First Veterinary Classes Underway at Lincoln MemorialAugust 24, 2014 Lincoln Memorial University welcomed its inaugural class of veterinary students this month as 96 future practitioners began tackling subjects ranging from veterinary anatomy and physiology to parasitology and medical histology. The Harrogate, Tenn., university and Midwestern University in Glendale, Ariz., in August opened the nation’s 29th and 30th veterinary colleges—the first since Western University of Health Sciences started its program in 1998 in Pomona, Calif. Lincoln Memorial marked the event with a white coat ceremony Aug. 15 and the start of classes three days later. “This is another landmark achievement for our institution,” said Lincoln Memorial President B. James Dawson, MA, Ed.D. “The [veterinary college] extends LMU’s mission of service to humanity through the training of ethical doctors who will attend to the health and wellness needs of animals within rural communities, especially within the Appalachian region.” Lincoln Memorial’s Class of 2018 includes 20 men and 76 women. Exactly one-third of them are from the tri-state region of Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. Virginia residents will see their home state often during the four-year journey toward a DVM degree. The college’s DeBusk Veterinary Teaching Center is located 15 miles away in Ewing, Va. …
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Study Offers Surprising Look at True Health of CatsAugust 24, 2014 Many cats that look and act healthy hide a secret. A study of outwardly healthy cats discovered laboratory abnormalities in one out of every four tested. Furthermore, pet owners who answered a 48-question survey noted warning signs in nearly 70 percent of the 1,197 cats checked. The results point to the value of annual veterinary wellness visits and in-depth questioning of pet owners, reported veterinary drug maker Zoetis Inc., which conducted the research. “This study demonstrated that a health risk assessment … can help veterinarians identify issues that might otherwise go undiagnosed and untreated until serious symptoms become apparent,” said J. Michael McFarland, DVM, Dipl. ABVP, the group director of Companion Animal Veterinary Operations for Zoetis. The study used data collected from 264 veterinary practices over 5½ years and included a cat owner questionnaire. Among the cat owners who took part in the health risk assessment: • 9 percent indicated that their cat had difficulty breathing, showing symptoms such as wheezing, sneezing or coughing. • 11 percent thought their cats exhibited stiffness, lameness or pain associated with movement. • 22 percent thought their cats were overweight or obese. …
OSU Vet Faculty Member Receives Grant to Help Fight CancerAugust 23, 2014 Ashish Ranjan, BVSc, Ph.D., recently received an Academic Research Enhancement Award from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health in the amount of nearly $423,000. Dr. Ranjan is assistant professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences at Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. He’s also an associate member of the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma. “The long-term goal of our research is to optimize and provide uniform intratumoral delivery of antitumor drugs with real-time control,” said Ranjan. “Targeting the delivery to a chosen site will provide physicians more precise dosing control.” Cancer chemotherapy employs systemic delivery of antitumor drugs with limited specificity which causes toxic side effects in normal tissues and inefficient/insufficient drug delivery to tumor cells, according to Ranjan. “This grant will allow us to develop an integrated imaging-based nanoparticle platform for cancer therapy using a high intensity focused ultrasound device,” he said. Image Guided Drug Delivery (IGDD) is a highly interdisciplinary field that combines drug encapsulated nanocarriers and imaging devices to achieve targeted tumor therapy, according to the university. Innovative IGDD ideas are strongly encouraged by the National Cancer Institute, the …
Sleepypod Dog Harness Earns Top Rating From Safety GroupAugust 21, 2014 The Sleepypod Clickit Sport dog travel harness was awarded the Center for Pet Safety’s highest possible crash-test score, the manufacturer reported Thursday. The five-star rating covers small, medium and large Clickit Sport harnesses. The maximum score was the first under the Center for Pet Safety’s new Harness Certification Program. “Few manufacturers demonstrate the commitment to product safety testing that we have seen from Sleepypod,” said Lindsey A. Wolko, founder of the nonprofit Center for Pet Safety. “Theirs is a landmark achievement for pets and the people who love them.” The new Clickit Sport travel harness will be available for sale beginning in mid-October at suggested retail prices of $64.99 to $74.99, a Sleepypod spokeswoman said. The company’s co-founder and lead product designer, Michael Leung, called the five-star rating “a meaningful validation of Sleepypod’s steadfast commitment to pet travel safety innovation.” The Harness Certification Program is the first formal crash-test rating system for pet travel harnesses, the Center for Pet Safety stated. Harnesses volunteered for testing may be awarded five stars, four stars or a rating of “not recommended.” The Reston, Va., research center in October 2013 judged another Sleepypod travel harness, the …
Kindred Unsuccessful With First Canine DrugAugust 21, 2014 Kindred Biosciences Inc. has been dealt a setback with the discovery that the startup drug company’s vanguard product, CereKin, failed a pivotal field study. The Burlingame, Calif., company had hoped to achieve U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of CereKin (diacerein) for the control of osteoarthritic pain and inflammation in dogs sometime in 2015. Kindred reported Wednesday that CereKin “did not meet its primary endpoint.” The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluated the safety and efficacy of two doses of CereKin (5 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg). “The data are in the process of being fully analyzed but, based on the analyses so far, the results appear to be due primarily to a higher-than-expected placebo response rate and statistical variability,” Kindred stated. “Also, in the high-dose group, the response rate among completers was in line with results seen in human studies, but the dropout rate was higher than expected and statistical significance was not achieved for the primary endpoint.” Kindred spent about $4 million on the development of CereKin—a sum in line with what the drug maker anticipates spending on each project. Still in the pivotal study stage are AtoKin (fexofenadine), which is designed …
