Horiba is holding a CPD webinar on 1st July 2021 at 7:30pm, when Ian Wright (the parasite guru, not the footballer) will talk about the importance of parasite testing protocols for imported pets in the face of increasing disease threats. 

Ian (pictured right) qualified from Glasgow University and has a master’s degree in veterinary parasitology. He is head of ESCCAP - the European Scientific Counsel Companion Animal Parasites (ESCCAP) UK and Ireland, guideline director for ESCCAP Europe and editorial board member for Companion Animal. and VetCPD Journal. He is also a practising vet and co-owner of The Mount Veterinary Practice in Fleetwood, Lancashire.

Lockdown has seen a rise in the numbers of dogs and cats in the UK, including imported pets. Horiba says some of these are coming in via the official route, which includes preventative measures to reduce health risks. However, many are moved outside of UK regulations and some will become ill in the days or even months after they arrive. Ian will explain how timely, accurate testing will help detect the threat to these animals. 

Lisa Martin from Horiba said: "I hope that as many veterinary surgeons, nurses, students and support staff as possible will join us for our Educational Premiere! We are looking forward to this first webinar in our veterinary CPD series, with expert Ian Wright highlighting the best ways to keep pets and people safe. Join us on 1st July at 7.30pm to hear more and to ask Ian your questions on this very topical subject. Dress code: casual."

To register, visit: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5429203015286962191 

Police have advised veterinary practices to be on their guard following a spate of break-ins in the South East, linked to the theft of controlled drugs.

PC Steve Doswell, Controlled Drugs Liaison Officer in the East Sussex police area said: "Criminal elements in the South East are targeting practices in Surrey, Hampshire and East Sussex. They may well have targeted, or will target, other practices in all of the neighbouring counties".

"Methadone, Ketamine, Alprazolam and Diazepam are all commonly-abused by drug users, and nationally there have been a lot of problems with users buying street heroin that has been cut with Alprazolam," he added.

PC Doswell offered the following advice to practices:

• The premises where drugs are held should be alarmed, preferably with direct connection to a central alarm control that alerts the local police for prompt attendance.
• Schedule 2 or 3 controlled drugs (with safe custody restrictions) must be in a purpose-built cabinet or have a valid exemption certificate (issued annually). 
• The responsible/authorised person for that practice is he or she who holds the controlled drug cabinet key. The key's use should be controlled at all times: leaving it in a pot/drawer near to the cabinet is not good practice.
• Up-to-date controlled drug standard operating procedures should be in place, and understood by all staff.
• A current Controlled Drugs Register should be kept, with the correct sections/headings and up-to-date entries.
• A list of police Controlled Drugs Liaison Officers (CDLOs) can be found on the Veterinary Medicines Directorate website (www.vmd.gov.uk/VetSQP/pcdl_officers.pdf). CDLOs are authorised to destroyout-of-date drugs, which should be promptly destroyed to limit potential risk. When visiting to destroy such drugs, the CDLO would be able to give advice to individual practices about their security, and other related issues.

More detailed information about the correct storage of controlled drugs can be found in the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme Manual: www.rcvs.org.uk/practicestandards

Alstoe, maker of a range of veterinary products including Easeflex, Vetergesic, Dolagis and Nelio, has announced that it has changed its name to Sogeval UK Ltd following its acquisition by Sogeval, the French veterinary drug company, earlier this year.

The company says customers will not notice any change to their dealings with the company, because Sogeval UK Ltd will trade from the same premises near York and with the same staff members.

Niall McFerran, Sogeval Country Manager, UK and ROI said: "The change of name to Sogeval UK Ltd aligns the business to one of the world's fastest growing Animal Health companies. Through Sogeval's research and development programmes, we look forward to exciting improvements in the future."

For any questions relating to the change, practices are invited to contact Niall McFerran on 01347 878606.

HRH The Princess Royal has opened the Animal Health Trust's new cancer treatment and research facility in Suffolk.

The facility has been purpose-built to treat horses, dogs and cats with cancer. It will also assist in furthering understanding of the disease in animals.

Peter Webbon, Chief Executive of the AHT, said: "2012 marks 70 years of the AHT fighting disease and injury in animals, and the addition of the Cancer Centre is a landmark achievement in our history. We believe this is the first facility of its kind in Europe, purpose-built to treat horses, dogs and cats with cancer. We now have a short commissioning process to undertake but anticipate welcoming the first patients through the doors in early 2013."

The Kennel Club Cancer Centre at the AHT houses a linear accelerator (pictured right) and brachytherapy machine used in radiotherapy treatment, along with a 16-slice CT scanner to aid radiotherapy planning.

