Posted: May 15, 2012

From left, Anik Bay, Dr. Susan Jones, Dr. Peter Conlon, and Danielle Boes.

Two OVC students who were awarded scholarships from the Association of Women Veterinarians Foundation met with one of the key sponsors of the awards in a brief ceremony last week.

Danielle Boes OVC 2013 and Anik Bay OVC 2014 were presented with their scholarship certificates and received copies of The Cat: Clinical Medicine and Management from Dr. Susan Jones, director of veterinary affairs at Hill’s Pet Nutrition Canada.

The scholarships were announced in March. Boes and Bay were selected along with five other students out of a pool of more than 143 applicants.

Recipients were chosen based on an essay submission as well as leadership potential, career path and influence in veterinary medicine both in and outside of school, said Dr. Debra Nickelson of the Association for Women Veterinarians Foundation.

The scholarships are sponsored by Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Merck Animal Health, Merial, P&G The Iams Company, Virbac, Central Garden and Pet, and Live Oak Bank.

Posted: May 15, 2012

After a thorough review of operations, the OVC’s Hip and Elbow Certification Program has been discontinued.

As you may recall, the program was put on hold last fall to deal with a backlog of cases. 

There are two options for clients seeking hip and elbow certification for their animals. They are:

· The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (offa.org)

· PennHIP (pennhip.org)

Posted: May 14, 2012

Dr. Craig BaileyThe Department of Biomedical Sciences welcomed a new faculty member this month.

Dr. Craig Bailey has a PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from Queen’s University and comes to the OVC following post-doctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and in the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto.

Bailey’s research training spans the field of neuroscience from brain development to neurodegeneration, and from molecular biology to animal behaviour. At OVC he plans to investigate cellular mechanisms underlying the development and function of the brain’s cerebral cortex, with a long-term goal of identifying novel therapies to prevent and/or treat specific developmental brain disorders.

Posted: May 14, 2012

The annual update meeting of the Dairy Health Management Program will celebrate some special milestones.

“This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Ontario Veterinary College, 20 years since completion of the first Dairy Health Management Certificate Program, and the granting of University professor emeritus status to Ken Leslie,” said Dr. Stephen LeBlanc, Population Medicine.

“We are celebrating with a special version of the annual DHMCP update meeting for dairy veterinarians May 29 to 31. The evening of Wednesday, May 30, we will celebrate Ken’s career so far with a special dinner at OVC. You are invited to join us for this evening of fine dining and shared memories. ”

The event is also in support of the Bovine Education Trust endowment. Tickets are $100. Please order by May 15 with cheques payable to the University of Guelph. 

For more information please email sleblanc@uoguelph.ca.

Posted: May 14, 2012

When the Fish Pathology Laboratory receives specimens from fish farms or zoos, determining the cause of death often requires some detective work. Elena Contador, a master’s student in the Department of Pathobiology, is studying a fish disease that has been misunderstood for several decades.

Elena Contador

When a new disease was discovered in lake trout in the 1920s, researchers believed it was caused by a Chlamydia-like organism because the lesions were so similar. But they didn’t have the technology to identify the pathogen. The advent of electron microscopy allowed researchers to characterize the pathogen by comparing it to similar bacteria. “Depending on the structure, you can see this looks like a Chlamydia-like organism,” says Contador.

But just because bacteria look alike doesn’t mean they’re the same. “After a lot of tests, I ruled out Chlamydia in the case of this fish,” says Contador, who is studying epitheliocystis, a disease that affects lake trout in Blue Jay Creek on Manitoulin Island. “The disease could also be related to viruses and parasites. We don’t know much about the pathogenesis because the agent hasn’t been cultured in vitro yet.”

Using molecular testing, she identified the bacteria as a member of the burkholderiales order and compared its DNA sequence to a bacterial DNA database. “The DNA that I found using this test in the fish from Blue Jay Creek is really similar to bacteria that was found recently in Europe in fish with epitheliocystis.”

For more, see the profile in At Guelph.

Posted: May 14, 2012

Animal imagery from the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre (MSAC) and the University of Guelph art collections will be featured in an MSAC exhibition, “Nature of the Beast,” May 17 to July 8. The event coincides with the 150th anniversary of U of G’s Ontario Veterinary College.

The opening reception will take place Thursday at 7 p.m. with welcoming remarks from Dr. Elizabeth Stone, OVC dean.

From 19th-century romanticized views of animals to more challenging contemporary perspectives, the exhibition includes painting, sculpture and works on paper showing how artists help shape our assumptions about connections between animals and humans.

“This exhibition reveals the breadth of the collections, which form a wonderful resource for the campus and the community,” said MSAC director Judith Nasby, who curated the exhibition. “It’s an opportunity for us to show off the treasures in both collections, ranging from rare 16th-century European etchings to transformation subjects by Aboriginal artists, as well as works by regional artists such as Robert Howson and Ken Danby.”

The MSAC collection focuses on contemporary Canadian art, especially outdoor sculpture, Inuit art and Canadian silver. The U of G collection, established in the 1870s, surveys Canadian art over three centuries with examples of European historical prints. Together, the two collections comprise more than 7,000 works by regional, national and international artists.