The Pet Industry Agrees: More Pet Insurance Regulation in California Is a Good ThingAugust 21, 2014 #182175130 / gettyimages.com Update: Dababneh Assembly Bill 2056, as of August 20, 2014, has passed both the California Senate and Assembly. Originally published in the August 2014 issue of Veterinary Practice News. California’s insurance regulator and a state lawmaker want to step up oversight of the pet insurance industry—and the majority of the pet insurance industry is behind them. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and Assemblyman Matt Dababneh, D-Encino, are rapidly pushing through the legislature Dababneh’s Assembly Bill 2056, which the men say will add consumer protections to pet insurance by bringing uniformity to policy language and disclosures to increase transparency in pet insurance policies. “California has the largest number of insured dogs and cats in the nation,” Jones said. “It is essential that consumers purchasing pet insurance understand what they’re getting for their money. When policy terms are more easily understood, consumers are better able to select a product that meets their needs.” Jones said the bill would provide important consumer protections now absent from pet insurance. For the most part the pet insurance industry is …
Purina to Offer Brain Supplement in Some FoodsAugust 20, 2014 A nutritional supplement formulated to support the brain functions of middle-aged cats and dogs will be added to selected Nestlé Purina products within 12 to 18 months, the pet food manufacturer reported Monday. The supplement, called Brain Protection Blend, targets risk factors linked to brain aging. Containing fish oil, antioxidants and an amino acid known as arginine, it is designed to be fed when a pet is middle-aged. A Nestlé Purina study of how Brain Protection Blend benefits dogs will be published in coming weeks, the company stated. Nearly 30 percent of cats aged 11 to 14 show signs of cognitive decline, including memory loss and reduced social interaction, Nestlé Purina noted. Among dogs, 28 percent of 11- and 12-year-olds and 68 percent of 15- and 16-year-olds show at least one sign of cognitive issues. “By taking a more proactive approach, we may be able to slow the brain’s decline often experienced among pets as they get older,” said Dan Smith, Nestlé Purina’s vice president of research and development. Nestlé Purina, whose U.S. pet division is based in St. Louis, won’t be the first company to offer a proprietary pet food enhancer. For …
Virgina-Maryland Opens Around-the-Clock Skills LabAugust 20, 2014 It’s 3 a.m. and you can’t sleep. What can you do? Students enrolled in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine can practice bandaging, catheterization, intubation and suturing inside a new lab that is open 24/7. The clinical skills lab is stocked with animal models and mannequins, allowing veterinary students such as Anna Katogiritis to become more proficient at what they likely will be doing after graduation. “The models have veinlike tubes in their legs that really allow you to perform techniques as if you were practicing on a real animal,” said Katogiritis, a second-year student from Karpathos, Greece. “At the same time, knowing that I was not putting a live animal at risk or distress eliminates the stress factor and allowed me to focus on the techniques themselves.” Veterinarians and veterinary technicians manage the Blacksburg, Va., lab but are not scheduled around the clock. During off hours, students can walk in and practice on their own. “When the lab is staffed, students can receive instruction and immediate feedback on their skills,” said Meghan Byrnes, DVM, an instructor in the department of small animal clinical sciences. “In addition, the lab is always open for …
CSU Studies Effects of Climate Change in Polar BearsAugust 19, 2014 Colorado State University is helping lead a research project that seeks to better understand the impacts of climate change and infectious disease in polar bear populations. Polar bears, as the university describes it, have become a poster species for climate change because the animals have always lived by hunting seals on remote ice. With the melting sea ice, polar bears increasingly are moving inland. This shift has the potential to spawn a “perfect storm” that could devastate polar bears through decreased food supply and increased exposure to disease, pollution and people, according to Colleen Duncan, DVM, assistant professor of pathology at CSU College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and a lead investigator of the project. Colorado State University Dr. Colleen Duncan, a veterinary pathologist at CSU, studies disease and population dynamics in Arctic wildlife. For example, polar bears have joined the scavengers that feed on whale bones piled together by indigenous Alaskan tribes, Dr. Duncan said. This relatively new behavior means different food, disease and environmental exposure that could affect bear health in multiple ways, she noted. Just this spring, Duncan traveled to northernmost Alaska with fellow researchers from …
AVMA Economic Meeting Set for Oct. 28August 19, 2014 Registration is underway for the American Veterinary Medical Association’s second annual Economic Summit, which will explore topics such as what veterinarians are earning and why more practices are consolidating. The all-day meeting will take place Oct. 28 at the Westin O’Hare in suburban Chicago. Among the speakers will be Michael Dicks, MS, Ph.D., the AVMA’s director of veterinary economics; Jeffrey Klausner, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, the chief medical officer at Banfield Pet Hospital; and Lisa Greenhill, the associate executive director for institutional research and diversity at the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges. Veterinary compensation, veterinarian supply and demand, the prices charged for veterinary services, and how veterinary markets influence everyday business decisions will be discussed. The registration cost is $199 until Oct. 6 and $249 afterward. More information is available at AVMA.org/Events/Symposiums.