The new facility complements the AHT's existing cancer treatment options of surgery and chemotherapy meaning the Suffolk-based charity will be able to offer each and every patient the very best options for their specific case, whatever the diagnosis.  With one in four dogs and one in six cats developing cancer at some time in their life the new centre will help many more animals fight cancer.

Peter Webbon, added: "It was thanks to a generous donation from the late Tom Scott, a long-term supporter of the AHT, that we were able to start this development. His donation, along with that from many other AHT supporters, and an interest-free loan of £1.5 million from the Kennel Club has meant this ambitious project has come to fruition so quickly."

It has taken just over a year to build the Cancer Centre which contains more than 2,600 tonnes of concrete and has eight-feet wide solid concrete walls.

On opening the facility, HRH The Princess Royal, President of the AHT, said: "This Cancer Centre is an exciting development at the AHT and will make a real difference for animals with cancer, here and now. It will improve the chances, for many animals, of beating this pernicious disease.

"Countless other horses, dogs and cats across the world with cancer, who will never be seen by an AHT clinician, will also benefit from knowledge gained from research in The Kennel Club Cancer Centre at the AHT."

The AHT has a strong history in cancer research and the Kennel Club Cancer Centre will enhance the charity's well established cancer research programme. Knowledge gained through the treatment of animals in the facility will contribute to the study of cancers, their causes, early diagnosis and treatment, and ultimately hopefully the prevention of some forms of the disease.

Steve Dean, Kennel Club Chairman, said: "I am very proud to be here today to celebrate the opening of the Kennel Club Cancer Centre. Thanks to the expertise available here at the Animal Health Trust, the Cancer Centre will provide advanced techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, to the benefit of many animals.  It is exciting to consider how synergy between the Kennel Club Cancer Centre and the Kennel Club Genetics Centre can help to further the understanding of the inheritance factors that influence the development of cancer."

Horiba Medical has announced it is the official exclusive UK distributor of the fully automated Vet abc Plus+ veterinary haematology analyser from scil animal care company GmbH, Germany.

According to the company, the compact Vet abc Plus+ provides a complete blood count (CBC), including 4-part white blood cell (WBC) differential, from only 10 µl of EDTA whole blood, in only 60 seconds.

The Vet abc Plus⁺ provides pre-installed settings to analyse samples from dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, mice, rats, cattle, pigs and sheep. For dogs, cats and horses, the Vet abc Plus⁺ provides a 4-part WBC differential blood count, including a differentiation of the leucocytes to identify lymphocytes, monocytes, granulocytes and eosinophils. Results are available in 60 seconds on screen or can be automatically printed out and transferred to the practice information system or clinical notes. For ease-of-use, the Vet abc Plus+ also incorporates a self-contained reagent and waste system which provides a clean operation whilst being easy to replenish.

Borne from an existing manufacturing partnership, scil and HORIBA Medical already have over 6000 veterinary haematology analysers placed globally. Horiba says the new UK distribution agreement enables UK veterinary professionals to not only procure the Vet abc Plus+ analyser, but also receive expert service and support directly from the manufacturer HORIBA Medical and its team of UK specialists.

For more information, visit: www.horiba.com/uk/medical

The Equine Veterinary Journal has published a free special collection of new research on Equine Grass Sickness this month.

Four separate studies are included in the collection, reporting novel risk factors for the disease, identifying key differences between EGS and botulism (questioning the hypothesis that EGS is caused by neurotoxins from Clostridium botulinum), reporting a novel diagnostic technique and showing the value of monitoring weight loss to help predict whether individual horses with chronic EGS are likely to survive.

The publishers say that despite more than 100 years of research, supported predominantly by the The Moredun Foundation Equine Grass Sickness Fund (www.grasssickness.org.uk), the cause of EGS remains unknown. Since it almost exclusively affects grazing horses, a pasture derived neurotoxin is implicated. EGS causes gut paralysis as a result of damage to parts of the nervous system that control involuntary functions. Acute and sub-acute EGS is invariably fatal while around 55% of chronic cases can survive and return to a useful working life. The UK has the highest incidence of EGS in the world; indeed it is estimated that the disease kills between 1 and 2% of horses in the United Kingdom annually. Cases are more common in spring.

