AFVAC le Congrès · 2026

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key points

• AFVAC le Congrès is the annual congress of the Association Française des Vétérinaires pour Animaux de Compagnie (the French association of companion animal veterinarians): three days of continuing education for general practitioners and specialists, backed by a trade exhibition set at the crossroads of the conference rooms. It is a professional congress, not a trade show open to the public.
• Next edition: Thursday 26 to Saturday 28 November 2026, at Lille Grand Palais. Theme of the edition: “Vous avez dit consensus…” (“Did you say consensus?”).
• Organiser: the AFVAC, a non-profit association (loi 1901) headquartered in Paris. The congress changes city every year: Marseille in 2025 at Parc Chanot, Lyon in 2024 at the Centre de Congrès de Lyon, Lille in 2023.
• Published results for the 2025 edition in Marseille: 191 exhibitors, more than 2,800 veterinarians and more than 5,500 badges issued.
• For an exhibitor, the format is that of a specialist congress: the audience is captive for three days, but access is by registration and commercial expression is strictly governed by the house rules.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The AFVAC describes an exhibition that covers the whole supply chain of a veterinary clinic: pharmaceutical laboratories, pet food manufacturers, equipment makers, purchasing groups, insurers, architects, bankers and software developers. Young companies have their own area, the Avenue des Start-up, reserved for innovative companies in the veterinary sector that are less than 30 months old.

An exhibitor's status depends on its relationship with the association. Signatories of the AFVAC Associative Charter can become Major Partner, Partner + or Partner; non-signatories have Exhibitor status. On the online list as of 10 October 2026, there are 5 Major Partners, 26 Partners +, 112 Partners and 63 Exhibitors, plus one entry with no status.

Notable exhibitors

The exhibitor list published on the congress website has 207 entries in early October 2026, with their stand numbers. The five Major Partners of the 2026 edition are Elanco France, Hill's Pet Nutrition France, MSD Santé Animale, Nestlé Purina and Virbac France.

Partners + notably include Boehringer Ingelheim, Zoetis, Vetoquinol, Royal Canin, Mars Petcare, IDEXX, Antech Diagnostics, Fujifilm Vet, Mindray Animal, Centravet, IVC Evidensia and Agria Assurance pour Animaux. The list also includes professional institutions such as the SNVEL, the SIMV, the FECAVA and the ENVF, as well as the veterinary press.

On the Avenue des Start-up, young companies are set up on stands numbered S1 to S12, including ASVETO, SynaVet, Treats, Vet In Lab and WonderVet: a staff replacement platform, artificial intelligence for consultation transcription, practice management software, nutraceuticals, management training.

Quality of the audience

The audience is the veterinary profession. The congress is aimed at all companion animal veterinarians, general practitioners and specialists, self-employed and employed, and registration has been free for AFVAC members since 2013. The organiser reports more than 2,800 veterinarians and more than 5,500 badges issued in 2025; the badge count includes audiences other than veterinarians, and the breakdown is not published.

Specialised veterinary nurses have their own event under the same roof: ASV le Congrès, organised by the AFVAC, APFORM and AssAV, holds its 11th edition on 27 and 28 November 2026 at Lille Grand Palais. The AFVAC reports more than 600 participants every year for this congress. Dog and cat breeders are expected on Thursday 26 November for the Rencontres Éleveurs-Vétérinaires (Breeders-Veterinarians Meetings), organised this year during the congress and no longer the day before.

Attendance figures are provided by the organiser, with no published third-party audit.

Activities & community

Conference programme

The programme is built by a volunteer scientific committee, whose chair is appointed two years before each congress, around a cross-cutting theme. For 2026, “Vous avez dit consensus…” invites delegates to distinguish what is agreed in clinical practice from what remains debated, covering all the disciplines represented by the AFVAC study groups. In 2025, the programme brought together more than 265 speakers, 326 conferences and 104 training modules in 10 parallel rooms.

Alongside the scientific programme, the Rencontres de la profession (Meetings of the Profession), developed with the professional bodies, address organisational and societal topics. Announced for 2026 are modules on artificial intelligence in veterinary practice, out-of-hours and continuity of care, beekeeping, pharmacovigilance, occupational health for veterinarians, an Ecoantibio workshop and a One Health module.

Partner speaking slots

For a manufacturer, the lever lies in the modules reserved for partners: Rendez-vous sessions, workshops and symposia organised by exhibitors who want to communicate with congress delegates. The AFVAC stresses the separation of its scientific programme, which it declares closed to any promotional interference, with a declaration of conflicts of interest from every speaker. Elanco, for example, announces two conferences in room 3.1 C, on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 November.

The Vitrine des Nouveautés (New Products Showcase) presents new products and services to practitioners. It is open to 2026 exhibitors who order the “Pack Nouveauté” communication package, and free of charge to the start-ups on the Avenue.

Prizes and awards

The AFVAC organises the ninth edition of the Veterinary Innovation Prizes, with the support of the SIMV and the FACCO. The competition has four categories: veterinary medicines, feed and complementary feed, solutions for veterinary technical or scientific use, and solutions for veterinary management or administrative use. The prizes are awarded by veterinarians. In 2025, a jury of 9 figures from the profession selected 14 finalists, and the Veterinary Innovation Grand Prize went to Vikaly from Virbac.

