The National Sheep Association (NSA) has announced that highly respected sheep vet Fiona Lovatt as the deserving recipient of the NSA George Hedley Memorial Award for 2023 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the UK sheep industry.

Ms Lovatt is well known for her passion for enthusing farm vets to actively engage with sheep farmers through good practice principles that embrace preventative measures and responsible medicine use.

She can also be credited as a founder of the Flock Health Club concept, now running the sheep veterinary consultancy business, Flock Health Ltd, which works with vets, sheep farmers, processors, retailers and pharmaceutical companies in UK and abroad.

NSA South East region chair Yann Le Du, who was a nominator of Fiona for the award, said: “The Flock Health club concept has revolutionised sheep farmer and vet engagement. For this reason, amongst many others, Fiona is held in high esteem in the sheep industry and is fully justified in being awarded with this prestigious title.”

As the clinical lead for medicines for the charity RCVS Knowledge, Fiona established and now leads the widely collaborative antimicrobial stewardship project, Farm Vet Champions.

She is also a clinical associate professor at the University of Nottingham, a past president of the Sheep Veterinary Society, chair of the Sheep Antibiotic Guardian Group, trustee of the Veterinary Christian Fellowship and she has represented the UK sheep industry as a member of the RUMA Target Task Force since 2016.

Fiona said: “I was completely overwhelmed to hear that I had been nominated for this award – it will be a huge honour to receive it.”