In terms of risk factors, the study ‘Equine grass sickness in Scotland: A case-control study of environmental geochemical risk factors’ suggests that the high incidence of the disease in Eastern Scotland may be partly associated with the particular composition of macro and trace elements in the soil in the fields on which horses graze. Further work is required to determine whether interventions to alter concentrations of particular elements in soil could potentially reduce the risk of EGS.¹

A second study identified key differences between EGS and botulism, which questions the currently favoured hypothesis that EGS is caused by neurotoxins from Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium which commonly inhabits soil. The study ‘Equine grass sickness, but not botulism, causes autonomic and enteric neurodegeneration and increases soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment receptor protein expression within neuronal perikarya’ suggests that EGS is unlikely to be caused by neurotoxins from this bacterium and concludes that further investigation of an alternative cause for EGS is needed.²

While the majority of horses with EGS can be readily diagnosed by experienced veterinary surgeons, some cases present a diagnostic challenge. Indeed the only way to definitively diagnose the disease in a live horse is to demonstrate the characteristic degeneration of nerves within biopsies of the intestine. Unfortunately these biopsies can only be collected by performing abdominal surgery under general anaesthesia. In the study ‘Neuronal chromatolysis in the subgemmal plexus of gustatory papillae in horses with grass sickness’ characteristic degeneration of nerves was identified in small biopsies collected from tongues of EGS horses during post mortem examination. Examination of these biopsies accurately differentiated control horses from EGS cases. While further validation of this technique is required, it could potentially provide a relatively non-invasive method of confirming the diagnosis in a live horse.³

While around 55% of horses with chronic EGS survive, objective criteria for predicting survival of these cases are currently lacking. The study ‘Bodyweight change aids prediction of survival in chronic equine grass sickness’ reported that non-survivors had greater rate and magnitude of bodyweight loss than survivors. Survival prediction curves were published to allow veterinary surgeons and horse owners to use body weight data to help determine whether an individual horse with chronic EGS was likely to survive or die.⁴

Professor Bruce McGorum, Head of the Equine Section at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies & Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, has been leading much of the research. He said: "Given that our recent research suggests that EGS is unlikely to be caused by neurotoxins from Clostridium botulinum we are now moving on to determine whether EGS is caused by ingestion of mycotoxins produced by pasture fungi. We are very pleased that The Horse Trust (www.horsetrust.org.uk) has provided funding for this three-year investigation."

Professor Celia Marr, Editor of the Equine Veterinary Journal said: “While the cause of equine grass sickness continues to evade us, these papers present an optimistic step in the right direction for the eventual prevention of this dreadful disease. It is only with the support of the Moredun Foundation Equine Grass Sickness Fund and more recently that of The Horse Trust that our world-leading veterinary researchers are able to continue to unravel the mystery.”

The EVJ equine grass sickness collection can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/2dC7Drr

References

1. Equine grass sickness in Scotland: A case-control study of environmental geochemical risk factors C. E. Wylie, D. J. Shaw, F. M. Fordyce, A. Lilly, R. S. Pirie, B. C. McGorum
2. Equine grass sickness, but not botulism, causes autonomic and enteric neurodegeneration and increases soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment receptor protein expression within neuronal perikarya B. C. McGorum, S. Scholes, E. M. Milne, S. L. Eaton, T. M. Wishart, R. Poxton, S. Moss, U. Wernery, T. Davey, J. B. Harris, R. S. Pirie
3. Neuronal chromatolysis in the subgemmal plexus of gustatory papillae in horses with grass sickness B. C. McGorum, R. S. Pirie, D. Shaw, N. Macintyre, A. Cox
4. Bodyweight change aids prediction of survival in chronic equine grass sickness R. C. Jago, I. Handel, C. N. Hahn, R. S. Pirie, J. A. Keen, B. E. Waggett, B. C. McGorum

Locum vets Cristiana and Marco Tudini have had the holiday of a lifetime after winning a competition run by the recruitment consultants, Recruit4vets.

The couple, who came to the UK in 2006, were amongst 1000 people who entered the draw last year, when Cristiana was working for Companion Care in Folkestone.

Kelly Worrall from Recruit4vets said: "Our team called Cristiana on a typical day in the practice to deliver the news. She was obviously thrilled to get the call. Not only did we help find Cristiana her dream job, we sent her on a dream holiday too!"

Cristiana said: "My husband and I went to New York at the beginning of December. New York was full of festivities and was magical to go around Christmas time, we even visited Rockefeller Centre and watched the lights and singers. My husband and I are vegan, so we were delighted to find NYC filled with vegan restaurants and fast food outlets, we didn’t stop eating the whole trip! 

"New York City was absolutely amazing, this really was a dream come true!"

MSD Animal Health's equine division has launched a new series of materials to support its Keeping Britain's Horses Healthy Campaign.

