HIPRA organized 2 HIPRA UNIVERSITY training courses for Cattle vets in the Azores Islands (Terceira and S. Miguel, respectively) last March 18th and 19th. More than 35 veterinarians attended both sessions.

The HIPRA UNIVERSITY course had two speakers: Adelaide Pereira (Portuguese expert in prevention and responsible for the program Bovicontrol) and Deolinda Silva (Technical & Marketing Manager at HIPRA PORTUGAL) that delivered a technical session entitled “Immunology and Diagnosis in Dairy Cows”.

The importance of using the right diagnostic tools to detect and monitor diseases, the decision-making process according to diagnostic results and the need of implementing vaccination protocols were some of the topics addressed by Adelaide Pereira.

It has become very clear that implementing vaccination protocols which allow diagnostic monitoring are essential to optimise the health of the animals and to evaluate disease dynamics on dairy farms.

Deolinda Silva also presented the range of solutions for Cattle that HIPRA can offer to professionals (vaccines and diganostic tools) and showed how to implement and adapt the vaccination programmes according to the farm management, status and epidemiological status.

The topics attracted much interest in both sessions, and the participants enthusiastically participated with questions and sharing field experiences they encountered during their daily work.

At the end of the 2 sessions, veterinarians concluded that the vaccination plan for dairy farms must have broad viral spectrum, be efficacious, easy to implement on the farm and allows diagnostic monitorization.

After the 2 sessions the guests had the opportunity to taste Azorean gastronomic specialties in a very enjoyable dinner.