DVM Students Experience First Field Rotations 02Third Annual Research Day 042009 ABVMA Member Recognition Awards 05

Notes from the deaN Alastair Cribb, Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

First year students practice equine handling techniques

Bringing innovation and community together to advance animal and human health

Spring 2010 issue 7

taBLe of CoNteNtsNews from the DVLC 06 Your Gifts in Action 06Students on the Move 07

As one year of the DVM academic year draws to a close, there is another group of potential DVM students waiting to hear if they have been successful in gaining a place in the program for next year. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are thinking of wrapping up their program so that they can move on to the next stage in their career, and faculty members are thinking of new graduate students they can bring in. Our first partner interns are looking to complete their programs on June 30th and another group of interns will wrap up their fourth year in preparation for joining us on July 1st. This is a good time to reflect on the accomplishments of the many different trainees that call a university home, however temporary that stay may be.

This Spring 2010 newsletter is filled with stories of student success. From our DVM students who are winning awards for exciting and educational trips to places like Cornell and the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta to our graduate students celebrating at UCVM’s third annual research day, we have no shortage of student success stories to share. And, we want to mention support from the community as well. Our partners in the Distributed Veterinary Learning Community and financial supporters are all essential to ensuring the success of our programs.

We are hosting our first public educational event this fall at the Clinical Skills Building. The dates are September 25 & 26 and the event will be hosted by our DVM and graduate students. We don’t know what it will be called yet, but we know it will be worth the trip for anyone interested in veterinary medicine.

I am sorry to tell you Christoph Mulling, our Associate Dean Curriculum has decided to accept a position at the University of Leipzig in Germany. We wish him and his family all the best as they embark on this new adventure.

dVm stUdeNts eXPerIeNCe fIrst fIeLd rotatIoNsAlyssa Eslinger, Eoin Clancy and Emily Ames (2012) were some of the first DVM students to go through an Area of Emphasis (AoE) field experience. The purpose of the AoE electives is to help students decide which area of veterinary medicine they are most interested in. