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Welcome to AMRRIC
AMRRIC is an independent group of Veterinarians, academics, health professionals and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We work to improve the health and wellbeing of companion animals and improve the overall health and wellbeing of remote Indigenous communities by:
- implementing best practice sustainable dog health programs
- facilitating knowledge sharing programs
- providing veterinary support and volunteer veterinary programs
- promoting and developing scientific research
- holding national conferences to contribute to best practice and the body of knowledge
- policy development and assisting shires/councils with strategic planning
- public health support and Indigenous Environmental Health Worker support.
- providing animal management training
- the development of key resources.
NEWS!!!!! AMRRIC happily announces the long awaited…………
‘Dog Health Programs in Indigenous Communities- an Environmental Health Practitioners Guide’ by Dr Samantha Phelan.
This comprehensive guide (339 pages) has been written as a reference for people wanting to make dogs healthier in their own communities or in communities they work in. Click here for chapter summaries
The Guide is highly visual, colorful and contains drawn summaries of text information as well as photos of relevant diseases and signs of disease.
Don’t forget the ‘Caring For Dogs, Community and Country’ Educational DVD is also still available. Only $10.00
AMRRIC Member of the Month July 2010- Dr Graeme Brown
Graeme Brown graduated in Veterinary Science from the University of Sydney in 1967. After graduation, Graeme worked for nearly 2 years in the NSW Department of Agriculture as a veterinary officer and in late 1968, he became an assistant in a small animal practice in Newcastle.After 18 months in practice in Newcastle, he travelled to Great Britain and spent two years as a locum in various mixed and small animal practices throughout the United Kingdom.
On returning to Australia in 1972, Graeme established Merewether Veterinary Hospital which is a companion animal practice in Newcastle suburb.
Graeme has a particular interest in the diseases and surgery of wildlife and in 1988, was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study in USA, Great Britain and France. It was during this study that he gained a greater understanding of population dynamics as it relates to free-living wildlife.
In 1993, Graeme accompanied a University of Newcastle health research team to the remote community of Yuendumu, in the Tanami Desert of NT. The poor state of the dogs at that time was of obvious concern to the community members (75% had signs of mange), so much so that Graeme became a regular visitor to the community to treat the dogs for internal and external parasites with cydectin pour-on. It was this procedure that alerted Graeme to the fact that, despite the large numbers of pups being born, there were always the same number of dogs being treated – in other words, the community could only support a certain number of dogs. This observation was the catalyst for a PhD study on the population dynamics of free-roaming dogs in remote Indigenous communities, which was awarded in 2006.
From 2007 and 2010, Graeme has been an ARC Research Fellow (AMRRIC was an industry partner) working with the ‘Healthy Dogs – Healthy Communities’ team based in the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney. This has involved looking at the links between dog health and human health in the remote communities of Ti Tree and Nguiu NT, Yarrabah Qld, Bidyadanga WA and Collarenebri and Goodooga in NSW. Graeme is currently employed as a Lecturer in Veterinary Parasitology, but has a continued research interest in zoonotic diseases.In his spare time, Graeme plays tennis, surfs and attends to his small beef cattle property at Stroud, NSW.
Thankyou for visiting us.
