The 2021 ECVO congress occurred for the first time online. After the 2020 version in Rhodes was cancelled, due to the Coronavirus pandemic. This year’s conference topic was uveal diseases. This meeting was dedicated in the memory of Professor Gil Ben-Shlomo, whose passing has been a huge loss to Veterinary Ophthalmology. His contributions to ECVO and presence at our meetings will be greatly missed.

It started with two days of very interesting and high-quality presentations in the scientific program. Thursday afternoon the HED session, presented by Marianne Richter and Claus Bundgaard-Nielsen, was informative and educational. The use of Kahoot made it very interactive.

Friday started with high-quality presentations during the scientific program. The State-of-the-Art lecture was performed by Prof. Dr. med. Stephan Thurau, titled: ‘Uveitis: what do we know already and what do we still need to know?’ Prof. Dr. med. Thurau is an associate professor at the University Eye Hospital in Munich and his main clinical research is focused on uveitis. In the afternoon another very interesting lecture was given by Prof. Andrew Knight about animals in research. Titled: ‘Critically evaluating the use of animal models within research’. Prof. Knight is a professor of Animal Welfare and Ethics and Founding Director of the centre of Animal Welfare at England’s University of Winchester.

Poster presentations were available to download during the scientific program and delegates were again able to vote for the two best poster presentations.

Friday afternoon, during the closing ceremony, the following prizes were awarded:

• Best Resident Presentation: T.P. Large- IN VITRO SUSCEPTIBILITY OF CANINE CORNEAL BACTERIAL PATHOGENS TO THREE CROSS-LINKING PROTOCOLS
• Best Oral Presentation: L. Sebbag- ALBUMIN IN TEARS MODULATES BACTERIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TO TOPICAL ANTIBIOTICS IN OPHTHALMOLOGY
• Runner-Up Oral Presentation: A. H. Marx- RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW OF RETROBULBAR DISEASE IN 185 CASES (DOGS, CATS AND SMALL MAMMALS) TO INVESTIGATE THE DIAGNOSTIC VALUE OF COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY +/- FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY OR HISTOPATHOLOGY
• Best Poster Presentation: M. Voitekha - FINE NEEDLE INTRAOCULAR BIOPSY FOR DIAGNOSIS OF ANTERIOR SEGMENT TUMORS IN DOGS AND CATS
• Runner-Up Poster Presentation: V. Mezzadri- UVEAL MELANOMA ASSOCIATED WITH NEVUS OF OTA IN A GERMAN SHEPHERD

Saturday was the continuing education session. This day consisted of several speakers presenting about different aspects of uveal diseases: Prof. Dr. Stephan Thurau, Dr. Rebecca Bellone, Leandro Teixeira, Richard McMullen, Prof. Dr. Keith Linder, Dr. Simon Petersen-Jones, Prof. Dr. Gerhild Wildner.

During the afternoon, the AGM took place online for the first time. The online voting went smoothly. This year the ECVO welcomed no new diplomates because the exam was postponed to be held online in the first week of June.



The Masterclass took place all day Sunday with seven speakers who gave additional insights on diagnostic approaches to uveitis in human and horses, current genetic investigations of uveal disease in horses, pigment development to disease, ocular melanosis, uveal neoplasia and future therapies for uveal disease. This was presented by the same speakers on Saturday.



The president, Heidi Featherstone, closed the meeting by announcing that the next 2022 ECVO congress will be held in Salzburg, Austria.