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“St. Petersburg Veterinary Surgery Congress 2022 is the largest and the only event in Russia focused only on veterinary surgeons. Specialists from all over the world take part in it. We hold sections both for aspiring doctors and experts in this field, Russian and foreign speakers. The Congress has been held annually for 12 years now, and each time the number of participants is growing. If earlier we chose medium-sized venues, then since 2019 the congress “moved” to ExpoForum, the most modern and largest exhibition centre in the city,” Lyubov Osipova said.

Lyubov also stressed that before the pandemic outbreak, representatives of European and US countries took an active part in the congress, now, unfortunately, they can only connect online due to closed borders. This year the event is attended by specialists from Belarus, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries.

“The change in the congress scale, of course, is closely related to the annual discoveries and achievements in veterinary science. Over the past decades, there has been a progression of minimally invasive surgery to reduce tissue injury, the use of CT and MRI machines for the diagnosis of animal diseases has begun, X-ray equipment, veterinary cardiac surgery and many other things have appeared. With access to modern veterinary medicine, animal owners have become more attentive and seek help more often,” – Vladimir Sotnikov said.

Dr. Sotnikov also added that there are only about 30,000 veterinarians in Russia who specialize in small pets such as dogs, cats and rodents. This is due to the fact that the main task of the veterinary service is to protect a person, therefore, in higher educational institutions, young specialists are trained to identify diseases of cattle and other farm animals. “But our goal, those same representatives of 30 thousand, is to fulfill the duty of a doctor and save the lives of pets through correct and safe treatment. First of all, we must identify and diagnose, and then take action. Those specialists who want to join our ranks study just at professional congresses, from the first courses they get jobs as assistants in veterinary clinics and gain experience from senior colleagues,” –Vladimir Sotnikov added.

Vladimir Valeryevich shared interesting clinical cases. For example, he has repeatedly performed complex operations to implant a special chip that provokes normal urination with dogs with spinal cord injury. He also repeatedly saw foreign patients in his clinic: cats and dogs brought for treatment from the USA and Europe. This suggests that, despite all the difficulties, veterinary medicine in Russia is more developed and accessible.

The St. Petersburg Veterinary Surgical Congress was held at ExpoForum on February 16-18. The event organizers express their gratitude to the general sponsor, PURINA Pro Plan company.