Bella Moss Foundation works actively with government and veterinary professionals and leading teaching hospitals to help promote education and awareness of resistant bacterial infections. These quotes reflect what these organisations and individuals say about out work.
BMF clinical advisors in the U.S
Like it is in humans, MRSA is one of the most important emerging infectious disease problems in companion animals. MRSA infections can have devastating impacts on animals, and on the relationships of people and their pets. The ability of MRSA to move between people and their pets is of tremendous concern and has implications for both the human and veterinary medical fields. While there no realistic hope that MRSA will be eliminated, it is becoming clear that MRSA can be controlled if adequate time, energy and resources are dedicated to the task. However, a clear, concerted and organized effort is required to have any hope of achieving this. The efforts of the Bella Moss Foundation to increase the profile of MRSA in animals and to help bring together MRSA researchers, is a critical first step to achieving this lofty but realistic goal.
Dr Andrew Hillier, DPT Veterinary Clinical Sciences
Ohio State University, Colombus, Ohio USA. http://vet.osu.edu/hospital.htm
MRSA has emerged as one of the most significant infectious diseases of the 21st Century affecting humans and animals, with already enormous impact on the health of thousands of individuals, and a rapidly increasing impact and burden on human and animal healthcare. In these early years of research and investigation of MRSA in animals and the spread of MRSA between animals and humans, their is still limited knowledge of this serious and often fatal infection leading to uncertainty amongst pet owners, veterinarians, healthcare professionals and the general public. Jill Moss and the Bella Moss Foundation, through their work and collaborative efforts with researchers, veterinarians, public health officials, educators and the like, provide a much needed source of information and a link for all parties involved as we move forward in raising awareness and knowledge of MRSA in animals.
Dr Richard Oehler MD. University of South Florida College of Medicine
http://health.usf.edu/medicine/internalmedicine/infectious/
I am very pleased to be serving as an advisor to the Bella Moss Foundation. BMF has for several years been a unique international resource for pet owners worldwide who desperately need information and support regarding MRSA and its effect on their pets and family. The Bella Moss Foundation has now taken on a new goal to broaden their resources in America. I look forward to helping them to raise awareness in the U.S and Canada and will strive to improve the collaboration between the veterinary and human medicine professions in North America.
BMF work with the UK government
Ruth Lysons (DEFRA) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Deputy Director Food and Farming Group Public Health Protection, Livestock demographics and Surveillance Team (Chair of the DEFRA Antimicrobial Resistance coordination group’s MRSA sub group committee)
http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/zoonoses/mrsa.htm
Jill Moss is an active, energetic and productive member of Defra’s MRSA sub group. This group brings together vets and doctors, human and animal policy makers, official representatives of a number of interested groups such as the British Veterinary Association, representatives of livestock keepers, and through Jill, pet owners. The group meets regularly to consider emerging evidence on this subject and to identify ways to minimise the impact of MRSA on animals and their treatment, as well as considering the possible implications of MRSA in animals for people.
John Fitzgerald Veterinary Medicine Operations Director (VMD)
http://www.vmd.gov.uk/
Antimicrobial resistance is an important issue for all of us and our pets. Resistant bacteria are more difficult to treat and do not respect species or international boundaries. So it is important that all interested parties work together to minimise the growth and spread of antimicrobial resistance. Jill Moss’s contributions have helped develop messages for pet owners and guidelines for the veterinary surgeons to improve understanding of the problem and how to reduce the risk. The Bella Moss Foundation provides a vital link with pet owners and this will be enhanced by BMF’s charity status and new website.
How BMF has helped promote education within the veterinary profession
Donna Lewis RVN, MBVNA
President, the British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) http://www.bvna.org.uk
The BVNA are pleased to support The Bella Moss Foundation which provides valuable information and support on MRSA. BVNA’s current President Donna Lewis has personally used the website on several occasions and found it to be extremely useful when she feared she was being faced with an MRSA outbreak in her practice and feels the Bella Moss Foundation does an excellent job in raising the awareness of MRSA infection in the pet population.
British small animal veterinary association
To raise awareness of MRSA, BSAVA has produced comprehensive guidelines and a helpful Frequently Asked Questions document for the veterinary profession. This information can be accessed online, by anyone, at.
http://www.bsava.com/Advice/MRSA/tabid/171/Default.aspx To represent the best advice, much of this work has been done in consultation with other bodies, including the Bella Moss Foundation. The practical benefits gained by developing effective guidelines for dealing with MRSA will help reduce the frequency and consequences of this serious problem.
Mr Nic Blayney (Former) President the British Veterinary Association
BVSc MRCVS. http://www.bva.co.uk/
The BVA is much appreciative of the significant role played by The Bella Moss Foundation, established following the loss of a much-loved pet, in promoting better awareness of MRSA within the veterinary profession. The BVA continues to take the threat of this infection to animals very seriously and is committed to promoting the highest possible standards for the control of all infectious diseases within veterinary practice. In order to further help vets protect the companion animals they treat the BVA has established practice protocols and our MRSA Subgroup has also worked with commercial laboratories to produce a flowchart for the identification of MRSA and MRSI in practice”
Dr Paul R. Manning, MA, VetMB, MSc(VetGP), DProf, MRCVS. Astonlee Veterinary Hospital, Newport Pagnell, Bucks. UK. http://www.astonlee.co.uk/content.php?Content=Cruciate+Ligament+Surgery+In+Dogs+Or++Dog+Knee+Surgery
I have been impressed by the commitment and achievements of Jill Moss in raising awareness of the importance of MRSA, risk assessment and prevention in particular to practicing veterinary surgeons. I have been very fortunate in avoiding MRSA in my hospital through hygiene measures. I feel the work is an ongoing and needed programme, particularly when I hear of reports of MRSA in dogs who have had surgery for cruciate ligament ruptures. This was the circumstances which lead to the establishment of the Bella Moss Foundation following the death of Bella after cruciate surgery. The elimination of all postoperative infections, including MRSA, should be the goal of all veterinary practitioners. The sharing of knowledge and experience that has been facilitated by the BMF is a very valuable resource for the good of animal welfare.’
