Back to News

News About AVA Spring Meeting in Tel Aviv

Published by November 2, 2023 9:45 am

UPDATE: The AVA Spring meeting has been moved to Baden in Switzerland. Please see further posts for more details.

Dear veterinary anaesthesia community,

On October 7th Israel was subjected to one of the worst terrorist attacks in the last century. While launching thousands of missiles towards populated areas, Hamas terrorists raided towns in southern Israel near the border with Gaza, killed over 1300 people and abducted over 210 people, including babies, women, and elderly civilians, to Gaza. Since then we have been at war with Hamas in Gaza. 

As a community we are focusing on staying safe and supporting families who have lost loved ones, or have been displaced from their homes due to the war. The army in Israel is based on civilian conscripts and reserves so many of our families have been called to duty and this puts extra burden on us both physically and psychologically. The veterinary hospital and veterinary community in Israel are focused on providing medical and welfare support to pets and farm animals which were affected by these horrible events, some were injured physically, others lost their owners, or were lost in the ensuing mayhem.  
We are all praying for the quick resolution of the current situation, the release of all hostages, and the cessation of attacks against innocent civilians on both sides. We hope that people will be able to live freely and peacefully in a terrorist-free region shortly. 

Obviously, these events have set back our preparations for the AVA spring meeting 2024. To our understanding based on reports in the media, the hostilities are likely to resolve within several weeks, so we are praying that much earlier than May 2024 things will return to be peaceful. We will proceed to organize the conference as planned based on these predictions. However, in the case that no resolution is observed in the next few weeks, the meeting will be rescheduled or moved to a different location.

The final decision of going ahead or no with the meeting will be made the first week of December 2023.

We wish to emphasize that the conference is insured and that if it will be cancelled or delayed due to security issues, then registered participants will be fully compensated. The call for abstracts was supposed to be sent out on October 8th and was postponed due to the situation. We will send out the call in the next few of weeks. 
We pray for brighter days and hope to see you all in our beautiful country in a peaceful spring meeting to celebrate the AVA 60th anniversary. 
 
Best wishes,
The organizing committee

Categorised in: , ,

Related Stories