The BVA’s 2021-22 president is Justine Shotton, who has pledged to make sustainability a key priority for the veterinary profession over the next 12 months.

Dr Shotton has taken a sabbatical from her role as veterinary services manager at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire to focus on the presidency, and took time out of relocating to London to join the Vet Times Podcast to discuss her objectives for the year ahead.

She also previews some of the sessions taking place at BVA Congress – being hosted by the London Vet Show in November – that will explore the role the profession can play in tackling climate change.
________________________

??????? ??????? ???? ??? ?????
Justine Shotton BVSc, MSc, MRCVS, is a 2008 University of Bristol veterinary graduate with a first class intercalated degree in veterinary pathology from the RVC

She has always had a passion for conservation – after graduating she volunteered at wildlife rehabilitation centres in Guatemala and a small animal clinic in Honduras before spending five years working as a mixed practice vet in Oxfordshire. After completing a master’s in wild animal health from the RVC and Zoological Society of London (ZSL), she joined the ZSL as a postgraduate research assistant and wildlife vet for its Species Recovery Programme. While there, she researched and advised on disease risks and management strategies for reintroductions and translocations of native and European wildlife species following local extinctions or population reductions.

Since 2015, Dr Shotton has worked at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire. As veterinary services manager, she leads a team of veterinary professionals and animal scientists to optimise the welfare of zoo and wild animals, and is involved in several wildlife reintroduction projects, including the international programme to reintroduce the scimitar oryx back into the wild in Chad in 2016.

Alongside her veterinary and conservation work, Dr Shotton works as a small animal and emergency veterinary locum in Hampshire. When not in practice, Dr Shotton lectures on exotics and zoo animal medicine at the University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine and helms the veterinary zoological elective for the university’s final-year veterinary students.

During her year as BVA junior vice-president (2020-21) she has played an integral role in development of the imminent BVA policy on responsible use of parasiticides, supported the launch of the Greener Practice Checklist and represented the BVA on the UK One Health Co-ordination Group and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe.