The BVA is seeking nominations for seven new regional representatives for the North-East, Yorkshire & Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, London, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Representatives from all sectors of the veterinary profession are encouraged to apply for the role, which is to represent veterinary surgeons in those regions to BVA Council and help shape the association's strategy and policy development.

Candidates are required to be based in the region they represent and to have time available to commit to gathering members’ views on key policy areas, representing those views at three meetings per year in London, and one elsewhere in the UK (attached to BVA Members’ Day). They will also need to meet members at local events where possible, and promote the good name and values of BVA. All of this work is supported by BVA headquarters.

The term of the BVA regional representative role is for three years. It suits motivated individuals who are interested in current issues affecting the profession. BVA pays your expenses and you’ll get free BVA membership for the duration of your term.

Daniella Dos Santos, President of the British Veterinary Association (pictured right), said: "BVA Council plays a key role in helping us to achieve our mission as the leading body representing, supporting and championing the whole UK veterinary profession. Our regional representatives are integral to that mission and to the activities of Council - contributing to effective horizon scanning on matters of veterinary policy and providing an informed steer to BVA’s Policy Committee.

"With an increasingly complex veterinary landscape, and wide range of issues and potential outcomes for animal health and welfare and the veterinary profession it’s essential that members have the best person to represent them at the highest level within BVA."

Emma Callaghan, BVA Scottish Branch regional representative and 2019 Bleby Cup winner, added: "I am currently in the middle of my first term on BVA Council and I would encourage anyone who is considering taking part to put themselves forward for election. This is a fantastic chance to represent the views of your region and to help BVA members to get their voices heard. I’m really enjoying my time as a regional representative - it’s been such a wonderful opportunity to meet a range of people from across the profession and to develop new skills outside my day-to-day role."

BVA members who are interested in becoming a representative for their area can apply before 9am on 16 December 2019 when nominations close. For more information or to submit your application, visit www.bva.co.uk/council/

Dr Gerard McLauchlan has joined Fitzpatrick Referrals to launch a dedicated interventional radiology service based at the Oncology and Soft Tissue Hospital in Guildford, Surrey. 

Prior to joining Fitzpatrick Referrals, Gerard was a Senior Lecturer in Internal Medicine at the University of Glasgow as well as Head of the Emergency Service and Director of both the Internship and ECVIM Residency Programmes. He is also a European and Royal College Recognised Specialist in Internal Medicine, and recently became one of few specialists in the world to have completed a 12 month Fellowship in Interventional Radiology at the Animal Medical Center in New York. 

Gerard said: "When I returned to the UK, it was a natural fit for me to join Fitzpatrick Referrals. The team all share the same ethos and together I know we will be able to offer a truly world-class service to our patients and their family. I genuinely believe we will be able to change what is accepted as the gold standard of care for animals in the UK."

Fitzpatrick Referrals says its interventional radiology service performs minimally invasive procedures that are often considered the standard of care in human medicine, providing options for veterinary patients where conventional therapies are not associated with the best outcome. 

Clinical Director of Oncology and Soft Tissue, Professor Nick Bacon said: "Gerard joining the team in Guildford opens new doors for our patients but more importantly we hope the disciplines of veterinary oncology and soft tissue surgery as a whole. He brings huge experience in interventional radiology solutions for portosystemic shunts, tracheal collapse and urinary calculi obstruction. Gerard is also key to developing our cancer care. Progress is not about ever bigger treatments chasing a cure; it can just as easily mean delivering palliative or curative-intent treatments in smarter ways, with less side-effects and lower morbidity. I am looking forward to watching our treatments evolve for a variety of tumours including urinary, liver, lung and head and neck. No cancer treatment is perfect, but we are striving for the best we can for the patient in front of us."

Noel Fitzpatrick said: "It remains my objective to build the greatest team of super-specialists on planet earth where we can offer all of the options to all of the animals and the families that love them all of the time. Gerard has a unique skill set that will not only complement our growing team, but will enhance the spectrum of treatments we can offer and which the families of animals throughout the UK and beyond really want. Increasingly people want the same level of care for their dogs and cats as we have for ourselves and our goal is to deliver exactly that with the very best team and facilities in the world today."

Fitzpatrick Referrals will be holding a Partners in Care CPD session on 25^th May inviting vets to meet Dr Gerard McLauchlan and discover more about the interventional radiology service. To register your interest, contact Sarah on SarahC@fitzpatrickreferrals.co.uk.  

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has been awarded the Laureate Award by the Great Place to Work initiative, for being within the top 50 best places to work in the UK for five years in a row.

RCVS CEO Lizzie Lockett said: "I am so proud of our performance in the Great Place to Work Awards and the efforts of everyone at the College, and especially our HR team, who have been tirelessly and creatively striving to make the College a wonderful place to work.

"Consistently being placed in the top 50 Great Places to Work is also a testament to the sustained hard work all of our employees and the important part they play in creating a supportive, interesting and good-humoured workplace.

"We are a service-led organisation and we want to make sure that we give our best to the veterinary professions and the general public. If our team enjoys the work, and the workplace, that will improve the service we are able to offer and, ultimately, benefit animal health and welfare."

CVS has developed a new Extra Mural Studies (EMS) placement online booking system to help veterinary students find suitable placements immediately.

According to the company, it's the first large-scale EMS online booking system of its type in the veterinary profession and it will mean students can find practice placements at the touch of a button, instead of having to spend time contacting individual surgeries.

With the new system, the 200 CVS practices which currently offer EMS have their own page, where information is provided about the practice, along with a list of available placements.

Once registered, students can search for placements by practice name, location and date.

When a student finds a suitable placement a booking request is triggered, connecting the student to the host practice so that the booking can be confirmed.

CVS has also created a new EMS support framework, based on the RCVS day one competencies, to help practices and students structure each placement.

The company says the new framework puts health, wellbeing and professional skills on a par with clinical skills, to encourage students to take a holistic approach to their development - helping them to grow into happy, competent and confident veterinary surgeons.

Nigel Stansbie, Head of Online Course Creation at CVS, said: “As a major employer within the industry, we are fully committed to supporting the education and development of vet students, by offering high-quality EMS placements, to help them gain the skills and knowledge they will need to thrive when they join the workforce.

“Though we know that there is current debate about the future EMS requirements, we recognise the importance of EMS and are confident that the support we have put in place will enable students to make the most of these valuable work experience opportunties.”

The new CVS EMS online booking system is hosted on the company's knowledge hub: https://www.cvs-knowledgehub.com/. 

The RCVS has published a summary of the consultation phase of its review of telemedicine within veterinary practice, revealing a profession divided over the risks associated with remote consultations and whether it would be appropriate to prescribe medicines without a physical examination.

The consultation, which was held by the College early in 2017, asked for the views of veterinary surgeons and nurses, animal owners, and stakeholders on the use of telemedicine in veterinary clinical practice.

The consultation was designed to help identify potential risks associated with telemedicine, identify areas where it may help address the needs of both clinicians and the public, and support the potential development of new professional standards and guidance.

The online survey of veterinary professionals received 1,230 responses, while the public consultation received 229 responses and the survey of organisations/stakeholders received eight responses. 

The headline question asked of veterinary professionals was whether RCVS 'supporting guidance to the Code of Professional Conduct' should be amended to allow remote examination to take the place of physical examination in certain circumstances. 41% said 'Yes', 40% said 'No' and 18% were unsure.

Veterinary professionals and organisations were then asked a series of questions in order to establish how they rated the risk associated with telemedicine according to activity type, practice type, clinical sign or syndrome, mode of technology, and familiarity with client, animal or environment.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the majority felt that providing just general advice presented a low risk. At the other end of the scale, most felt that the use of telemedicine to diagnose disease or injury would be either 'high risk', or 'not appropriate at all'. 

Likewise, the majority said the risks would be low or medium where the client and environment were known and the animal seen before, for the same problem. By contrast, the majority said telemedicine would be either 'high risk' or 'not appropriate at all' when the client, animal and environment were all unknown. 

When asked whether the current definition of 'under care' should be extended to allow veterinary surgeons to prescribe veterinary medicines where there has been no physical examination of the animal, 69% said 'No', 16% said 'Yes' and 15% were unsure.

