Keeping Fish and Other Aquatics Healthy-- the PetSmart Way!
PetSmart is the largest North American pet and pet supply company, with a total of almost 1200 retail stores. Have you ever wondered who manages the health of PetSmart’s millions of fish and other aquatic animals? Dr. Nick St. Erne, who has been working in the field of exotic and aquatic veterinary medicine for decades, is more than up to the challenge! Dr. Nick is PetSmart’s Technical Services Veterinarian in charge of aquatic animal health. Dr. Nick is an author of two fish health books and a favorite invited speaker, having lectured for numerous koi club events. Dr. Nick is also actively involved in the advancement of aquatic animal medicine through his work with the American Veterinary Medical Association and the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association.
Join us, as Dr. Nick teaches us the art and science of aquatic animal health—the PetSmart Way!
BIO:
Dr. Nicholas Saint-Erne has been keeping exotic pets since getting his first pet turtle in 1966, and setting up his first aquarium in 1968. His major field of study was Fisheries Biology for his Bachelor of Science degree. In 1984 he received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Kansas State University. He practiced small animal and exotic pet medicine in Las Vegas, Nevada for 15 years (1984-1999), the last 5 years of which were at a PetSmart Veterinary Service clinic within a PetSmart store in Las Vegas. He was also the consulting veterinarian for the Las Vegas Zoo, and for many of the performers with animal acts in Las Vegas, treating lions, tigers and other big cats, as well as performing birds and primates. He also supervised health care for the koi ponds at many of the Las Vegas Resorts.
Since 1999, he has lived in Arizona where he is the Technical Services Veterinarian for PetSmart Inc., which is based in Phoenix, Arizona. PetSmart is the largest North American pet and pet supply company. His current role is to supervise the care of the fish sold at almost 1200 PetSmart stores. This includes annual visits to pet breeder’s facilities in the US and Canada, and supervising the health care of the tropical fish in 5 distribution facilities, ranging in size up to 50,000 square feet of state-of-the-art aquarium systems.
In 1982 Dr. Saint-Erne attended the “Aquavet” program in Aquatic Veterinary Medicine at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He wrote the book “Diseases of Koi” in 1994, and another fish medicine book “Advanced Koi Care” in 2002. Dr. Saint-Erne has lectured to numerous fish and koi clubs around the U.S., and is a past president of the Las Vegas Aquarium Society. He gave a presentation on Koi Diseases at the 1998 International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine conference in San Diego. In 1999, 2002, and 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 he was a speaker at the annual Associated Koi Clubs of America Convention. He was also a speaker at Koi Fest 2000 and Koi Fest 2003, and presented a full day seminar on “Advanced Koi Care” in Phoenix in 2001, 2002 and 2010, and was a speaker at the Phoenix “Valley of the Sun Koi Show” in 2003 and 2004.
He was a guest speaker at the 2002 Avian Welfare Seminar in San Diego. He also presented exotic pet care seminars to the Banfield Pet Hospital veterinarians at their Symposium in 2002. He was a speaker at the 2003 Texas Association of Koi Clubs’ convention, was an instructor at the University of Georgia’s Koi Health Seminar in 2004, and the speaker at the Eastern Nishikigoi Koi Festival in Southern California in April 2004. He was a featured lecturer at the 2007 Aquarium Symposium at Mandalay Bay Shark Reef Aquarium in Las Vegas, Nevada. He presented three lectures at the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association convention in Athens, Greece in July 2010. He was also a speaker at the International Society for Aquatic Animal Health in Tampa, Florida in 2010, and at the North American Veterinary Conference in January, 2011.
He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association, the International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine, the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians, the American Fisheries Society, as well as the Valley of the Sun Koi Club in Phoenix. He is the 2010 Chairman for the AVMA Aquatic Veterinary Medicine Committee, and is the WAVMA newsletter editor.