Nine months of another successful year for ABCD have passed and now we are preparing for our next Board Meeting, which will take place in December.

This year we completely revised our ABCD Guideline on Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), having considered recent research findings relating to diagnosis and management. Our Lungworm and Feline Injection Site Sarcoma (FISS) guidelines have been updated and a new guideline has been prepared for Enzephalitozoon cuniculi. We have designed a new version of the ABCD FeLV Diagnostic Tool that aims to help our veterinary colleagues to navigate this complex topic, providing clear diagnostic pathways to follow in various scenarios.

We are delighted that the aspiration of the ABCD Board members to evolve from an expert group into an association has been realised: ABCD Europe was established in July 2019! The Association is governed by the Executive Board, which is composed of the President (Margaret Hosie), Vice-President (Karin Möstl) and Treasurer (Corine Boucraut).

The establishment of the ABCD Europe association is significant, underlining the independence of ABCD and offers us the opportunity to acquire additional sponsors to support our activities.

Our current projects include: updating each of our existing guidelines and fact sheets and preparing new guidelines; all of these will be discussed during our December meeting. We will continue to improve our website and to communicate the outcomes and achievements of ABCD-Europe via our newsletters.

Upon a joint initiative of veterinary clinicians, scientists and an industry sponsor, the Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCD) has been constituted. In 2005, ABCD held its first meeting in Lyon, France. Its objectives are to communicate scientific developments in feline infectious diseases, to establish a rational base for vaccine use and for disease prevention and control in the cat and to publish its conclusions for the companion animal practitioners’ scene. It is achieving this goal by organizing conventions, at which specific issues are scheduled, discussed and agreed upon. The objective is to define a code of practice that reflects the present state of knowledge on infectious diseases of the cat.