However, when asked whether certain types of veterinary medicines should be able to be prescribed without a physical examination of the animal, the majority of respondents to the professional survey (52%) were in favour.

The results of the consultation were first considered at a special meeting of the Standards Committee in August 2017, where it was noted how the consultation had revealed significant confusion around current supporting guidance to the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct and that, at a minimum, clarification as to what was currently permissible was needed.

The Committee determined a key issue going forward was whether to change the Supporting Guidance to the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct regarding 'under care' to allow veterinary surgeons to prescribe POM-V medicines based on telemedicine alone.

Given the complex nature of the issues and the wide-ranging implications, the Standards Committee presented a range of options for amending RCVS Guidance to RCVS Council at its meeting in November 2017. After discussion, Council asked the Standards Committee to continue their review and to present more detailed proposals to Council regarding the future of telemedicine in clinical veterinary practice.

Anthony Roberts, RCVS Director of Leadership and Innovation, said: "We would like to thank all those who took the time to respond to the consultation – although Council has not yet made any firm decisions, we felt it would be useful to share our research so far.

"The use of telemedicine is growing rapidly in human healthcare and it is only right the RCVS assesses the opportunities it could bring to improve access to veterinary services. It is critical, however, that we understand the issues it presents 'at the coal face' and consider all the available evidence before making any changes to our Guidance. The RCVS should ensure its regulatory framework fosters innovation and maximises the opportunities to improve the quality, efficacy and accessibility of veterinary services, whilst at the same time protecting animal health and welfare."

The Standards Committee will meet again in April 2018 to take further evidence and develop proposals to take the issue forward.

Meanwhile, the full summary is available on the College’s website: www.rcvs.org.uk/telemeds-summary/.

Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College report that they've made a significant breakthrough in the search for a durable treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Working in collaboration with researchers at University of Texas, Southwestern (UTSW) Medical Center, the team has succeeded in using gene editing techniques on dogs to restore the expression of the dystrophin protein that is absent in DMD patients’ muscles to levels that could be life changing.

DMD is the most common, fatal, genetic disease that affects children. The same disorder also occurs in many dog breeds. It is caused by mutations in the gene that encodes dystrophin, a crucial protein that helps protect muscle fibres and the heart when they contract. Patients with the disease produce effectively no dystrophin protein, so their muscles and heart become damaged during contraction, leading to inability to walk, skeletal deformities, breathing problems and heart failure. Patients with DMD have a life expectancy that does not go far beyond their twenties.

Researchers say that this preliminary research, published in Science, demonstrates an approach that could lead to an effective, in principle one-time treatment for DMD for the most common genetic mutations affecting human patients. Through a single intravenous injection, researchers have been able to modify the dystrophin gene in many muscles of the body, including the heart, with the result that some muscles now had almost the normal amounts of dystrophin protein.

The team, led by Eric Olson, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at UTSW Medical Center and founder and chief science advisor of Exonics Therapeutics, and Richard Piercy, Ph.D., MRCVS, Professor of Comparative Neuromuscular Disease at the RVC, identified a naturally-occurring mutation in the dystrophin gene in a dog brought to the RVC’s Small Animal Referral Hospital.

Working now with relatives of this first dog, the combined group has used a technique called ‘SingleCut CRISPR gene editing’, where the researchers target a specific region of the subject’s own DNA. Harmless viruses encoding the gene-editing protein CRISPR/Cas9 were used to express the enzyme in muscle to cut the dogs’ own DNA at a precise location in the dystrophin gene through use of a molecular guide. The body’s own processes then repair the cut, which results in removing the negative effects of the existing mutation.

The researchers have demonstrated that dogs treated in this way had restored ability to produce large amounts of the dystrophin protein in their muscles and heart, and in the dog with the highest dose, cardiac muscles were found to have restored dystrophin protein to up to 92% of normal amounts after the single treatment.

