The OV Conference returns for 2025

Pull up a chair and join us for some free CPD this autumn. The full OV Conference programme may be taking a break in 2025 – the full conference will return in 2026 – but, in its place, we are running a series of interesting webinars. We have some great speakers, who are experts in their fields, discussing content that you can’t get anywhere else. And it’s all completely free CPD!

The event for Official Vets

Since the first OV Conference took place in 2015, the profession has navigated a number of significant events, most notably Brexit and the resulting changes to EU exports, the largest avian influenza outbreak on record and the increased threats of African swine fever and bluetongue arriving in the UK, to name just a few. The conference has covered all of these, bringing in experts to provide the latest findings and advice.

In 2020, COVID-19 significantly impacted the conference, forcing it to adapt and go “virtual” for the first time. This move proved to be a popular one, and it has remained online ever since, with delegates and speakers alike enjoying the freedom of attending from their own home or practice.

What’s on offer for 2025?

Official Veterinarians (OVs) and animal health paraprofessionals (AHPs) are at the cutting-edge of the fast-moving and often complicated world of exports, imports, animal health testing and disease monitoring. There is often a lot to remember, and the rules can quickly change. Given the dynamic nature of the role, the OV Conference for 2025 has embraced this and the conference will be offered as a series of six webinars. What’s more, they’re completely free and will cover some of the common work that OVs or AHPs can undertake, offering helpful insights, updates on current goings-on and a refresher on best practice for optimal results.

The 2025 OV Conference programme

Our first three webinars are already live and available to watch here. A full list of speakers and webinar topics can be found in Table 1.

Introducing our speakers and topics

Mihai Miron, MRCVS, is our first speaker and will be sharing his top tips for exporting to Australia. As the managing director and business partner at Heathrow Veterinary Services, Mihai dedicated himself to streamlining and enhancing the pet export process, forging partnerships with private pet owners and pet travel agents. It is this experience that he brings to our first webinar: “Top tips for exporting to Australia”. This webinar is live on the site now and is a topic relevant to a lot of OVs and veterinary practices. It provides 30 minutes of CPD.

Our next speaker is Roger Cunningham, BVetMed, CertBSP, MRCVS, who is going to discuss “A gold standard for managing export certification work”. Having been involved in a large volume of export certification for almost 10 years, Roger identified a need for managing the workflow more effectively, thus “Scooby” was created. We are lucky that Roger has agreed to demonstrate this bespoke software for us this year and show us a gold standard to managing export certification. This webinar is online and ready to view and provides 40 minutes of CPD.

Our third webinar is courtesy of Claire Wade, BVSc, MRCVS, a training and regulatory (OV) advisor with the APHA. Claire has a wealth of knowledge about the different OV and AHP courses and has provided an overview and insight into the new approved blood sampler (ABS) role. This is a new qualification that was launched for veterinary paraprofessionals in England and Wales on 31 July 2025.

 Upcoming webinars

 We have three more webinars still to come to the OV Conference platform:

• Sara Higgins, BVMS, MVSc, DACVIM-LA, MRCVS, PGCert, veterinary advisor in the Veterinary Exotic Notifiable Disease Unit of the APHA will give us an update on African horse sickness
• Sue Quinney, veterinary head of OV regulatory affairs at the APHA, will be giving us a regulatory affairs update
• Adrian Colloff, Clare Benton and Ian Vernon of the National Wildlife Management Centre, APHA Woodchester Park, will be giving us an update on TB vaccination in badgers

For one week after each webinar, you will be able to submit questions to the speaker and the answers will be posted on the discussion forum. After this time, the forum will be available to view, but submitted questions may not be answered.

How can I access the webinars?

The webinars can be accessed by registering for free on the OV Conference website. You then need to click on “Click to access the webinars”, which will give you free access to the webinars and the discussion forum. You can also sign up to hear about the 2026 conference or even buy access to the 2024 conference recordings, which are still available (Figure 1 and Figure 2).

When are the OV webinars available?

The 2025 Official Vet Conference is already available: there are three webinars ready and waiting for you, and more will be added over the autumn. All the 2025 webinars will then be available until 31 March 2026. OV Conference 2024 recordings will be available until 15 December 2025.

Who can attend the OV Conference?

It’s not just OVs who will find something of interest. The range of topics on offer provides helpful background information on issues with wide-ranging impacts across the veterinary profession and, as such, the OV Conference is relevant to OVs, vets, AHPs, One Health Capacity Building (OHCB) delegates, nurses, practice managers and students.

How does this fit with my CPD requirements?

Each free webinar is eligible to claim as CPD; you simply need to complete a short feedback questionnaire. It will then be possible to access and download a digital CPD certificate for each webinar that you have watched. There is also the opportunity to submit questions to the speakers for the first week after each webinar is launched and see what other questions have been posed by other attendees. Did we already mention? It’s completely free!