Mississippi State Vet Students Attend Jackson Zoo Welcome EventFebruary 12, 2015The Jackson Zoo recently hosted a welcome party for the students of Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine (MSU-CVM). Thirty students as well as MSU-CVM Dean Kent Hoblet, DVM, attended on Feb. 4. The event was geared to give students an opportunity to visit and tour the zoo and vet hospital. Tours were broken into three groups. Zoo staff discussed daily routines of animal care, medication procedures, animal behaviors and exotic care polices. The students were also given a chance to speak directly with Michael Holifield, DVM, zoo veterinarian, and also with zoo keepers in the different sections of the zoo. Students showed interest in exotic medicine and animal care, along with researching endangered species, according to a zoo spokeswoman. In addition, the students were able to ask questions about an expanded program that will be offered through the Jackson Zoo. Read “Mississippi Vet School Expands Partnership with Jackson Zoo.”
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Jaguar Sees Future for Equine Ulcer DrugFebruary 11, 2015Jaguar Animal Health, whose nonprescription Neonorm Calf is its only commercial offering, reported Tuesday the filing of its ninth Investigational New Animal Drug (INAD) application. The San Francisco company hopes the proposed treatment for ulcers and ulcer-related diarrhea in horses, along with other drug candidates, will fill its product pipeline in coming years. The INAD application is an early step in the regulatory process and precedes studies designed to investigate a drug’s safety and efficacy. The latest contender from Jaguar contains an anti-secretory agent derived from the Croton lechleri tree. The drug is formulated to treat and prevent the recurrence of ulcers throughout a horse’s stomach, intestines and colon. The formulation also could be used to treat diarrhea in ulcer-stricken horses. “There are currently no FDA-approved new animal drugs available for the treatment of colonic ulcers in horses, thus making this product a complete, first-in-class ulcer and gut treatment for more active horses like performance and racing horses as well as for horses used recreationally,” said Tim Dotson, Jaguar’s executive director of regulatory affairs. Citing a study published in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, the company reported that 97 percent of performance horses have either a colonic or …
Zoetis Adds Abbott, Plans More ApoquelFebruary 11, 2015Zoetis Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of veterinary drugs and vaccines, this week wrapped up its takeover of Abbott Animal Health and reported a jump in 2014 sales and profits. The Florham Park, N.J., company also confirmed that veterinarians eager to prescribe the popular but hard-to-find anti-itch drug Apoquel will see increased supplies starting in April. The completion of the $255 million acquisition of Abbott was announced Tuesday, less than three months after a tentative deal was reported. The transaction expands Zoetis’ offerings in the areas of diabetes, anesthesia and pain relief. Among the products that moved to Zoetis are the AlphaTrak blood glucose monitoring system, the anesthesia drug SevoFlo and the feline pain reliever Simbadol. “We believe Zoetis’ scale, industry-leading field force and global presence will rapidly expand the reach and penetration of these newly acquired, leading brands for the veterinary surgical suite,” Group President Kristin Peck said. Abbott Animal Health, a division of Abbott Laboratories of Abbott Park, Ill., was a much smaller player in the veterinary pharmaceutical market. The division posted about $80 million in annual revenue, some 60 times less than the $4.8 billion that Zoetis reported today for all of 2014. Zoetis’ fourth-quarter and …
Investment Forum Issues Call to InventorsFebruary 10, 2015Young companies flush with ideas for the animal health industry but short on capital may find their answer in Missouri. The Kansas City Animal Health Corridor is accepting applications from early-stage companies looking for expert guidance and from $500,000 to $20 million in funding. Dozens of investors and animal health firms will sit down to listen Sept. 1 as a select number of presenters explain their new or potential product, their vision and their business plan. The seventh annual Investment Forum will take place at the Kansas City Convention Center, the same spot where Veterinary Energy Technologies Inc. last year won the event’s $2,500 Innovation Award for the company’s cold plasma invention. Companies presenting at the first six Investment Forums have raised more than $150 million in addition to securing licensing agreements or distribution contracts. Success stories, according to event organizers, have included Advanced Animal Diagnostics, Nexvet Biopharma, VaxLiant, Jaguar Animal Health, SmartVet and KAVB Farm. Questioning the presenters at the 2015 forum and choosing the winner of the next Innovation Award will be David Haworth of Morris Animal Foundation, Albrecht Kissel of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc., Kostas Kontopanos of Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Doug Sterkel of AgriCapital Corp. …
UF Researchers Work on Brucella VaccineFebruary 10, 2015University of Florida researchers are developing and testing Brucella vaccine varieties in cattle that will hopefully, in turn, help humans. “The concept we are taking is, if we can eradicate this disease from livestock, we can eradicate the disease from humans,” said David Pascual, Ph.D., a professor of mucosal immunology at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “If we eliminate the animal reservoir, we can help humans.” People most commonly become infected with brucellosis, which causes flu-like symptoms and malaise, by eating or drinking unpasteurized dairy products, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cattle primarily become infected through nasal or oral exposure, as well as through sexual transmission, Dr. Pascual said. “Brucellosis is a global disease,” he said. “This is not a disease with overt symptoms, yet it has been around as long as humans. New infections are occurring at a rate of about half a million people per year, which is believed to be nearly 25-fold underestimated. “The outcomes of our various studies may give us some idea how the vaccines will work in humans.” There is a vaccine for livestock already but it is only about 70 percent effective, even after revaccination, …