For veterinary practices, there's a Vet Reception Pack designed to help receptionists educate owners why they should vaccinate and the benefits of preventive healthcare.

For yards, there are posters giving guidance and advice on prevention of Infectious Respiratory Disease and the steps which should be taken to control a potential outbreak. They can be tailor made for an individual yard.  

Peter Young, MSD Animal Health Equine Business Manager said: "Our first wave of support materials focused very much on equine vets and owners - helping raise awareness of the importance of preventive healthcare and driving owners towards vets for advice. This phase of materials helps support yard owners and receptionists, aiming to fill some of those communications gaps where advice and guidelines on individual horse's vaccination requirements and yard protocols can play a vital role in preventing the spread of disease and controlling outbreaks."  

Keeping Britain's Horses Healthy is a national campaign to educate horse owners on endemic infectious disease, vaccination, herd immunity and the importance of preventative healthcare. It includes a range of educational materials for veterinary surgeries and direct to owners. The campaign is supported by a national PR, advertising and social media programme, together with a dedicated website www.healthyhorses.co.uk.  The website, aimed at driving owners back to their veterinary practices, includes a vet finder, exclusively for equine practices, and healthcare information.  

For full details of the launch programme, talk to your account manager, call 01908 685685 or visit www.healthyhorses.co.uk. 

Leading veterinary dermatologist Sue Paterson has called for veterinary surgeons to prescribe narrow spectrum, long-acting antibiotics for first line cases of otitis externa (OE) to reduce concerning levels of multiply-resistant, chronic infections.

Sue, who is President of the European Society of Dermatology and an RCVS Specialist, says in a video interview that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is making otitis externa cases difficult to resolve and that vets can help overcome the problem by rethinking their first line prescription choices.

In the video, created in conjunction with Elanco Animal Health (maker of Osurnia), Sue said: "It’s a sad thing to say but if everybody did manage cases of otitis externa appropriately first time, I probably wouldn’t have a job at all."

"Many of the cases I see as a referral clinician are longstanding cases with very severe, multiply-resistant infections. If we get these cases right on the first occasion with appropriate prescription of drugs, and we don’t hurt dogs so we can give ongoing treatment, then we’d never ever see pseudomonas infection again."

Sue believes part of the problem is that veterinary surgeons are incorrectly saving some of their best first-line treatments for difficult cases. This is perpetuating the antimicrobial resistance problem as cases are being inadvertently mismanaged.

She said: "Florfenicol, which is the active antibiotic in Osurnia, has excellent gram positive activity which makes it an ideal first line choice. However, there’s a misconception that florfenicol is a fluoroquinolone - which it isn’t - so vets are incorrectly ‘saving it’ rather than using it on the first occasion."

Sue also highlights that poor compliance, resulting from the patient’s behavioural problems associated with ear phobia, also has a long-term impact:

"We’ve seen many 'well behaved' dogs that have bitten their owners as a result of fear aggression; we’ve had dogs that have pinned their owners against the wall. I would argue very strongly that if you use long-acting products in dogs on the first occasion then you avoid creating that problem and these dogs don’t become difficult to medicate on a long-term basis."

Sue summarised two factors that vets need to consider when deciding on the appropriate treatment: the right active ingredients to target common first-line pathogens; and the method of application. She urged vets to consider using a long-acting product applied within the practice, removing the need for home treatment to reduce stress for both owner and the dog, improve long-term compliance and maximise clinical outcomes.

To hear Sue’s tips on how to treat cases of otitis, watch the video here – www.osurnia.co.uk

SPVS has published the results of a survey of its members' views about EMS provision, finding that 76% of practitioners love helping students and providing Extra Mural Studies (EMS). 

239 members took part in the survey, 46% from independent practices and the remainder in corporates. 

60% were clinical directors, partners or owners and 30% were in an assistant or associate role. 

Other than COVID, the main barriers to providing EMS were not having enough time or energy to support a student (approx 46%), too much work to do (approx 37%), not enough veterinary staff (approx 33%), and not having housing for a student (approx 19%).

The top four things which respondents felt would improve the quality of EMS were a clearer understanding of students' needs (92%), longer placements to allow more confidence to build (84%), free training on how to coach students (78%) and more resources to help students and mentors (73%). 

It was also suggested that because universities are effectively asking vets to do their job for them, they should be offering free CPD to help all vets deliver EMS effectively.

To enhance the EMS experience, SPVS has produced a pre-placement preparation form which outlines the practice requirements, an EMS induction form to help students consider their priorities and expectations for the placement and the a Skills Matrix which provides a framework to structure learning objectives and record progress. 

