The William Hunting Award 2007

BVA Congress, 29 September 2007

Mr Michael Stanford Chester was today (Saturday) announced as the winner of the William Hunting Award for 2007.  The announcement came during the Awards Ceremony at the British Veterinary Association’s Annual Congress in Belfast.

The William Hunting Award, named after the founder of The Veterinary Record, recognises the best contribution to The Veterinary Record during the year originating from practice.  Mr Stanford’s paper ‘Effects of UVB radiation on calcium metabolism in psittacine birds’ appeared in The Veterinary Record of August 19, 2006, volume 156, pages 236 to 241.

Notes for Editors

1. Mr Stanford’s paper described a study of calcium and vitamin D3  metabolism in captive grey parrots, which appears to be light dependent.  Disorders of calcium metabolism, including bone disorders, are common in these birds, and may be related to diets low in calcium or vitamin D3, or a shortage of UVB light.

In nature, grey parrots are indigenous to central Africa, where they live in exposed areas with little shade and high levels of natural sunlight.  Captive birds, on the other hand, are usually kept indoors with limited access to sunlight, where  a lack of ultraviolet B radiation can lead to vitamin D deficiency and associated problems with calcium metabolism.

Mr Stanford’s study involved two groups of 20 grey parrots fed either a seed- or pellet-based diet and kept in an indoor aviary in the UK.  In a carefully designed experiment, he was able to show that, over the course of a year, exposing birds to artificial UVB light for 12 hours each day increased concentrations of ionised calcium in the plasma of both groups of birds, independent of the calcium and vitamin D3 content of their diet.   As a result of his findings, he recommends that, as well as being fed formulated diets with adequate levels of calcium and vitamin D3, grey parrots should be provided with UVB radiation as a standard part of their husbandry.

The referees described this as well designed study with a clear practical outcome.  One remarked that it could have extremely important health and welfare implications for the large and increasing number of parrots kept in the UK.

2. For the Congress press office please contact the Europa Hotel front desk on 028 9026 6002 and ask for the 'BVA press office'.  The press office back at BVA HQ in London is on 020 7908 6340.  Alternative numbers are 07810 43 37 30 and 07929 62 03 25.

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