Ceva Animal Health, maker of Vectra 3D, has released the results of some market research which gives a little insight into current levels of owner compliance with veterinary flea treatment advice.

Of the 228 owners surveyed:

• 40% said they treat their pet for fleas monthly
• 70% said they treat their pets year round.
• More than 50% knew it took at least a week to eradicate an infestation from their household after it has taken hold
• Only 8% knew that fleas lay upwards of 40 eggs per day

When selecting a flea treatment:

• 47% wanted one that would kill fleas quickly
• 43% bought a vet-recommended product
• 32% bought a product that stops fleas reproducing

Looking at the first set of stats, it seems like the year-round message is getting through, but that perhaps with greater awareness of fleas' prodigious egg-laying habits, and the difficulty of eliminating an infestion once established, might just help improve monthly compliance. 

BBraun Vetcare is hosting a Confident Chemotherapy webinar covering the latest thinking on the use of chemotherapy in practice on Thursday 15th July at 5:00pm. 

Presenters at the webinar will include: Professor Melissa McDermid MD, MPH, division head, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, University of Maryland, Prof. Clare Knottenbelt BVSC MSC DSAM MRCVS, owner and founder of specialist referral service, Hawk and Dove, and previously clinical director of the Small Animal Hospital at the University of Glasgow Veterinary School, Sam Fontaine MSc, lecturer and director of the MSc Advanced Practice in Veterinary Nursing and module leader within the BVMS programme at The Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine. There will also be a video from the oncology centre at The Queen’s Veterinary School, Cambridge University.

The webinar will also look at the use of Closed System Transfer Devices, such as Tevadaptor, to improve safety and break down barriers to treatment across all practices.

Clare Knottenbelt (pictured right) said: “Pets with cancer need to be able to access chemotherapy treatments locally. The advent of new closed administration systems mean that practices can now safely administer chemotherapeutics in house without the need for large investment, but still protecting the health of their staff."

Delegates will be able to to submit questions to the speakers and will receive a certificate for one hour of CPD.  The session will be recorded so it can be watched again.

For the full programme or to register, visit: https://aesculap-academia.eventbritestudio.com/160802290981

According to the results of DairyCheck 2008, Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health's subsidised milk testing service, 65% of herds tested positive for IBR infection, 69% positive for Leptospirosis and the majority of herds tested showed evidence of previous BVD exposure.

According to Intervet/Schering Plough, it is widely known that exposure levels of these three endemic diseases are high, yet many producers don't see the hidden losses. Making use of DairyCheck can demonstrate infection levels on an individual unit and help encourage a control and management programme to be put in place

Vet adviser Ruth Vernon said: "It can be a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'. After the initial infection, cows may appear healthy, but be suffering from the effects of immune suppression as a result of BVD virus infection. This results in herd performance that is often below expected levels."

"When the news is good - and on average around 33% of DairyCheck tested herds were found to be clear of all three diseases - farmers need guidance and advice on keeping a naïve herd clear of disease.

"Taking time to explain how to incorporate biosecurity measures on a day-to-day basis as well as quarantine and vaccination programmes can significantly improve the health status of previously infected units." 

Further information on DairyCheck is available from Intervet/Schering-Plough Account Managers.

The Kennel Club has announced the launch of a new, internet-based research and knowledge sharing hub designed to bring researchers, veterinary surgeons and dog owners together.

The Kennel Club says that one of the key benefits of the Bio-Acquisition Research Collaboration (BARC), will be the ability for users to request and share tissue samples to assist with canine research. Researchers will be able to post requests for samples based on particular specifications, such as the health status of the required dog(s), the age and sex of the dogs, and how the sample should be preserved. This will simplify the process for researchers looking for samples to aid their work, which will ultimately benefit canine health research on a larger scale.

Aimee Llewellyn, Kennel Club Health Information Manager said: "BARC will be a unique online platform which will facilitate bringing together researchers and clinicians with the aim to promote dog health and unite those interested in canine health research.