The team believes this is the first time that this form of gene editing therapy has been conducted after birth in an animal larger than a rodent. With further longer-term research, efficacy and safety testing, it is hoped that this breakthrough will have human application. This treatment may be a significant step toward developing a gene editing therapy to repair genetic mutations for DMD, as well as a range of diseases caused by genetic mutations.   

Richard Piercy, Professor of Comparative Neuromuscular Disease at the RVC, said: "Researchers have been looking for an effective and durable treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy for many years. This SingleCut gene editing approach, pioneered by Dr. Eric Olson’s group, has the potential to be a one-time treatment that could restore dystrophin protein. It is hugely exciting that through a single intravenous injection we’ve been able successfully to modify the dogs’ own DNA so they start generating dystrophin protein again. There is more work to be done, but with this exciting breakthrough, we feel we are a significant step closer to finding an effective treatment.

"A great many genetic diseases affect humans, dogs and other species - many, like DMD - with tragic consequences and this form of gene editing treatment might well be applicable in many of them. We’re hopeful that we’re paving the way for future research into treating some of the most serious genetic conditions that affect us today."

Research published in the Journal of Small Animal Practice (JSAP) has revealed that UK dogs eating raw meat diets have a higher risk of Salmonella and antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli being found in their faeces than dogs fed cooked food. 

For the research¹, 190 faecal samples were collected from dogs in 140 households (114 samples from raw fed dogs and 76 from non-raw fed dogs).

Salmonella species was detected in 4% of the samples (all raw fed) and antimicrobial-resistant E. coli was detected in 40% of all dogs, but in 62% of raw fed dogs.

The authors say that statistical analysis confirmed that this represented a significantly higher prevalence of AMR E. coli, including multidrug resistance and third generation cephalosporin resistance, and Salmonella species in dogs fed raw compared to non-raw meat diets.

The authors concluded that strategies should be implemented to increase the awareness of the risks of feeding raw meat diets to dogs, to reduce any potential risk to owners, their families, and their pets.

Nicola Di Girolamo, Editor of JSAP says: “In this study, an association between raw meat diets in dogs and faecal carriage of potentially dangerous enteric bacteria has been observed.

"Readers should keep in mind that cross-sectional studies such as this one lay the basis for additional research more suited to prove causality.”

Reference

1. Groat, E.F., Williams, N.J., Pinchbeck, G., Warner, B., Simpson, A. and Schmidt, V.M. (2022), UK dogs eating raw meat diets have higher risk of Salmonella and antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli faecal carriage. J Small Anim Pract, 63: 435-441. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsap.13488 

A veterinary ophthalmologist at Veterinary Vision in Penrith, Cumbria, has stumbled on what may prove to be the veterinary profession's answer to the Turin Shroud: the outline of a face on the retina of a dog.  

The strange phenomenon was spotted by Veterinary Vision's clinical director Chris Dixon when he examined Dachshund called Margo, which had been referred for the treatment of a corneal ulcer and fungal infection.

Chris said: “I was assessing Margo’s eye and was very surprised to see a face smiling back at me.

"It perhaps doesn't bear quite the same resemblance as the Turin Shroud. Still, I've never seen anything like it before. 

"The good news is that it does not appear to have affected her vision at all.”

Apparently the smiling face is still there, even after Chris performed a corneal graft.

Chris added: "I think we can safely say that Margo is a very happy dog, both inside and out!"

The RCVS Disciplinary Committee has removed a veterinary surgeon formerly working in Lincolnshire from the Register, after finding him guilty of serious professional misconduct for drink-driving related convictions, failing to inform his employer of these convictions, and driving whilst disqualified.

Jaroslaw Slominski, a former employer of Grants Veterinary Services plc, chose not to attend the three-day hearing. The Committee considered whether to proceed with the case, using criteria identified by the Court of Appeal in R v Jones (Anthony) in 2002 and confirmed by the House of Lords. It concluded it was in the interests of justice that the hearing should go ahead.

The charges related to two convictions Mr Slominski received on 17 March 2010 at Lincoln Magistrates Court: failure to provide a specimen of breath for analysis and driving without due care and attention (after his vehicle collided head-on with another car). Mr Slominski failed to inform his employers of these convictions, as he was contractually obliged to do, and that he was now disqualified from driving.

