Clinical Research Abstracts of the British Equine Veterinary Association Congress 2025

Abstract

This special 2025 Equine Veterinary Journal supplement contains research abstracts selected for presentation at the 2025 Congress of the British Equine Veterinary Association.

We again received a high number of submissions with 95 abstracts, of which we had to select 62 for presentation at our Congress. We aimed to select abstracts of the highest scientific quality and what we feel would be of greatest interest to Congress attendees. The quality of research was, as always, very high and unfortunately, we could not include all submissions. Abstracts were blindly reviewed and objectively graded by two or more peer reviewers selected by a member of the Congress sub-committee. All abstracts were reviewed to ensure they fulfilled the requirements of the Equine Veterinary Journal for publication in this supplement.

The clinical descriptive abstract category introduced for the first time in 2024 was an overwhelming success. Descriptive abstracts were intended to allow clinicians to report observations from clinical cases that shed light on possible harms, treatment outcomes or approaches to diagnosis and therapy that might be of interest to Congress delegates, in an expanded word limit of 500 words. In 2024, 22.5% (23/102) of submissions were in the descriptive format and in 2025, this proportion increased to 30.5% (29/95) abstracts, with 14 selected for presentation at Congress. These particular abstracts represent a diverse range of clinical information from single cases through to larger case series across a number of different disciplines.

It is notable that antimicrobial stewardship continues to be an area of ongoing research with material present on alternatives to antibiotics, antibiotic prescribing, bacterial culture prevalence and sensitivity patterns and clinical audit. It is clear to me that our profession is taking its role in the prevention of bacterial resistance seriously and this is demonstrated through the presented research. It is no coincidence that ‘Use it wisely or lose it forever’ is the theme for BEVA Congress 2025. Our current president Bruce Bladon and his scientific committee are shining a spotlight on the rise of resistance to antimicrobials and the essential role of the veterinary profession in preserving the efficacy of the diminishing portfolio of drugs available for equines. Led by Bruce, BEVA is simultaneously gathering baseline industry level data on antibiotic use in equine practice through the MonitorME initiative launched in 2025. In addition, we have clinical research sessions with material on biomechanics, epidemiology, teamwork and coaching, medicine, diagnostics, infectious disease, reproduction, dermatology, lameness, therapeutics, surgery, diagnostic imaging, abdominal disease and sarcoids.

I would like to personally thank our clinical research sub-committee members Rose Tallon, April Lawson, Jo Suthers, Nicola Lynch, Nicole du Toit, Sarah Taylor and John Spencer for their efforts as section editors, processing abstracts, selecting peer-reviewers and contributing to the decisions on the successful abstracts. We are also very grateful to Professor Celia Marr, Jane Gamble and Sue Wright at EVJ for their invaluable assistance and guidance during the submission, evaluation and publication of the selected abstracts.

It is challenging for the clinical research sub-committee members to get abstracts reviewed in a short timeframe to be ready in time for congress. On behalf of this committee, I would like to extend our gratitude to our peers who gave us their time freely, and generally very quickly, to review the submitted abstracts. The selection process relies on the knowledge, expertise and opinion of our peer reviewers, which guide the committee in making recommendations. These peers remain largely anonymous but represent a diverse group of people from specialists to general practitioners and include scientists, veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses from around the globe. Future committees will continue to need new and current reviewers to sustain the process into the future. So, should you get the e-mail invitation to review an abstract for Congress, please do consider participating in what can be a very rewarding process for both author and reviewer.

I hope that the presented abstracts are of interest to the 2025 Congress attendees and encourage all our members and veterinary colleagues to consider Congress as an avenue to present your research in the broadest sense, including experimental research as well as case material and material generated from the clinical audit cycle that is focused on equids and may lead to improved clinical practice.

James Crabtree

Guest Editor & Chair of the Clinical Research Sub-Committee 2025