"It will be a place for researchers to request the samples they need to undertake current research and will allow for vets and members of the public to offer such samples where possible in order to enable this. If, for example, a dog sadly passes away through a little known illness or disease, its owner could, when appropriate, contact researchers who are working on finding a cure, so the problem of one dog could potentially help solve the problem of many.

"The research exchange facility will also be a great way for vets to go over and above what they do in their day to day work, and we hope to see a real collaboration of those dedicated to improving dog health across the board."

Dr David Sargan, a respected scientist and senior lecturer from the University of Cambridge Department of Veterinary Medicine, said: "BARC is an exciting venture. There is currently nothing like it in the UK to facilitate the sharing of canine research and I have no doubt that it will truly support canine science by creating a network of research and sample sharing. I would recommend other researchers utilise this platform to assist with their work and to find out what others are doing. Ultimately this will benefit canine health research across the board."

To visit the BARC research exchange, visit www.thekennelclub.org.uk/barc

For further information on the Kennel Club's work on canine health and research, visitwww.thekennelclub.org.uk/vets-researchers.

Academics from the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences have been awarded a grant from RCVS Knowledge to create a free online teaching and learning resource for evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM).

The project will produce an open access series of online, re-usable learning tools presented as a web tutorial. The tutorial will have a number of modules teaching the fundamental concepts of evidence-based veterinary medicine such as finding evidence, creating patient questions, evaluating evidence, critically appraising the literature and designing knowledge summaries with clinical bottom lines for clinicians.

Brief tasks will allow users to apply and test their knowledge in bite-sized ways, for example by answering multiple choice questions, identifying appropriate clinical questions and designing search strategies to answer those questions, completing a literature search and filling in a template for a knowledge summary.

Dr Kristen Reyher, Senior Lecturer in Farm Animal Science in the School of Veterinary Sciences (pictured right), who is leading the project team, said: "This project is the largest RCVS Knowledge award to date. It is a significant step forward and will establish Bristol as a leader in this essential area. Our approach will increase the opportunities for students and members of the profession to engage in this exciting field, and the online resource will offer the flexibility to be re-used not only in independent learning, but also in a variety of teaching and learning scenarios across the sector.

"As a global group, we are passionate about being involved in larger, long-term projects to push EBVM further into the consciousness of the profession, and believe this project moves us one step further along in bringing together key stakeholders and creating an excellent online re-usable resource."

The project team represents a variety of diverse backgrounds including clinicians, scientists, researchers and other areas of the veterinary profession. The team says it believes that collaboration, sharing and adaptation of the many resources that have already been developed individually is the most powerful way to meet stakeholder needs and make a significant contribution to EBVM.

It is hoped the team's approach will increase the opportunities for students and members of the profession to engage in this exciting field and, by using best practice in pedagogy, help ensure the topic is introduced well and adopted wholeheartedly by the veterinary profession.

The resource will be available as a stand-alone tutorial for independent learning and will also have the flexibility for institutions to re-use and re-purpose individual parts to meet their own training needs. The resource will be showcased at RCVS Knowledge's EBVM Skills Day 2015 in London this autumn [Friday 30 October].

A food ingredient could help prevent bacterial infections and could improve the growth of farm animals, according to new trials.

The Journal of Medical Microbiology reports that Bimuno, a "second generation" galactooligosaccharide, was shown to suppress salmonella colonisation in mice and protect the gut from and reduce all clinical signs, symptoms and severity of salmonella infections.

Researchers at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) showed that feeding mice with Bimuno prior to salmonella infection rapidly reduced the impact of salmonella.

In addition, over a five-day period, fewer salmonella were able to colonise in mice pre-dosed with Bimuno, compared with controls dosed with salmonella alone.

Salmonella can be found in the intestines of farm animals and is transmitted to humans on meat products. Symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea can be observed and are most severe in the very young or very old - posing a serious public health problem.

The findings are significant, given that the use of antibiotics in animal feed to help control infections has been banned since 2006, although is still commonplace in countries outside the EU.