For the full survey report and to access the resources, visit the SPVS website https://spvs.org.uk/ems-free-resources-gateway/

Diagnostics testing company MI:RNA has developed an AI-powered test for Johne's disease in cattle, with a claimed accuracy of 73% sensitivity, 71% specificity and 72% accuracy, which are expected to improve with further research. 

MI:RNA says that current testing practices for Johne’s disease mean that identification of the disease is difficult, with current sensitivities of around 10-40% and little to no ability to diagnose early stages of infection.

The loss of productivity due to Johne’s to the UK agricultural economy is estimated to be in excess of £10 million annually.

MI:RNA says it is the first diagnostic testing company to use microRNA assay technology.

MicroRNAs are newly discovered biomarkers that manage the immune system and immune responses and act as regulators for disease progression or resolution.

This, says the company, makes them excellent biomarkers of disease, and when combined AI, can significantly improve identification of Johne’s and other complex conditions, and predict disease outcomes.

MI:RNA says this development will allow veterinary surgeons, farmers and pet owners to test for a variety of conditions, not just Johne’s.

Target areas include heart and kidney disease, osteoarthritis and bovine tuberculosis, along with effective general wellness and preoperative screening.

Eve Hanks, founder and CEO of MI:RNA, said: “Increasing market and global pressures on bovine protein production means that animal health has never been more important.

"This is a key area of research and development for MI:RNA and biomarker science combined with our unique AI-powered modelling, means that we can significantly improve animal health and reduce greenhouse gas output.

“The breakthrough that we’ve already achieved in Johne’s testing is unparalleled, and has provided an opportunity for MI:RNA to pitch our business concept in the USA to the The Kansas City Animal Health Summit.

"Following our presentation, we have now progressed through to the final selection stage for European Innovation Council funding for our work on Johne’s disease. 

“In terms of future applications, microRNAs can assist with vital drug discovery, progressing future diagnostic testing and understanding disease pathways more effectively.

"We’ve already made remarkable progress and we know that with the continued backing of our tech, AI and health experts and with the correct funding, that we can do so much more.” 

Zoetis Business Consulting has announced the launch of Profitsolver, a software tool designed to boost practice profits.

The software has already been rolled out in the US, where Zoetis says that it has delivered an average of £103,000 extra profit to veterinary practices within a year.

Profitsolver uses the practice's actual data - not benchmarks or accepted norms - to enable the practice to manage costs, set prices and gain return on investments. By using an activity-based costing model and using a variety of data such as practice costs, which staff perform which part of the procedure, how long the procedure takes and what equipment and materials are used, Profitsolver calculates the correct pricing to both cover costs and deliver a predetermined profit margin.

Zoetis says that Profitsolver helps practices to understand how the overall practice profit is being generated. For instance, for price sensitive procedures such as vaccination, the practice can match their prices with the competition, but maintain their profit margin by increasing the price for other clinical services.

Nick Steele, national consulting manager at Zoetis said: "Veterinary practices have no standard method for pricing their services and they are often unable to determine which services make money and which don't. This hampers the practice's ability to accurately value the business and, as a result, profit levels tend to be low for many practices. Profitsolver can turn this situation around and already has a very successful track record in the US."

Zoetis piloted the UK version of Profitsolver with John Goulding at St Georges Veterinary Group. He said: "By and large the veterinary profession still relies on the mark-up of medicines where profits are concerned. Even practices that have made a concerted effort to move away from this type of pricing structure are still making their money from the sale of medicines rather than from vets' fees. For years I have wanted to know exactly how to price our services and this new Profitsolver software does just that.

"Most costs have an element of staff time, an element of fixed assets or equipment and an element of disposable items. Profitsolver takes all of these into account, adds the predetermined profit margin and produces an accurate pricing structure for each procedure undertaken within the practice.

"It's important to take the time at the start to put accurate data in from the practice's latest set of accounts and the Zoetis business consultant will guide practices through this to make the initial set up as easy as possible. For instance, for major pieces of equipment such as X-ray machines, you have to work out how many times a year you are likely to use them.

"By using Profitsolver, we worked out that if we do exactly the same amount of work as last year we can increase our bottom line by at least £200,000 for our 18 vet practice. Since last November, when we installed Profitsolver, we have completely changed our pricing structure moving away from focusing on medicines and the size of the animal to rethink how we charge our clinical care.

"An unexpected benefit is that Profitsolver has made me much more confident about the prices we charge to clients as it is all broken down, so we can see exactly how the invoice is made up. I would be at a loss without it now."

For more information about Profitsolver, contact your Zoetis account manager.