Veterinarians get further education about main ornamental fish topics

Once per year, sera in cooperation with the VDA/DGHT associations invites veterinarians to get further education about "Keeping, care and diseases of ornamental fish in the specialized pet trade". After all lectures were transmitted live from a studio in Cologne last year due to the Covid restrictions, this time an attended event could be offered again. 34 veterinarians from Germany, Austria and Switzerland followed the invitation and took part in the seventh veterinarian seminar in Heinsberg. 

The fish health topic has always been very important for sera. For instance, sera – as one of the few remaining manufacturers of treatments for ornamental fish – currently engages strongly in treatment registrations or the exemption from them as well as appropriate facilitations for the pet sector. The availability of treatments in Germany was recently reduced – some treatments cannot be sold without a prescription and freely in the pet trade. Considering this it is particularly important that veterinarians are continuously made aware of the fish health topic and trained about it – both resident veterinarians co-operating with pet stores as well as official veterinarians controlling pet stores. "Together for ornamental fish doing well" could have been the subtitle of the veterinarian seminar that – also in the now seventh year – received the ATF approval.


The very first lecture of the veterinarian seminar was already dedicated to current legal topics: after the welcome by Dr. Andreas Franzky (TVT president), PD. Dr. Verena Jung-Schroers informed about "Current information about animal diseases and pharmaceutical legislation". The veterinarian specialized on fish furthermore gave the last lecture of the day about "Frequently occurring diseases in ornamental shrimps". Of course there were many other renowned lecturers in-between: Dr. Stefan K. Hetz ("In good company: Temporal, locational and behavioral aspects of a community aquarium"), graduate biologist Frank Schäfer ("Air breathing fish"), Dr. Helmut Wedekind ("Animal welfare in fishkeeping: Evaluation and relevance for aquarium care") and Prof. Dr. Christian E.W. Steinberg ("Soil components (humic substances, biochar, clay) in the food and aquatic animal health"). The new digital training platform by sera ("sera Academy") was also part of the veterinarian seminar: Oliver Witte, advisory expert for expertise and lawyer of the DGHT as well as CEO (terrarium care) of the VDA-DGHT Sachkunde GbR presented the "new" expertise according to §11 TierSchG in eLearning and "Further education for responsible persons in the specialized pet trade" of the VDA and DGHT associations". The organizer of the event, Dieter Untergasser, also contributed a lecture: "Venomous animals and their weapons in the aquarium".


Two further lectures were offered on the second, optional day of the event: "Valuable food ingredients for keeping ornamental fish healthy" by Elena Rathgeber (graduate biologist, long-time sera employee in research and development) and "Sustainability of food production and usage of insect meal" by Dieter Untergasser. The participants then switched from theory into practice and could watch how manufacturing appropriate ornamental fish food with ingredients close to nature works at sera during a guided factory tour.

 

 

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