31st March 2025
The New Combined Course
Raptor Awards has released an updated version of its Combined Course for the bird of prey community. Building on the previous Combined Course, the revised syllabus keeps the same nine module structure but updates key health and husbandry content. One important change is correcting the outdated belief that freezing food reliably kills frounce or trichomoniosis or any other pathogens, and instead promoting current veterinary understanding and robust biosecurity as the basis for safe practice.
Staying up to date is vital because new veterinary research regularly changes what is known about disease risks, treatments and safe husbandry, and advice that was once accepted can later be shown to be wrong. Using current information helps keepers avoid preventable illness, reduce suffering, and demonstrate that modern bird of prey management is responsible, professional and grounded in the best knowledge available today rather than habits from the past.