About VDS | Veterinary Deer Society
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The Veterinary Deer Society (VDS) was established in 1981 with the object of aiding those vets interested in deer to exchange information more easily.
The Society became a non-territorial division of the British Veterinary Association in 1989 (https://www.bva.co.uk/about-us/our-structure/our-divisions/) .
The annual society membership subscription has always been relatively low; even so, funds have accumulated due to the effort members put into writing and selling the book “Management and Diseases of Deer”.
All currently subscribed members, who have provided an email address, have on-line access to this publication via a password.
While the original impetus for the Society came from the growing deer farming industry, many members are more involved with park and wild deer, zoological collections, and involved in research into diseases of deer.
Informative meetings have been held on an occasional basis in recent years and the most recent was in 2019 at the Moredun Research Institute in Edinburgh. Such meetings aim to disseminate new information and to pass on knowledge gained by experience to support those already familiar, and those wishing to start working, with deer. These meetings are relatively informal and held in a relaxed atmosphere and are an excellent way to make contacts with others working in this sector.
The most recent meeting was attended by people from across the UK who deal with farmed deer including reindeer, park deer herds and zoological collections, by research scientists and vets, farmers and deer keepers. Diseases such as Mycobacteria infection (Tb) and transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSEs), with recent advent of Chronic Wasting Disease in Scandinavian deer, continue to focus interest in deer both here in the UK and further afield.
Members receive discounted delegate rates for VDS meetings; access to the Management and Diseases of Deer book and to regular newsletters that compile information of interest to vets on various aspects of deer.
Contact with the Society can be made via the website and the email account [email protected]
