Vet Gazette

Dr. Connie White (Class of 1997), President of the OVMA, recently clarified the role that veterinary clinics play in the abuse of prescription opioids. Although a few addicts may try to doctor shop for prescription drugs at their veterinarian, the numbers are insignificant.

Dr. White notes that opioid-type drug doses for pets are small and low-potency. “I don’t think that we’re a very big part of the problem at all,” says Dr. White. “If you look at the current epidemic which we have, which is heartbreaking, veterinarians have not played any substantive role in either getting us here or being the source of drugs which are responsible for opioid overdose.”

Full story on KATU.

Drs. McKenzie, Redmond, Pitel, and Pacheco.

OSU faculty and house officers were well represented at the national ACVIM forum held in Phoenix, Arizona the week of June 3^rd.

Dr. Jana Gordon served as the 2019 Forum Program Chair. Dr. Helio de Morais served on the small animal internal medicine exam committee, and Dr. Ben Brunson sat for the general examination.

Drs. Pacheco, Redmond, McKenzie and Pitel attended from the large animal medicine section, with Dr. Redmond sitting the general examination, and Dr. McKenzie and Dr. Pitel both presenting oral research abstracts. Dr. Pitel was subsequently awarded one of the highly regarded ACVIM resident research awards for presenting her Master’s thesis data.

The cardiology section was represented by Drs. Leblanc, Scollan and Allen, as well as CVT Robyn Panico. Dr. Scollan participated as an examination committee member, and presented an oral research abstract. Dr. Meghan Allen received a resident research award for her work on gabapentin cardiovascular effects in cats.

The relative risk of a recurrence of cancer is reduced by 60% in dogs whose tumors are completely removed, a new analysis by Oregon State University researchers has found. “You want to get all of the tumor out if you can,” said Milan Milovancev, an associate professor of small animal surgery in the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine and lead author of the study. “That’s what most veterinarians, including myself, have thought, but this makes it more official. Now we can say, here’s the data.”

The researchers reviewed published veterinary studies and found a recurrence of less than 10% in dogs where the soft tissue sarcoma was completely excised, versus 33% recurrence in cases where the cancer was incompletely excised, meaning there was microscopic evidence that tumor cells remained after surgery.

The findings were published recently in the journal Veterinary and Comparative Oncology. Co-authors are Veronica Irvin, an assistant professor in Oregon State’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences; Katy Townsend, an assistant professor in the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine; and Joanne Tuohy of Colorado State University.

The researchers reviewed 486 research articles, ultimately focusing on 10 studies that met a set of criteria for inclusion in the analysis. Those studies represented 278 dogs surgically treated for cases of soft tissue sarcoma.

Holly Arnold (Class of 2020) and Kaitlin Gonzales (Class of 2020) successfully competed for 2 of only 11 scholarships awarded nationally by the American Kennel Club Outreach Program. The awards are based on academic achievement and relevant research. “We are very proud of these students and look forward to seeing their impact on the future of veterinary medicine,” said Mari-Beth O’Neill of the AKC.

An Interview with Emily Brown (Class of 2022)

Will you please share something unexpected you discovered or learned on your path into veterinary medicine?

My journey through veterinary medicine has been incredibly rewarding, and I feel that I am constantly learning new things about the industry and community. One of the most influential things I have learned thus far is just how supportive and collaborative the members of the community are. While attending the National VBMA Conference, I was able to connect with students from both across the United States and internationally, as well as with business professionals who generously helped connect me with people who share my similar interests. Through these introductions I acquired new mentors whose experiences can guide me and better direct my journey as I continue within this field.

What is your vision for the future of veterinary medicine and how does it influence the way you’re preparing?

My vision for veterinary medicine is for it to become an even more communal and collaborative field alongside our human medicine counterparts. I would like to help improve working with human medicine groups so that both veterinary and human medicine can benefit. Although medical advances and treatment techniques have been shared collaboratively between professions, I believe that we can advance the field of medicine for the benefit of every species on this planet in a more rapid manner by harboring a collaborative setting and a more consistent communication line. With this in mind I plan on continuing to hone my communication skills and melding it with my veterinary education to contribute to the advancement of human health. This idea also opens the door to pursuing research to help join the two fields.

Can you tell us one thing about yourself that would surprise your veterinary colleagues?

One thing that may surprise my colleagues is that in the future, after achieving my goal to become a boarded surgeon, I would like to travel around the world to provide veterinary care to communities and animals in impoverished nations where veterinary care is either unaffordable or nonexistent.

This interview originally appeared in the March 28, 2019 edition of the Nationwide DVM website.

There are 10 million commercial laying hens, and approximately 100,000 backyard chicken owners, in the state of California. The California Department of Food and Agriculture is charged with protecting all those chickens and one of their biggest challenges comes from Virulent Newcastle Virus, a foreign animal disease with no cure and close to a 100% death rate in unvaccinated flocks.

During the first major outbreak of the virus in 2002, nearly 2 million birds were destroyed to stop the spread of the highly contagious disease. Last summer, Newcastle Virus returned to California, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) asked the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (OVDL) to help.

When a large-scale animal-disease outbreak occurs, the USDA relies on laboratories managed by state governments and universities to collaborate with them on disease surveillance and testing. In July 2018, the OVDL responded to a request for help with Newcastle Virus by loaning Medical Laboratory Technician Janna Thorp to the California Health and Food Safety Lab (CAHFS) where overwhelmed staff had been processing hundreds of test samples pouring into the lab every day.

Commercial poultry growers use kits to regularly test their flock for Newcastle Virus, and send the samples to CAHFS. When a serious outbreak occurs, a task force sends teams out with warrants to test backyard chickens too. “Last July, they established that the outbreak started in backyard flocks,” says Thorp. “That is due to lack of knowledge. Commercial managers carefully follow antiseptic practices, but backyard growers often don’t know how.”

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