Teagasc Moorepark 5K raises funds for VIVA

·       Aine Collins, one of the winners of the Mike O’Leary Trust Bursary in the past and now a PhD student in Moorepark, recently organised a 5 km run on the campus in aid of Bothar and VIVA. This is Aine’s report – “On July 27, an enthusiastic gathering of staff, researchers, PhD students, summer interns and Teagasc Moorepark family members joined together to run a 5.2 km road race in support of the charities Bothar and Volunteers in Irish Veterinary Assistance (VIVA). The event was held throughout the picturesque Teagasc Moorepark (Fermoy) campus which led runners and walkers around the rolling pastures and along the farm roadways where they had to carefully dodge evidence the cows had walked the same path earlier that day! With upbeat music blasting at the start line and cheers from the nearly sixty runners, there was a great atmosphere about the yard.  Blazing the trail was Michael Liddane at 21:16 minutes who came in first overall. PhD student Aisling Claffey was the first to cross the line of the female runners at 24:58 minutes. The event was a huge success and the effort raised €575 for the organisations”. 

The runners head off through the Moorepark Farm

Merial walking 141 million steps for VIVA

Merial Animal Health has signed up with 28 farm vets to join a charity challenge across Ireland and the UK to walk a combined 141 million steps for charity. All funds raised in Ireland go to VIVA. The challenge is part of Merial's #calfmatters campaign to raise awareness of calf pneumonia and to improve the health of beef and dairy calves by vaccinating against the disease.

Joe Broderick, Merial Animal Health's Irish business manager, said of the challenge: "Our message is about prevention and improving health and productivity. We are all prone to exercising less than we should, and while Merial has launched the #calfmatters campaign to improve the health and well-being of calves, we wanted to help vets improve their health and fitness too"

The Irish vets have been given FitBit Alta fitness trackers and been assigned to virtual teams to compete in achieving the weekly goals. Weekly targets include the distances for some iconic routes around the world including crossing the Artic Circle (560,000 steps) and walking the San Andreas fault (1,600,000 steps).

Updates will be posted in the #calfmatters Facebook page and @CalfMatters Twitter feed. The challenge will conclude at the Cattle Conference on October 19th -21st

Supporters can make a donation through the CalfMatters "Just Giving" page here