SEMINAR 2013

The Seminar took place on Sunday 12 May 2013

More information about the days' speakers will be available soon, including a short video of Thermal Imaging on Stan the Labrador in the starring role.

A full report is available in newsletter 25.

Dr Tom Lewis BSc (Animal Science), MDip (Quantitative Genetics and Genome Analysis), PhD (Quantitative Genetics), who works at the Animal Health Trust.

tom lewis presentation

Dr Lewis has been associated with projects such as: the Genetic evaluation of elbow scores and the relationship with hip scores in UK Labrador retrievers and Premature Mitral Valve disease, Syringomyelia, Curly Coat syndrome and Dry Eye syndrome in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

His presentation covered inbreeding (the loss of genetic diversity) and the problems it can cause in both individuals and populations and how it does so.

Dr Lewis also talked about complex genetic disease, using hip dysplasia as an example and discussed the KC’s web tool ‘Mate Select’, which allows breeders to access health information in a much easier way.


Between Dr Lewis ending his talk and lunch being served, San Jeffries was able to present and talk of how the attributes of a pedigree database can assist in tracking and monitoring reported hereditary diseases, by using a combination of numbers and colours to identify these diseases.

Starting from the first recorded cases, San demonstrated how affected pedigrees became a visual representation of these reported diseases. The number/colour codes for each disease make pedigree identification simple and obvious.

San also showed how the calculation of Percentage Ancestral Influence (PAI) is an extremely useful application available on this database. This facilty showed how early dogs can still have a large 'blood' influence on modern pedigrees.

San also stated that there are many other useful database features which time precluded her from demonstrating.


Hayley Springett, BSc (Hons), RVN, AMIBiol the emerging science of using thermal imaging in veterinary fields.

Hayley's VTI presentation

Thermal Imaging is non-invasive, doesn’t emit any radiation, and doesn’t require your dog or cat to be anaesthetised. It shows whether there are any problem areas, pinpointing where they are so that your vet can perform specific tests, and also highlights where there may be secondary problems or other affected joints which could be overlooked.

It effectively indentifies problems in bone as well as soft-tissue, and can assist in the detection of nerve damage and dysfunction as it uses a small, high mobile passive sensor.

Veterinary Thermal Imaging has many advantages and is very sensitive to changes in the muscular, vascular, skeletal and nervous systems, detecting temperature differences of less than 0.05oC which is 40 times more sensitive than the human hand.

Here is a video of Hayley using her Thermal Imaging camera on a co-operative Stan.


The day concluded with cakes to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the foundation of Wheaten Health Initiative...

cakes WHI cake cake cake table Cake Table Cake Table
Best Chef - Pam Clarke

..and a presentation to the Chef.

 


See also summary notes of a lecture by Dr Lewis at the KC Breeder Symposium: Page 3 of Newsletter 20 (opens in new window).