Trevor Turner, Bvet Med, MRCVS
Forty years experience in general veterinary practice, is now a forensic expert witness for over 20 years until 2008 was chief vet for Crufts dog show.
Jill Moss was understandably devastated following the death of her beloved Bella, a ten years old Samoyed, who had been admitted for routine orthopaedic stifle surgery and died in August 2004 as a result of MRSA infection. At that time MRSA was relatively unknown, unrecognised or unacknowledged in general veterinary practice but as a result of her loss Jill Moss has worked tirelessly to ensure that awareness both within the profession and generally is raised in relation to this threat.
In the spring of 2005 this resulted in the launch of the Bella Moss Foundation, a charitable company, aimed at providing a source of information regarding the threat of MRSA to our pets. As a result, many routine veterinary procedures have been revised to reduce the risk from this previously unrecognised bacterial threat. Jill Moss is to be congratulated on her efforts. She has achieved much in a relatively short time; long may it continue.
Other professionals who have supported our work
Dick Voigt, VetMed DCP MRCVS
Former Director, Veterinary Services, The Blue Cross Animal Hospital.
As a charity providing both veterinary and adoption services for dogs, cats and other animals, The Blue Cross is only too aware of the dangers posed to people and their pets by MRSA.
The Bella Moss Foundation is to be commended for its work in raising awareness of this disease, as well as providing advice and promoting further research.
The late Nicholas J. Mills, M.A., Vet. M.B., M.R.C.V.S.
Senior Partner, Cinque Ports Veterinary Associates, E Sussex
It takes many years to build up the reputation of one’s veterinary practice. MRSA can damage this reputation overnight. The practicing veterinary profession has been given a warning from the human hospital environment that MRSA can become a very serious clinical problem. In my opinion, practicing vets should heed this warning and institute the highest standards of hygiene and management to protect patients, clients and staff from MRSA.”
Sadly Nick died in 2009 and BMF greatly miss Nick as a colleague and friend we have dedicated our website www.veterinarynursetrainingonline.org to Nick for his inspiration towards the idea of making interactive educational resources available for the vet profession.
Andrew Waller, PhD BSc Head of Bacteriology at The Animal Health Trust.
Jill Moss is to be congratulated for her unerring determination to prevent MRSA needlessly claiming more lives through a lack of awareness. Her web site is an invaluable resource for pet owners, veterinarians and researchers alike and I am proud to be associated with her campaign
Mrs Sue Paterson MA Vet MB DVD DipECVD MRCVS, RCVS and European Specialist in Veterinary Dermatology, Director Rutland House Referral Hospital St Helens Merseyside.
As a consultant dermatologist I deal with MRSA infections in pets if not on a daily but a weekly basis. This frightening but totally treatable disease causes devastating clinical signs in dogs and cats. The Bella Moss Foundation works tirelessly to increase client and owners awareness of this dreadful infection. I can only applaud Jill Moss's efforts to educate pet owners and veterinary professionals so we can identify disease early, treat successfully and prevent animal and owner suffering.
MEG CURNICK, CALDER VETERINARY GROUP. West Yorkshire
BVSc MRCVS – Small animal vet and associate partner in a large veterinary first opinion/referral hospital practice.
The Bella Moss Foundation is to be congratulated for bringing MRSA into the forefront of veterinary consciousness, and for doing so consistently, rationally, scientifically, and without hysteria. Its efforts to encourage the Veterinary profession to educate itself about this increasingly common condition are to be applauded, and will contribute significantly towards the raising of practice standards in this area.
Dr Mary Fraser BVMS PhD CertVD CBiol MIBiol MRCVS
Lecturer in Veterinary Nursing at Napier University, Edinburgh
It is thanks to the commitment and hard work of the Bella Moss Foundation, that the prevalence of MRSA in animals has been recognised by both veterinary professionals and the pet owning public. By bringing together researchers in the field of infection control from both a human and a veterinary perspective the foundation plays a vital role in the advancement of knowledge and practical applications of this work to veterinary practice.
Harley Farmer, PhD BVSc(hons) BVBiol(path) MRCVS
The emergence of MRSA in dogs is a worrying matter with the potential to become an ever increasing problem for both humans and animals. Too many humans in the community now carry MRSA, usually without any problems, and it would be nice to prevent the same high carrier rate developing in dogs. The human situation evolved in the absence of any sustained prevention strategy, but the Bella Moss Foundation provides the opportunity to prevent that being repeated in dogs. MRSA is here to stay, and I am pleased that Jill Moss is striving to introduce our prevention philosophy into her commendable campaign.
Richard Allport, BvetMed, VetMFHom, MRCVS
The Natural Medicine Centre Potter Bar, Herts.
The increasing number of cases of MRSA in pets proves how vital the work of Jill Moss and the Foundation is. “I have known Jill as a client and a friend for many years and had the privilege of knowing Bella, and treating her with acupuncture and other natural therapies. Bella's death will not be in vain if the Foundation, which Jill has devoted so much time and energy to, achieves its aims.
“There is so much that vets can do to prevent the occurrence of MRSA, and to treat affected pets. Vets must become aware of the potential dangers of MRSA, put strict protocols in place to check for and prevent the spread of MRSA, and be able to treat any cases that occur.
“The Foundation is instrumental in promoting this awareness and keeping the profession up to date with developments, as well as giving advice and help to concerned pet carers. “I am proud to be associated with BMF.
