On March 10, 2022, Health Canada posted this update to its “Recall and Safety Alerts” webpage regarding forecasted availability of euthanasia drugs in Canada following the previously-announced anticipated shortage of pentobarbital sodium.
For updates on availability for restocking, please contact wholesalers or manufacturers directly.
The Province of British Columbia is investing nearly $10.7 million to double its WCVM provincial seat quota from 20 to 40 in the college’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program for the 2022-23 academic year. The press release from the government of BC can be found here.
The College of Veterinarians of British Columbia is pleased to hear the exciting news of the increase in seats for BC veterinary students at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) from 20 to 40 starting in the fall of 2022. This will help to alleviate the heavy workloads and veterinary shortages that have been identified as a critical issue in BC. We appreciate the efforts of the Ministry of Advanced Education, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, the Society of British Columbia Veterinarians, and veterinarians and veterinary students who have all advocated to increase the number of BC veterinary student seats at the WCVM. Veterinarians are essential to ensuring animal health, protecting public health, ensuring food safety, performing veterinary diagnostics, and advancing research and innovation and these additional seats will help to ensure the veterinary needs of BC continue to be met. It is important to recognize that we need to continue to explore opportunities to support veterinarians in BC recognizing that the impacts of these new seats on the veterinary work force will not be realized for 4 years.
As a reminder, Tramadol becomes a Schedule 1 drug on March 31, 2022. In practice, this will mean that Tramadol in inventory will need to be managed in compliance with the CVBC’s Controlled Drug Management and Disposal standards, and that any prescriptions to pharmacies will need to be made using your Duplicate Prescription Pads.
The following three registrants have been elected to Council for a 3-year term, effective March 11, 2022:
The Chief Veterinarian and the Animal Health Centre in Abbotsford would like to notify you that they will be discontinuing the import and distribution service for Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD) virus vaccine and will NO longer be placing orders to import the vaccine into Canada. Please note that this vaccine was brought into the Province as an emergency response to the first detection of this emerging disease in British Columbia. Once reopened, The Animal Health Centre will continue to provide testing services for RHD.
If you wish to arrange your own future imports, here are the links to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency sites to apply for an import permit.
Main page link:
Guidelines, forms, applications for importing unlicensed veterinary biologics:
Veterinary Drugs Directorate contacts:
Please check your email for voting information which was distributed on December 6, 2021. If you did not receive an email generated from the domain vote@simplyvoting.com, please contact feedback@cvbc.ca. When you log in to vote, please click on the “view details” link next to each candidate’s name in order to review the biographical information provided by each candidate. Please note that you can review these details and return to vote at a later date as long as you do not click the “submit” button.
Alternately, we have also posted the candidate information on the CVBC registrant page at https://www.cvbc.ca/my-account/for-registrant/ under the heading 2021/2022 Council Election Candidate Bios.
Voting will close on February 7, 2022 and the results of the election process will be announced by February 15, 2022. The CVBC strongly encourages all registrants who are eligible to vote, to take the opportunity to exercise your right!
There are 3 veterinary seats up for election on the CVBC Council. On November 22, 2021 the CVBC Nominations Committee declared the following slate of candidates as eligible to serve on Council for the upcoming election cycle.
Please check your email for voting information on December 6, 2021 as the election process will commence on this date. If you don’t receive information, generated from the domain vote@simplyvoting.com, please contact feedback@cvbc.ca. Voting will close on February 7, 2022 and the results of the election process will be announced by February 15, 2022. The CVBC strongly encourages all registrants who are eligible to vote, to take the opportunity to exercise your right!
The College of Veterinarians of British Columbia takes allegations of animal abuse very seriously. Our mandate is to regulate the practice of veterinary medicine in B.C. to ensure that the public and animals are served by a competent and ethical standard of practice. The CVBC regulates the conduct and competency of veterinarians according to the complaints and investigation process set out in the Veterinarians Act. As part of this process, the CVBC’s Investigation Committee reviews complaints, authorizes investigations, and takes necessary action to protect the public interest and the animals in their care. Until the Investigation Committee takes action that requires public notification under the Veterinarians Act, the CVBC is not able to comment on any investigation in relation to any specific CVBC registrant.
