Attleborough Vet, Henry Lamb, who tackled bird flu outbreak wins top accolade

A commercial poultry and gamebird vet has scooped a prestigious accolade for his work tackling one of the UK’s largest animal health outbreaks on record.

Henry Lamb was praised for his work dealing with this year’s bird flu crisis in being crowned Young Vet of the Year at the British Veterinary Association (BVA) Awards’ gala dinner in London on Thursday.

Judges also acknowledged the role of Dr Lamb, who has worked at Crowshall Veterinary Services in Attleborough since 2018, in encouraging other young vets to join the poultry industry.

“To be named BVA Young Vet of the Year is a huge honour and it means all the more hearing about the outstanding work, dedication and skills of the other finalists,” he said.

“I am delighted that, after a challenging few years, the poultry sector has been highlighted, as all those involved have worked tirelessly to overcome the largest animal health outbreak the UK has experienced in recent times.

“I hope that winning this award will encourage more young vets to consider joining us in the poultry sector. It is extremely rewarding work.”

After graduating from the Royal Veterinary College in 2018, Dr Lamb, from Diss, began working at the Crowshall Lane surgery, providing dedicated consultancy and official veterinarian provision to the poultry and gamebird industry.

This included working through the recent bird flu outbreaks and preparing for export changes associated with Brexit.

On coming out on top of the 140 nominations for the award, BVA president Anna Judson said: “Henry’s dedication and hard work shines through in what is a particularly testing time for the poultry sector.

“His enthusiasm, not only for the work itself, but for encouraging and supporting other young vets and students to consider roles in the poultry sector, is inspirational.

“On behalf of all the judges, I wish Henry huge congratulations – he clearly has a bright future ahead of him.”