Bimuno is a powder, and could be added to all livestock feeds.

Dr George Tzortzis, an author of the study from Clasado Ltd, said: "The growing evidence about this specific ingredient shows it has huge potential to protect livestock from salmonella. This is a positive development in the urgent search for antibiotic alternatives to help animals resist infection.

"Bimuno also has 'prebiotic' properties, which mean it is not destroyed, digested or absorbed in the stomach or small intestine. It therefore reaches the colon intact to selectively target and feed the host's immunity boosting bifidobacteria while reducing harmful bacteria.

"This study may have positive implications for both animal and human health, given that this bacterium can be transmitted to humans via the food chain."

Following the announcement from the Dogs Trust that the number of stray and abandoned dogs has reached an 11 year high, Pedigree has launched it's fourth annual Adoption Drive.

The campaign, which seeks to raise awareness and funds for the thousands of strayed and abandoned dogs in the UK, comes at a time when recent statistics put the number of dogs being picked up by local authorities in the last year at 126,176 - the worst in over a decade.

Since its launch, The Pedigree Adoption Drive has raised over £1million for rescue centres up and down the country who are working tirelessly to find new and loving homes for abandoned dogs.  Last year alone, grants of almost a quarter of a million pounds were distributed to 34 rescue homes and went towards funding the vital refurbishment of dilapidated kennel blocks, desperately needed veterinary facilities and the supply of essential surgical equipment.

TV presenter and wildlife vet Steve Leonard, who is supporting this year's campaign, said: "Rescue centres across the country are at capacity due to the overwhelming number of stray and abandoned dogs in Britain - a number which is sadly still on the rise.  We need to work together to make people aware of this issue and educate them about both the benefits and commitment involved in owning a dog. The funds and support generated by this campaign, help to give abandoned dogs everywhere a second chance at the loving homes they deserve."

During the campaign, Pedigree is sponsoring Pete Wedderburn's blog on www.vetsurgeon.org  

A study published in Current Biology has demonstrated that there are remarkable similarities in the way that dog and human brains respond to sound, and that dog brains, like those of people, are also sensitive to acoustic emotional cues.

Lead by Attila Andics, researchers from MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Hungary trained 11 dogs to lay motionless in an fMRI brain scanner. This made it possible to run the same neuroimaging experiment on both dog and human participants - something that had never been done before. They captured both dogs' and humans' brain activities while the subjects listened to nearly 200 dog and human sounds, ranging from whining or crying to playful barking or laughing.

The resultant scans showed that dog and human brains include voice areas in similar locations. Not surprisingly, the voice area of dogs responds more strongly to other dogs while that of humans responds more strongly to other humans.

The researchers also noted striking similarities in the ways the dog and human brains process emotionally loaded sounds. In both species, an area near the primary auditory cortex lit up more with happy sounds than unhappy ones. Andics says the researchers were most struck by the common response to emotion across species.

There were some differences, too: in dogs, 48% of all sound-sensitive brain regions respond more strongly to sounds other than voices. That's in contrast to humans, in which only 3% of sound-sensitive brain regions show greater response to nonvocal versus vocal sounds.

The researchers say that the findings suggest that voice areas evolved at least 100 million years ago, the age of the last common ancestor of humans and dogs. It also offers new insight into humans' unique connection with our best friends in the animal kingdom and helps to explain the behavioural and neural mechanisms that made this alliance so effective for tens of thousands of years.

Andics said: "This method offers a totally new way of investigating neural processing in dogs. At last we begin to understand how our best friend is looking at us and navigating in our social environment."

Photograph: Borbala Ferenczy. Dogs at the MR Research Centre (Budapest).

The RSPCA has announced that it will continue its fight to stop the Government's planned cull of badgers after MPs voted against an opposition motion to reverse the Government's strategy aimed at combating bovine TB.

MPs voted 299 to 250 against proposals to stop the cull going ahead in two pilot areas in Somerset and Gloucestershire - a narrower margin than the Government has in the House of Commons despite the three-line whip enforced.