Found Animals Announces 50 Shades of Spay ContestFebruary 9, 2015As veterinarians, you know how important it is for pet owners to have their cats and dogs spayed or neutered. You know all too well that not spaying or neutering a pet could lead to health consequences later in the pet’s life or result in unwanted litters that often wind up euthanized. As advocates of spay/neuter surgery, nonprofit organization Found Animals is offering you a chance to win a $2,500 grant for your organization or practice. And they’re having a little fun parodying the 50 Shades of Grey movie while doing so. The mission behind the #50ShadesofSpay contest is to raise spay/neuter awareness and reduce the number of euthanized animals in the United States. Since February is National Spay and Neuter Month, it’s the perfect time to hold such a contest. Throughout this month, Found Animals “is asking spay/neuter programs across the country to "show us your '50 Shades of Spay.' At the end of the month, five deserving organizations will each receive a $2,500 grant from Found Animals – and hopefully along the way we will convince folks to spend a little more time talking about pets and spay and neuter.” To be eligible …
Banfield Welcomes New CEO Vincent BradleyFebruary 9, 2015The Banfield Pet Hospital chain has completed its second high-level appointment of the year with the promotion of Vincent Bradley to president and CEO. Bradley replaced Tony Ueber, who left to become CEO of the human physical therapy company Results Physiotherapy of Nashville, Tenn. Bradley’s move from senior vice president of operations to CEO is effectively immediately, Banfield reported today. Banfield, which operates more than 900 veterinary hospitals—most of them inside PetSmart stores—now has two new top executives. Daniel Aja, DVM, was elevated to second in command when he took over Jan. 1 as senior vice president and chief medical officer, replacing Jeffrey Klausner, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, who retired. Bradley and Dr. Aja will help manage the company during a period of other changes. Banfield plans to move its headquarters from Portland, Ore., to nearby Vancouver, Wash., in early 2016, and an investment group’s $8.7 billion buyout of PetSmart is pending. A longstanding agreement between PetSmart and Banfield will remain in place, so the hospitals will continue to operate normally, Banfield has stated. As senior vice president of operations, Bradley oversaw Banfield’s partnership with PetSmart. Before joining Banfield in 2011, he worked for a decade …
Georgia Names Associate Dean for Academic AffairsFebruary 7, 2015Karen Cornell, DVM, Ph.D., was recently named as the next associate dean for academic affairs for the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. Her role became effective Jan. 1. Dr. Cornell is a board-certified veterinary surgeon and a professor of soft tissue surgery in the Department of Small Animal Medicine and Surgery. “It will be my honor to work with my colleagues in the tradition of excellence in veterinary education at the University of Georgia by providing a program utilizing progressive educational methodologies in a supportive environment, so that veterinary students may develop the competencies necessary to succeed in our ever-changing society,” Cornell said. Cornell joined the college in 1998 as an assistant professor of soft tissue surgery and by 2010 had become a tenured professor. Through the years, she has served the college on multiple committees and in four leadership roles: director of continuing education, assistant department head for small animal medicine and surgery, interim director of the UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital and as chief of staff for surgery.
Virginia Tech Researcher Receives Grant to Develop Vaccine for PigsFebruary 5, 2015Christopher Overend, Ph.D., a researcher in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, has received a two-year, $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop a new vaccine against porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus. The virus causes severe pneumonia or respiratory problems in newborn piglets and young pigs, resulting in a 20 percent to 80 percent mortality rate, and reproductive failure in sows, according to the college. This leads to annual losses of about $664 million in the United States, the college further noted. “Although there are current vaccines licensed for use around the world, they are problematic for two reasons,” said Dr. Overend, a postdoctoral associate in the college’s Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology. “First, the virus is genetically diverse and the vaccine only prevents infection from certain strains of the virus. Second, current vaccines are not very good at stimulating the protective immune response.” Overend and his mentor X.J. Meng, MD, Ph.D., a University Distinguished Professor of Molecular Virology, said that they are working to create a vaccine that is more visible to the immune system with technology Dr. Meng’s lab has previously used. Overend compared the …
Georgia Researchers Develop New Treatment for RabiesFebruary 3, 2015Researchers at the University of Georgia say they have successfully tested a new treatment on mice that cures rabies even after the virus has spread to the brain. “We have vaccines that can prevent the disease, and we use the same vaccine as a kind of treatment after a bite, but it only works if the virus hasn’t progressed too far,” said study co-author Biao He, Ph.D., a professor of infectious diseases in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine. “Our team has developed a new vaccine that rescues mice longer after infection than what was traditionally thought possible.” In their study, mice were exposed to a strain of the rabies virus that generally reaches the brain of infected mice within three days. By day six, mice begin to exhibit the “telltale physical symptoms that indicate the infection has become fatal.” However, 50 percent of mice treated with the new vaccine were saved, even after the onset of physical symptoms on day six, according to the study. “This is the most effective treatment we have seen reported in the scientific literature,” Dr. He said. “If we can improve these results and translate them to humans, we may have found one of …
