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Research led by Dr Watson has demonstrated that chronic pancreatitis (CP) is more common and clinically significant in dogs than veterinary surgeons previously recognised, with strong breed predispositions. Prior to this work, the veterinary profession believed that dogs had a single attack of acute pancreatitis which did not result in the development of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) and/or endocrine insufficiency (diabetes mellitus (DM)). The work by Watson has shown the importance of chronic disease and has altered the long term treatment of affected dogs across the profession. It has also prompted companies in the UK, Europe and the USA to increase their focus on low-fat dietary management, pancreatic enzyme supplementation and analgesia improving the quality of life of affected dogs.
Footrot (FR) causes 90% of lameness in sheep. FR reduces productivity and lowers sheep welfare. Research at the University of Warwick, initiated in 1999 and still active, has led to the development of a novel management strategy for footrot in sheep: prompt antibiotic treatment (PAT) - sheep treated with intramuscular and topical antibiotics within three days of becoming lame with FR. This has resulted in a reduction in the overall prevalence of lameness in sheep flocks in England from 10% (2004) to 5% (2011) and 3% (2013). In 2011, evidence from research at Warwick on PAT was used by the Farm Animal Welfare Council of Great Britain to support their statement that it was feasible to reduce the prevalence of lameness in the national flock from 10% to 2% by 2021. From 2005 onwards, PAT has been disseminated to 50,000 sheep farmers through knowledge transfer (KT) by EBLEX, the levy body for sheep farmers in England using booklets, CDs and more than 100 on-farm events. More than 50% of farmers who had attended an EBLEX KT meeting on lameness stated that they had changed their management of lameness as a result of new information from the event. The Sheep Veterinary Society in the UK has adopted PAT as the recognised management approach for FR and a leading sheep vet in Germany has written a book promoting PAT. The work has been presented in Europe as part of Animal Welfare Research in an Enlarged Europe (AWARE), an EU-funded project educating all countries in the enlarged EU zone on animal welfare (http://tinyurl.com/o6onaxd). In 2012, the lead Warwick researcher Professor Green was awarded the Royal Agricultural Society of England medal specifically for `impact to the sheep farming community in reducing footrot in sheep'.
Thousands of animals are housed in captive conditions worldwide, often to the detriment of their mental well-being. Scientists at Queen's Animal Behaviour Centre have spent the last 20 years developing new ways of improving the psychological welfare of animals housed in captivity. Their research has shown that classical music and scents such as lavender in dog shelters calms the animals, and that shielding zoo-housed gorillas from visitors with camouflage netting over the viewing windows, prevents great apes from becoming agitated. The impact of this research extends to guidelines and regulations set by the American Veterinary Medical Association, the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the Australian Government's National Health and Medical Research Council. Commercial impact includes CDs of music composed specifically for dogs, now widely available to buy on the open market, and being utilised in 1700+ rescue shelters and by over 150,000 pet owners around the globe.
RVC research has helped transform differential diagnosis of canine heart disease, in first opinion veterinary practice, by demonstrating the value of peptide biomarkers and collaborating with diagnostics companies to ensure the findings have been translated into commercial assay kits available around the world. Contributions to major clinical trials have complemented this through improvements in canine cardiac disease treatment. This has benefitted dogs and their owners through improved and prolonged canine health; and has additionally delivered new guidance for professional practice, and economic value through increased therapeutic product sales and novel diagnostic services.
Clinical research at RVC commencing in 1994 has changed clinical practice in management of feline chronic kidney disease (CKD) by transforming international consensus on diagnostic and treatment guidelines on proteinuria, hypertension and hyperphosphataemia. The research has informed the development of new products to manage hyperphosphataemia and diagnostics for identification of low level proteinuria in cats, deemed unimportant prior to publication of the RVC's research. RVC academics have worked in partnership with industry and used research results to change clinical practice guidelines through participation in consensus expert groups and increasing acceptance of new guidelines by outreach activities to general practitioners in UK, Europe, Asia and the USA in the form of publication of textbook chapters, lectures at major conferences and e- learning platforms to explain the underpinning research-based evidence.
Pioneering interdisciplinary research at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has enabled governments internationally and global health authorities to respond swiftly to the outbreak of a disease that causes huge economic losses, threatens the livelihoods of vulnerable populations in the developing world and endangers human lives. Supported by proactive dissemination, it has shaped the control policies and risk management strategies of the United Nations and governments across Asia, Africa and Europe, as well as a national contingency plan for the UK. And it has demonstrated that costly vaccination campaigns and mass culling programmes can be avoided in efforts to bring the disease under control.
Research undertaken at Strathclyde during 2006-2009 produced a decision support platform combining artificial intelligence with low power wireless sensor technology, which was capable of alerting farm staff to animal conditions requiring human intervention. ETS Ltd, a privately owned University Spin-out company was founded in 2009 to develop and market the new technology, and now employs 7 full time staff. Since 2010 more than 250 farms in the UK and Europe have adopted the technology, enabling them to reduce operating costs, maximise milk revenue, with an estimated increase of £10k per 100 cows per annum. The new technology has also improved the performance of other existing businesses and has helped retain jobs in the supply chain in Scotland.
Interdisciplinary research at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has provided core evidence on which global efforts are based in order to eradicate one of the most economically damaging diseases of the cattle industry. The research findings have helped steer national programmes to eradicate Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) across Europe, South Asia and Australasia, reducing economic losses. Professor Joe Brownlie has additionally led pilot programmes in the UK, providing data for a national scheme, campaigned widely to highlight the issue and secured farming industry awareness and support through media exposure.
Research undertaken at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) studied habitat enrichment in captive coyotes (with the National Wildlife Research Center in Utah), and herd composition of donkeys, horses and mules (with the Donkey Sanctuary). These studies observed social and environmental interactions, addressing important welfare indicators in gregarious species. The work identified welfare issues in both sites and provided the necessary evidence to allow improvements to be made.
Specifically, this research has:
1) led to changes in the husbandry practice and policy in both partner institutions that have improved animal welfare;
2) improved how the Donkey Sanctuary trains international partners and undertakes welfare education.
Research carried out by Professor Donald Broom at the Centre for Animal Welfare and Anthrozoology at the University of Cambridge has had a significant impact on the policy and practice surrounding farm animal welfare in the UK and beyond. Work on sow housing, calf housing, laying-hen housing, farm animal transport and other scientific work on animal welfare has led to legislation, binding codes of practice and changes in animal production and management methods in the United Kingdom and other European Union countries and many other countries around the world. In the EU, each year this affects 16 million sows, 6.5 million calves, 320 million hens and 6 billion animals that are being transported.