January: Endings and Beginnings

Friday, 01 January 2021 09:00

2020 has been a trying year for many people around the world. As we look back on 2020 despite everything WATCVM was able to have some highlighting moments.

We congratulate our 2020 Grant Research Awardees Dr. Jacquelyn Olson (Efficacy of Two Topical Chinese Herbals and a Conventional Therapy in Virto Against Bacteria Cultured from the Ears of Canine Otitis Externa Cases) and Dr. Lyndy Soboleski (Effect of Electroacupuncture on PRP Concentration in Horses using Acupoints SO-10 and GB-39) and look forward to seeing their progress during 2021.

Our 2020 Board of Director’s meeting went off without a hitch and we welcome our newest President Dr. Roselle Hartwigsen from South Africa and we thank Dr. Ferdinand Nissen from Germany for his years as President. We also welcomed four new Board Members: Dr. Kai Fan from China, Dr. Janice Huntingford from Canada, Dr. Kendra Pope from USA, and Dr. Mizuho Uchida from Japan. It was also a delight to had representatives from all over the world attending both in person and virtually: Japan, China, USA, Iran, Ireland, Canada, Slovenia, Austria, Taiwan, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, West Indies, and Singapore.

After much rearranging and lots of hard work from Chi University we were able to hold the Annual International Conference of TCVM who’s main theme was on Gastrointestinal & Hepatobiliary Diseases. With the new virtual and in-person set up we had nearly 200 attendees from around the world.

Congratulations to the awardees for their outstanding contributions to TCVM and to the Conference.

Ma Shi Haung Awardee

Judy Saik, DVM, CVA, CVFT, CVCH

Outstanding Contributor Awardees

Ashley Geoghegan, DVM, CVA, CVFT, CVCH

Harvey Ramirez, DVM, CVA

Suzanne Brannan, DVM, CVA

Larry McCaskill, DVM, CVA, CVFT, CVCH, CVTP, CTCVMP

Excellent Speaker Awardees

Michelle Tilghman, DVM, CVA

Donna Hein, DVM, CVA, CVFT, CVTP, CVCH, CTCVMP, CVMMP

Mistie Vargas, DVM, CVA, CVFT, CVPT, CVCH, CTCVMP, CVMMP, CVBMA, MSTCVM

Silvia de Valle, DVM, CVA, CVTP

Suzan Seelye, DVM, CVA, CVTP

Also in 2020, we celebrated the first ever World TCVM Day on November 11^th in honor of Professor Yu Chuan’s great contribution to TCVM as well as all the TCVM practitioners of today and yesterday. Dr. Yu was a pioneer of modern TCVM in China and was responsible for the establishment of the undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree for TCVM in 1958, and the Master’s of Science training program in TCVM in 1979 at the Beijing Agriculture University. He was the editor in chief of the first textbooks and monographs on TCVM and Chinese veterinary acupuncture in 20th century.

Dr. Yu Chuan was born in San-yuan, Shaanxi in November of 1924. He loved nature and animals. When he grew up, he went to the Army Veterinary Medical School and graduated in 1946 and taught at the Agricultural College of North China University from 1948 to 1950. Dr. Yu Chuan then joined the faculty at Beijing Agricultural University currently renamed as China Agricultural University, in 1950 and became a full tenured professor, serving in that capacity until his death in November of 2005.
To read more about Dr. Yu click here for the WATCVM Newsletter Article.

Now it is time to say hello to 2021, year of the Metal Ox. The year of the Metal Ox is said to be lucky and a good time to focus on relationship both friendship and love. It is a year of economy stability and a year where Yin energy will be strong and where responsibilities will weigh heavily, and one’s must be strong and disciplined. This is the year where problems are said to be solved. We wish to best to everyone in this new year and look forward to what 2021 has in store.

A Message from Dr. Roselle Hartwigsen, South Africa, WATCVM President

My journey with Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) has been nothing short of a fairy-tale. As a newly graduated veterinarian, I ended up in rural mixed practice in South Africa. A challenging place to practice any type of medicine. Like most young veterinarians I was eager to help all creatures great and small, but with limited resources, I was restricted to what I was able to do for my patients. I often reached a point in cases where I knew there is more to be done but lacked the extra tools to do it. This was the point in the fairy-tail where I went on a journey of discovery, tests, and trials…and found acupuncture.

TCVM became a beacon of light in cases where all hope was lost. A tool in the toolbox of a desperate veterinarian. TCVM has the wonderful effect of saving lives where it was thought that death is the only option. At the very least it creates comfort and peace in our patients and pet owners when it is time to leave this world. To say that TCVM is a passion for many of us is an understatement, and for me, it is a way of life. Therefore, I am so grateful and humbled to be appointed as your WATCVM president for the next 3 years.

Since the inception of the WATCVM in 2013, our vision has been to expand globally in the standards, practice, and teaching of TCVM. We now have over 40 board members representing regions and countries. Each board member has a mandate to actively improve the practice and perception of TCVM within the country or region they represent. This is done through the education of veterinarians and veterinary students, research within the field, and standardization of acupuncture points and herbal formulas.

WATCVM members represent the TCVM fraternity from across the globe. Our members are privileged to learn from Masters in TCVM within the organization. Members receive access to the peer-reviewed American Journal of TCVM, the WATCVM quarterly newsletter, online discussion groups, one-on-one mentoring, and annual conferences. Through discussions, research, and education the WATCVM and its members are taking the practice of TCVM mainstream in the world of veterinary science. Opening doors of possibility and hope for patients across the globe.

As president of this wonderful organization, I would like to urge every member to keep your passion for TCVM burning bright. Keep treating patients, seeing miracles happen, and educating clients. The past year has been challenging on a global scale, to say the least. There was however a great deal of wonderful realizations that occurred within human consciousness. We finally realized that health is not just something you seek from a doctor or hospital when the body is in disease.

That modern medicine is more confused than ever when talking about preserving health within a body and solutions need to be holistic and more natural. We realized that we are one giant society in a single living organism called earth. We impact each other from a thousand miles apart. We realized that even in the darkest hours, light will shine through, solutions will be discovered and we as a human race can unite in a single cause. Let us mirror these lessons within our wonderful WATCVM organization. With mutual support and love, we can spread the wonderful work of TCVM globally, creating health and happiness for patients, pet parents, and veterinarians alike.

Bio: Dr. Roselle Hartwigsen qualified as veterinarian from the University of Pretoria in 2011. Thereafter she was certified as a Veterinary Acupuncturist in 2013 from the Chi Institute Europe. She spent the next couple of years working in private practice, integrating complementary medicine especially acupuncture when treating patients. Her clients are found in South Africa, Botswana and Dubai. In 2016 she spent a year treating horses exclusively and bringing veterinary acupuncture to the horse racing industry in Gauteng. Dr. Roselle has a passion for integrating complementary veterinary medicine into daily veterinary care in South Africa. One way she tries to achieve this is by education veterinarians through the Complementary Veterinary Medicine Group of South Africa (CVMG), and the Chi University (formerly Chi Institute).