Having heard evidence from Mr Slominski's line manager, the Committee also found that he had driven his employer's vehicle whilst disqualified, although it could not be sure that he had done so on all the occasions alleged. Therefore, the Committee did not go on to consider an alternative part of the charge - that Mr Slominski had dishonestly claimed money from his employer by falsely submitting expenses claims.

Disciplinary Committee Chairman Prof Peter Lees said: "The combination of factors in this case, namely, the serious nature of his conviction in failing to provide a specimen of breath, his subsequent premeditated conduct in not informing his employers and driving whilst disqualified should be treated by the profession very seriously. The Committee has concluded that the combination of the conviction and the conduct is incompatible with Mr Slominski practising as a veterinary surgeon."

The Committee directed that Mr Slominski's name be removed from the Register.

TheraVet S.A., a Belgian company which specialises in the management of osteoarticular diseases in pets, has announced the launch of Biocera-Vet, an injectable bone substitute for use in orthopaedic surgery. 

The company says that despite the development of alternatives to natural bone grafting, such as allografts and synthetic products, autologous bone graft is still considered the standard. However, it has a number of disadvantages, such as donor site morbidities and lameness, limited availability of graft volume (particularly in small size pets) and additional surgical time.

Biocera-Vet is a new bone substitute indicated in surgical procedures where bone grafting is necessary, such as arthrodesis, complex fractures, corrective osteotomy used in correction of limb deformities or as add-on to Tibial Tuberosity Advancement (TTA).

Biocera-Vet is an injectable synthetic self-hardening calcium-phosphate cement combining osteo-inductive, osteo-conductive and osteo-integrative properties designed to support a fast and strong consolidation.

TheraVet says Biocera-Vet also presents an excellent safety profile thanks to its biocompatibility, reduced comorbidities and superior ergonomics which save a significant amount of surgical time.

Dr Olivier Stiévenart, an orthopaedic veterinary surgeon at Surgivet in Belgium said: "Using Biocera-Vet has enabled us to optimise our patient care considerably, by reducing the operating time by at least 30 minutes. The use of an efficient and rapid bone substitute represents a real progress in terms of both operations and the animal’s quality of life".

Julie Schurgers, Chief Commercial Officer of TheraVet, said: "Biocera-Vet is a unique product on the veterinary bone substitute market, combining outstanding bone consolidation properties with an excellent safety profile and superior ergonomics. We are very excited today to announce its commercialisation on the market and are convinced that this innovative product will significantly improve the daily practices of veterinarians, for the well-being of patients and their owners."

The product is now available in Belgium, and will be rolled out in France and the Netherlands shortly, with the rest of Europe following later in 2021 / 2022.

For more information, visit: https://www.thera.vet/en/biocera-vet

Protexin has announced that preliminary data from a clinical trial supports the use of Denamarin^® to protect against lomustine (CCNU)-induced hepatotoxicity in dogs.

The study is being performed at the University of California-Davis, Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, and the initial results were recently presented at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Annual Forum. Marketed in the UK by Protexin, Denamarin is the combination of S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) and silybin.

According to the company, most dogs treated with the chemotherapeutic agent CCNU experience liver enzyme elevation. Elevation of certain liver enzymes such as alanine transferase (ALT) is a key indicator of liver trauma; significant enzyme elevation may lead to a discontinuation, delay, or reduction in chemotherapy. The ongoing clinical trial was designed to evaluate Denamarin as a hepatoprotectant in dogs diagnosed with neoplasia that are undergoing CCNU therapy.

The trial consists of two groups of randomly assigned dogs. Dogs in Group 1 receive Denamarin beginning at the start of CCNU therapy. Group 2 dogs do not receive Denamarin unless they develop a Grade IV hepatotoxicity.

Results of a planned interim analysis completed on the first 30 dogs enrolled revealed that starting Denamarin when CCNU therapy was instituted (Group 1 dogs) appeared to provide hepatoprotection. While the mean post-therapy ALT elevation for Group 1 was 119 IU/L (p=0.1), for Group 2 dogs, the post-therapy ALT level was 815 IU/L (p=0.046). Chemotherapy was altered due to elevated liver enzymes in three Group 2 dogs but only one dog in Group 1.

