NYCAVMA Annual Spring Conference: The 2016 NYCAVMA Annual Conference took place April 8th - April 10th in Niagara Falls, NY and featured Terry Dukes and Judith Sumner. APRIL 8TH - A DAY WITH JUDITH SUMNER This plant-centered workshop on herbal medicine for veterinarians began with traditional medicine and ethnobotany, from the Doctrine of Signatures to the evolution of secondary compounds in ecosystems and transitioned to a focus on science (while still including some lore and history) which allowed us to glean lessons from natural history, herbal medicine, Eastern traditions, zoopharmacognosy, and current research in veterinary herbal medicine.
Judith Sumner is a botanist who specializes in ethnobotany, medicinal botany, flowering plants, and plant adaptations. She has taught medicinal botany both at the college level and at botanical gardens, including the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Garden in the Woods and has lectured for the Integrative Veterinary Herbal Medicine Course at Tufts/Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She writes and lectures for the Herbal Academy of New England and has been a featured lecturer at the several Herb Society (USA) annual meetings. Judith graduated from Vassar College and completed graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,and at the British Museum (Natural History) and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus *Pittosporum*. She has published monographic studies in the *American Journal of Botany, Pollen et Spores, *and *Allertonia, *as well as monographing two families for *Flora Vitiensis Nova*. She is the author of *The Natural History of Medicinal Plants* and *American Household Botany*, which received the American Horticultural Society Book Award in 2005. In 2007 Judith was awarded the Gertrude B. Foster Award for Excellence in Herbal Literature by the Herb Society of America. She is currently writing a botanical history of World War II, tentatively titled *Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II*. Judith is a frequent invited lecturer for botanical and horticultural organizations and symposia, including the New York Botanical Garden, Mohonk Mountain, Cornell University, Maine Garden Day, and Strawbery Banke.
APRIL 9TH & 10TH - TERRY DURKES SERMINAR ON PULSE AND GOLD BEAD IMPLANTS Dr. Durkes covered the following during the course of his two day seminar:
Summary of acupuncture points that have special properties.
Belt meridians and where and how to use them.
Herniated disc condition in neck and back.
How important is acupuncture technique?
Changing blood values.
Chiropractic treatment using the pulse.
The two minute acupuncture treatment.
Changing energy fields in diagnosing and treating patients.
Auricular therapy for stroke.
Auricular therapy for allergies.
Gold bead implant and where to use it.
Gold bead implant for seizures.
Gold bead implant for hip dysplasia.
Gold bead implant for spondylosis of the back.
Gold bead implant for wobblers.
Gold bead implant for osteochondritis desicans of shoulder.
Gold bead implant for arthritis of elbow..
Gold bead implant for arthritis of knee
Dr. Durkes received his DVM degree from Purdue University in 1971 and a BS in nutrition in 1967. He became certified in Veterinary Acupuncture in 1975 and started his research in the gold bead implant and auricular acupuncture at that time. He has lectured on acupuncture and the gold bead implant since 1976. His motto is "treat all pets as if they were your own".
Are Thoresen on Biodynamic Farming, November 3rd - 5th 2106: Are Thoresen enjoyed working with our group so much that he returned to the Hudson Valley for another amazing seminar at the Won Dharma Center, Hawthorn Valley NY. He covered the following topics:
Introduction in Antroposophical veterinary medicine
the interaction between humans and animals
the preparations, what do they do
How to treat the animals without ordinary medicines
There was also a closing discussion and Q & A period.