At BCVA Congress in Edinburgh today (Friday 10th October) President Kate Richards handed the chains of her office over to David Black for his 2025-2026 presidential term. Junior Vice President is Paul Burr, who is Lab Director at Biobest and returning to Board having previously served. Current Board member, Rose Jackson, will step into the role of Honorary Secretary, and Beatrice Yates as Honorary Treasurer.
David Black is Senior Director at Paragon Veterinary Group and a Founding Director of both Vet Salus, and Vet Sustain. David’s main clinical interest has been in dairy practice and cattle reproduction, with a focus on the development in advanced breeding technologies in cattle
More recently David has dedicated himself as an advocate for sustainability in the veterinary profession and agriculture - optimising health and production of livestock, selecting and breeding genetic traits that promote high health and welfare and providing evidence-based advice on how to improve the wellbeing of livestock, so we need less therapeutic medicine and in particular fewer antibiotics.
David was delighted to be a part of the launch of the Ruminant Antibiotic Stewardship Roadmap at BCVA Congress this week. This is a major collaborative initiative bringing together the UK ruminant sector to develop ways of promoting and evidencing responsible antibiotic usage (ABU).
The aim is to develop a roadmap for the sector to identify how to further promote and demonstrate responsible antibiotic stewardship at UK ruminant farm-level to drive progress and enhance animal health and welfare. The plan is to co-design how best to collate and report sufficient evidence of antibiotic usage at a national level to satisfy both customers and authorities.
New Board members coming onto the Board for the first time are Becca Cavill, Ruminant, Veterinary Adviser at Boehringer Ingelheim UK, Deborah Brown works for Dugdale Nutrition as their Veterinary Technical Manager. Leaving the Board at this AGM is James Adams, Andrew Crutchley, Jo Oultram, Sarah Tomlinson - along with Gareth Hateley, Ruth Vernon, John Blackwell. The association thanks all those finishing their terms for sharing their experience and expertise so freely and with such commitment.
BCVA Board 2025 – 2026
- Senior Vice President – Kate Richards
- President – David Black
- Junior Vice President – Paul Burr
- Honorary Secretary – Rose Jackson
- Honorary Treasurer - Beatrice Yates
- Nicky Bowden
- Deborah Brown
- Becca Cavill
- Amy Cox
- Mia Ellis
- Rob Howe
- Alice Miller
- Rebecca Nelson
- Navaratnam Partheeban
- Laura Roberts
- Zoe Shepherd
- Ed Simmons