For more information, see the U of G news release.

Posted: May 14, 2012

An OVC Health Sciences Centre staff member was the guest speaker at a recent fundraising event marking the 100^th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.

Catherine (Caitrin) Ollerhead De Santis, a clinical support staff member and U of G master’s student, helped Titanic aficionados and supporters of the Chatham-Kent Museum experience what it would have been like to live and dine in the Edwardian era.Catherine (Caitrin) Ollerhead De Santis

The museum has in its collection one of the dinner menu cards from a third-class passenger on the doomed ship. With the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking last month, the museum decided to use the menu card as the inspiration for a special event and fundraiser.

About 300 guests enjoyed a seven-course menu (based on the Titanic’s last dinner offered to first-class passengers, which was actually 12 courses) or a four-course meal (based on the Titanic’s third-class menu). They were invited to dress in period costume.

Why is there such fascination with the Titanic?

Ollerhead De Santis says: “I think it’s because the Titanic was a microcosm for all that was going on at the time. British society then was based on a rigid class system, and on the ship you had the very rich living in luxury with all their toys, then it went all the way down to the people in steerage, who saw the Titanic as their way to escape that class system and start new lives.”

For more, see the feature in At Guelph.

Posted: May 7, 2012

Drs. Paul Woods and Valerie Poirier watch from the rooftop of the former Pathobiology building as crews pour concrete for the bunker that will house the OVC Animal Cancer Centre’s linear accelerator.

Cement trucks began rolling at OVC early Monday to pour concrete for the radiation bunker that will house the new linear accelerator at the OVC Animal Cancer Centre.

“We’re all excited to have reached this very important milestone in the Animal Cancer Centre project,” said Dr. Sherri Cox, associate dean administration and chief operating officer of the OVC Health Sciences Centre. “Congratulations to all the members of the building committee and the cancer centre team. We look forward to welcoming patients and clients to our new world-class facilities later this year. Stay tuned for details about the grand opening in the fall!”

Cement mixer trucks began arriving at 20-minute intervals shortly after 7 a.m. to feed the pumper that will deliver over 200 cubic metres of concrete into the forms in a continuous pour that will create seamless walls. The operation will take seven to 10 hours to complete. When finished, the walls of the bunker will be about four feet thick.

The trucks and pumper will be working all day near OVC Shipping and Receiving, so please exercise caution if you are in that area.

The linear accelerator (linac) is the next generation of radiation therapy technology that will enable the cancer centre to provide patients with the highest standard of care available. Linacs are housed in bunkers designed to contain the radiation produced by the machine and protect the people working nearby.

The purchase of the linac, scheduled for delivery and installation this summer, is supported by a $1 million gift from the Angel Gabriel Foundation to the OVC Pet Trust Fund.

Pet Trust, which also bought the OVC’s first cobalt radiation unit in 1989, has raised $10.5 million of the $15 million goal set for the OVC Animal Cancer Centre.

Posted: May 7, 2012

Pathobiology PhD candidate Kayla Price was among three U of Guelph graduate students to earn recognition recently in the Alltech Young Scientist Competition.

The competition attracts top undergraduate and graduate students from around the world who submit scientific papers on agriculture-related topics including veterinary science, animal nutrition, feeding technology, agricultural developments or agricultural management.

Price was a Canada Zone winner in the graduate student category for her work on the parasite responsible for coccidiosis in poultry in a paper titled “Environmental modification to complement live Eimeria vaccination with conventionally housed replacement layer pullets.”

In a recent article published in The Ontarion, Price said “I would encourage graduate and undergraduate students to participate in the Alltech Young Scientist competition … this program is a great experience and a fantastic way to showcase your scientific writing.”

For more on the competition, visit the Alltech website.

Posted: May 7, 2012

Dr. Dana Allen, the former chair of the Department of Clinical Studies who retired in 2010, has been has been named editor-in-chief of Compendium: Continuing Education for Veterinarians.®

A member of Compendium’s  Editorial Board since 1992, Allen has more than 30 years of experience as a teacher, researcher, and graduate supervisor in veterinary medical education in North America.

During his academic career, he has edited, authored, or contributed to numerous textbooks, including Small Animal Medicine, Small Animal Cardiopulmonary Medicine, and several editions of the Handbook for Veterinary Drugs.  He has authored more than 60 articles published in refereed journals and written more than 65 textbook chapters.

“Writing, editing, and helping to develop concepts is a passion for me,” Allen said in a news release issued by the journal last week.  In addition to Compendium, he has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association and the Merck Veterinary Manual. Currently, he is the editor of Small Animal Veterinary Rounds and an associate editor of the Canadian Veterinary Journal.

Allen is a 1976 graduate of the OVC. Following graduation, he entered small animal private practice, first in Ottawa and then Vancouver before returning to his alma mater to complete a residency in small animal internal medicine and a master’s degree. He is board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) and has served on both the credentials and residency training committees of the ACVIM.  His research to date has focused mostly on diabetes mellitus and hemostasis.

“I am honored to have been invited to be the Compendium’s new editor-in-chief,” said Allen. “I look forward to working with the Compendium team, our readers, and contributors to continue to build upon the record of excellence the journal has provided to our profession over the years.”