On the young clinicians’ side, the congress also awards the Prix Christian Dumon, for the best clinical case by interns of French veterinary schools and in partnership with the four national veterinary schools, and the Prix Isabelle Goy-Thollot, presented during the French-speaking residents’ forum competition, organised with SpéVet.

Community & networks

The congress is the annual meeting point of the whole profession: the Rencontres de la profession are developed with the CNO, the SNVEL and, depending on the topic, the AVEF and the SNGTV. A dedicated registration rate is offered to members of the FECAVA, the European federation of companion animal veterinary associations, which is also present in the exhibition.

On Thursday 26 November at 9pm, the Troupe des Vétérinaires Artistes is announced at the Théâtre Louis Pasteur in the Lille congress centre, following on from the get-together drinks that liven up the commercial exhibition.

On site: what to know

The congress is held at Lille Grand Palais, 1 boulevard des Cités Unies, in Lille, in the Euralille district. Published opening hours: Thursday 26 November 8am to 9pm, Friday 27 November 8am to 7pm, Saturday 28 November 8am to 5.30pm.

By metro, the Mairie de Lille and Lille Grand Palais stations (line 2) are 400 metres away; the Lille Flandres and Lille Europe railway stations are about a ten-minute walk, with more than 20 TGV services a day from Paris taking around one hour. A V’Lille bike station is in front of the building. By car, Lille Grand Palais has 1,200 parking spaces, and 7,000 spaces are available a 10-minute walk away. Lille Lesquin airport is 10 km away.

For accommodation, the agency Voyages C. Mathez is the congress’s official agency. Access is strictly on presentation of a named badge, and the house rules prohibit any canvassing or promotional action outside the agreements concluded with partners and exhibitors.

How much does it cost to exhibit

Planning your visit

For exhibitors

• Request the partnership pack via the partnership page, and decide in advance which status to aim for: signing the Associative Charter is required for access to the Partner levels.
• For a company less than 30 months old, aim for the Avenue des Start-up, which includes a free presence in the Vitrine des Nouveautés.
• For a recent product, consider the Pack Nouveauté, and ask the AFVAC about the timetable for the Veterinary Innovation Prize: the page offers an “Apply” button with no published deadline, and at least one exhibitor says it is already in the running for the 2026 edition.
• Read the house rules before designing the stand activity: outside the agreements concluded with the AFVAC, handing out leaflets or brochures within the venue and its surroundings, promoting external events during opening hours and canvassing delegates are prohibited.

For the decision-maker visiting

• Register before 15 November: registration for the three days is free for AFVAC members (€606 incl. VAT after that date), and costs €943 incl. VAT for a non-member veterinarian (€1,056 incl. VAT afterwards). One-day and two-day options exist for non-members and FECAVA members.
• To see only the exhibition, a “Visiteur exposition” badge is sold on site at €144 incl. VAT per day, reserved for professionals in the veterinary sector; access to the exhibition is free for members whose subscription is up to date.
• Book early for the workshops (€66 incl. VAT), practical sessions (€84 incl. VAT) and VETLABS (€107 incl. VAT), offered as options.
• Come as a care team: a prize draw reimburses, for 40 teams drawn at random, all or part of the registration of veterinary nurses at ASV le Congrès, provided both members of the team are present in Lille.

Sustainability policy & initiatives

At congress level, the website does not publish an environmental commitments page, and no ISO 20121 certification of the event is displayed. The documented commitment sits at association level: the AFVAC runs an AFVAC Écoresponsabilité group that produces recommendations for its regional branches, its study groups and its members, with files on clinic waste management and eco-responsible hygiene. A stand called Ecoresponsabilité appears in the 2026 exhibitor list.

On the venue side, Lille Grand Palais displays a management system certified ISO 20121 and ISO 9001, and notes that the Métropole Européenne de Lille has held the Destination Innovante Durable label since January 2024, according to its commitments page.

These commitments should be distinguished from the programme content: the Ecoantibio workshop on antibiotic resistance, the beekeeping module focused on protecting biodiversity and the One Health module are training topics, not organisational commitments of the congress.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The AFVAC national congress has existed since 1961, with a first edition in Bordeaux, three years after the association was founded in 1958. It is held every year in late November in a major city, rotating between several cities: Marseille, Lyon and Lille have come back regularly in recent years, and the 2020 edition was held online as an e-Congrès.

The last two published results show a clearly growing exhibition: 136 exhibitors in 2024 in Lyon, 191 in 2025 in Marseille. The number of veterinarians is stable, at more than 2,800 in both years, while the number of badges went from more than 6,000 to more than 5,500. The online list for Lille has 207 entries in early October 2026, against 188 entries on the same page in mid-October 2025 (191 exhibitors in the 2025 results), with no numerical target announced.

The content follows the evolution of the profession: artificial intelligence, occupational health, out-of-hours care and a new code of ethics expected in 2027 sit alongside clinical topics. For a supplier of services to clinics, these sessions widen the audience beyond specialists alone.

The city and dates of the 2027 edition had not been announced at the time of writing.

All data that does not name a source comes from the organiser’s website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (afvac-lecongres.com).