Britain's Princess unveils plans for vet college

Jun 13, 2006, 14:57 GMT

Britain's Princess Royal, Princess Ann, has unveiled plans for a £37 million veterinary college.

The facility - sponsored by a multimillion fundraising campaign - will be based at Edinburgh University, which the royal visited yesterday (12.06.06).

The site of the existing institute - founded in 1823 - is to be sold when the new facilities are completed in 2009.

During her visit, Princess Ann presented first print examples of the modern building to representatives of the Royal School of Veterinary Studies.

According to The Scotsman.com website, the University of Edinburgh has spent over £11 million in last six years on improving its current institute and rebuilding animal hospitals.

Professor Elaine Watson, head of the Royal School of Veterinary Studies, said: 'This new veterinary school will allow the university to give trainees vets an even better educational experience by allowing the introduction of a cutting-edge veterinary curriculum.

'We are already the top vet school in the UK league tables, and with this move we will be competing with a handful of top veterinary schools in the world.

'This will be due not only to our unrivalled new facilities, but to the excellence and dedication of our staff.'

According to Britain's The Herald newspaper website, Princess Royal pledged her full support to the project and stressed the need for improvement in veterinary science.

University scholars agreed with the monarch's progressive views, specifically addressing the need for further research into relationship between human health problems and animals.

Elaine Watson said: 'The human-animal interference is rapidly growing and is now a vital area of veterinary research, especially in developing countries.

'The recent avian influenza epidemic has brought this sharply into focus and, according to the World Bank, could cost as much as £450 billion, unless we cope with it properly at an early stage.'

Copyright 2006 BANG Media International