accordion plus three stringed instruments - triangular bodied, each bigger than the last - looked something like a lute, I presume they are some traditional Russian instrument. The Accordion player was the band leader and obviously really loved what he was doing. Wonderful music and the Russians in the audience certainly enjoyed it immensely. The last musical group was a small band, accordion, a couple of guitars, percussion and two female vocalist. They played a series of three songs all with some relation to horses. One song described he life of a Muscovite who used to drive a horse drawn tram in  Moscow. With the establishment of the Metro in the 1930's, the horse drawn trams died out and the former tram driver now had to  catch the Metro so that he could go and be with his horse.

The opening ceremony over, I headed back out into the cold night and onto the metro to head back to the Cosmos. Belle arrives tomorrow afternoon and I am looking forward to her catching up with me.

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