RSPCA chief executive Gavin Grant said: "We fight on. This vote flies in the face of scientific and public opinion. We are grateful to those MPs who spoke out against the cull and particularly those who defied the Government's three line whip.

"There can be little doubt that had MPs been free to express their views through a free vote there would have been a large majority against the cull as there was last October.

"The only real way forward is the vaccination of both cattle and badgers, better biosecurity and control of cattle movements."

The debate follows a report issued by the EFRA select committee which said more investment is urgently needed into vaccination as a solution for bovine TB.

One of the earliest decisions of this government was to cancel five of the six badger vaccination projects planned - a policy the RSPCA believes was short-sighted.

RSPCA chief executive Gavin Grant said: "Much more needs to be done to bring forward the timetable for the development of effective oral vaccination programmes for both cattle and badgers as the EFRA  report says.

"Meanwhile we stand ready to work with those who want to vaccinate and save lives rather than cull and kill."

A research project funded by The Horse Trust has found that various types of ocular tumours can be successfully treated with mitomycin C, a cytotoxic antibiotic isolated from a bacterium.

The research concludes that mitomycin C offers a safe and cost effective alternative to current treatment options such as surgery and radiation.

The research project was led by Fernando Malalana, while working as The Horse Trust's Clinical Scholar in Equine Internal Medicine at University of Liverpool. Fernando is now working as a Clinician Teacher in Equine Internal Medicine at the university.

Ocular tumours are more difficult to treat than tumours in other parts of the horse's body due to the risk of damaging the eye. In the study, Malalana investigated the use of mitomycin C in treating ocular squamous cell carcinoma, the most common ocular tumour in horses, and occular sarcoids, skin tumors that frequently affect the eyelids .

Mitomycin C is an antibiotic isolated from a bacterium, Streptomyces caespitosus. It is known to have cytotoxic effects and has been used to treat tumours in horses before, but only in combination with surgery.

Currently, the main method of treating ocular squamous cell carcinoma is by removing the tumour surgically or with radiation. Both treatments are costly and have a number of associated risks. There is also the risk of damage or scarring to the eye.

Fourteen horses with ocular squamous cell carcinoma, three of which were affected bilaterally, were included in the study. Mitomycin C was applied to the conjunctival sac of the affected eye; in some of the cases the treatment was combined with surgery. Malalana found that of the 8 eyes treated with mitomycin C alone, clinical resolution occurred in 6 cases. Of the 9 eyes treated with both surgery and mitomycin C, clinical resolution occurred in 7 cases.

Mitomycin C was also used to treat various types of sarcoids found in the eye. Currently, the most effective treatment for occular sarcoids is radioactive wire. However, radioactive wire treatment is not ideal as it is expensive, only offered in two locations in the UK, and has potential health risks to the vet applying the wire due to exposure to radioactivity.

Six horses and two donkeys with occular sarcoids, including one horse that was affected bilaterally, were treated with mitomycin C, which was injected directly into the tumour. Malalana found that of the nine nodular and fibroplastic occular sarcoids treated with the antibiotic, all were completely cleared. However, the vets did not have good results with verrucous sarcoids.

Malalana said: "The results of this research should offer hope to the owners of horses that have eye tumours. We have already been contacted by vets from across Europe to find out more information about this treatment and hope that it will be offered to more horses with occular tumours in the future".

Vets at the University of Liverpool are now testing the use of mitomycin C on other tumours that are difficult to treat surgically, including melanomas near the horse's anus. So far, two cases have been treated, but it is too early to tell whether treatment has been successful.

Malalana's research has been submitted to Veterinary Ophthalmology journal.

The British Veterinary Nursing Association and the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons have launched a waiting room poster to help practices raise awareness of the status of their VNs and promote the welfare benefits that VNs can help provide.

Rolled copies of the A2 posters are available in a tube for £2.50 (to cover postage). Folded copies are free or you may download the poster here. 

Contact the BVNA office on 01279 408644 to request a copy.