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In the Netherlands, the demand for veterinarians and veterinary nurses (VNs) working within referral care is rapidly growing and currently exceeds the amount of available board‐certified specialists. Simultaneously, a transparent structure to guide training and development and to assess quality of non‐specialist veterinarians and VNs working in a referral setting is lacking. In response, we developed learning pathways guided by an entrustable professional activity (EPA) framework and programmatic assessment to support personalised development and competence of veterinarians and VNs working in referral settings. Between 4 and 35 EPAs varying per discipline (n = 11) were developed. To date, 20 trainees across five disciplines have been entrusted. Trainees from these learning pathways have proceeded to acquire new EPAs in addition to their already entrusted set of EPAs or progressed to specialist training during (n = 3) or after successfully completing (n = 1) the learning pathway. Due to their outcome‐based approach, the learning pathways support flexible ways of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two 8‐month‐old Suffolk sheep, weighing 45 and 55 kg, respectively, were anaesthetised for an intrathalamic injection of an experimental drug. After an uneventful procedure and general anaesthesia using controlled mechanical ventilation, the sheep were weaned off the ventilator and allowed to breathe spontaneously with end‐tidal carbon dioxide (PE′CO2) levels remaining within normal limits. During recovery, intermittent apnoeic phases were observed with increasing PE′CO2 (>70 mmHg) and decreasing oxygen saturation of haemoglobin (SpO2) levels (90%–91%). The sheep appeared unresponsive, and reflexes were absent. This alternated with phases of normal mentation, normal reflexes and regular spontaneous ventilation, where ventilatory parameters improved. Tentative treatment to reduce intracranial pressure and administration of the opioid receptor antagonist naloxone were unsuccessful. Definite diagnosis of Cheyne–Stokes respiration is difficult but was suspected in these two cases; cerebral cortex damage, intracranial haemorrhage or opioid mediated respiratory rhythm disturbances are possible causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: It was investigated whether continuous rate infusion of the α2-adrenoceptor agonist dexmedetomidine can suppress memory formation by mechanisms other than reducing perception of sensory input in a fear-conditioning paradigm. Different groups of rats infused with either saline or dexmedetomidine (2.0, 4.0 or 10.0µg/kg bolus, followed by 2.0, 4.0 or 10.0µg/kg/h continuous rate infusion respectively), were subjected to a somatosensory-evoked potential (SEP) fear-conditioning paradigm. This paradigm combined the pairing of an innoxious conditioned stimulus (CS) and a noxious unconditioned stimulus (US), of which the latter was used to generate the SEPs (training phase).The following day, the perception of the US during the training phase was assessed by presenting the CS only and subsequently scoring the resulting duration of freezing behaviour (testing phase). Freezing behaviour was reduced only in those groups which demonstrated reduced SEPs. Based on these findings, it is concluded that dexmedetomidine suppresses memory formation only at doses reducing central nervous system activity in response to sensory input. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]