Janine Barlow, Technical Manager at Protexin said: "We are extremely pleased by the initial findings of this research. The use of Denamarin with chemotherapy looks to help protect liver function allowing for successful completion of therapy and hopefully a longer, happier life for the pet. We look forward to the results of the full study."

Protexin says the SAMe and silybin in Denamarin support and maintain hepatic function by mechanisms including increasing levels of glutathione, the liver's main detoxifying agent; promoting protein synthesis; and stimulating bile flow. Denamarin is useful as part of a polymodal approach to the management of liver health.

Denamarin is available for both dogs and cats in an enteric-coated tablet.

Surrey-based North Downs Specialist Referrals reports that it has had 'extraordinary' results using electrochemotherapy, a form of targeted chemotherapy, after it eradicated all traces of disease in its first tranche of eight patients since the start of last November.

In one case, Tigga, a 17-year-old cat with an itchy and destructive tumour on her nose, was in complete remission within 44 days. In another case, a tumour vanished in a dog where the aim of the treatment was only to shrink the mass before an operation to remove it.

NDSR, which is based in Bletchingley, is the only referral centre in the UK and one of very few in the world offering electrochemotherapy in pets.

Electrochemotherapy is given in two stages.

First, the patient is given a mild dose of intravenous chemotherapy in the normal way and then, using a probe, a precise electrical charge is given to the area on or around the tumour.

This temporarily opens up tiny holes in the cells, big enough to allow the drug to enter, which then close again in microseconds. This means the drug will only attack cancerous cells, unlike normal chemotherapy, which also kills healthy cells. 

Gerry Polton, clinical director of oncology at NDSR, said: "Normal chemotherapy works on the principle of being more damaging to cancer than non-cancerous tissue. Some cancers are more resilient, so there are differences in how they respond to treatment, and this can cause more harm to the patient. 

"Electrochemotherapy involves clever anatomical targeting of a specific site and is an effective way of protecting healthy cells.

"The results we are seeing in cases like Tigga’s are unprecedented and we are learning about the procedure all the time. We are always looking for better ways of treating cancer without the effect of harming the patient indiscriminately and this has proved to be a very effective way of doing this."

According to NDSR, the results could help inform the development of the targeted treatment in humans, where electrochemotherapy is used in a small number of cases in the NHS.

At present, many clinical trials are carried out on laboratory animals which are bred with no immune system – but dogs have similarities in genetics to humans and have working immune systems, meaning they can provide a more accurate parallel for how the treatment may work in people.

Gerry said: "A pet dog would be a good model for human cancer studies. It's a mammal with a heartbeat, blood supply and working immune system.

"Progress with electrochemotherapy in animals is being made in parallel with progress in electrochemotherapy in the human field, and what we are learning may even inform what is happening in people.

"Electrochemotherapy is a form of treatment which Cancer Research UK describe as 'fairly new' on its website, with limited information about its effectiveness. So maybe something would be gained from learning together."

Ceva Animal Health has launched Hepatosyl Plus, a development of the liver support supplement for cats and dogs.

Hepatosyl Plus contains the same ingredients as the original product but now also includes Silybin. According to the company, Silybin is the most active isomer of Silybum marianum (milk thistle) which acts as an antioxidant by increasing cellular superoxide dismutase. It joins S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) and Vitamin E to create a triple antioxidant approach to liver support, helping to neutralise free radicals within the liver. Ceva also says Hepatosyl Plus is the only liver supplement to contain Vitamin K, which is needed by the liver for the production of clotting factors II, VII, IX and X, making it ideally suited for pre- and post-anaesthetic liver support.

Hepatosyl Plus is available in 50mg, 100mg and 200mg sprinkle capsules.  For anaesthetic support, Hepatosyl Plus should be administered for one week prior to and following anaesthesia.  For long-term use, the capsules should be given once daily for 2-3 months and then reduced to every other day for ongoing maintenance.

For further information, please contact your local CEVA Animal Health territory manager or call 01494 781510.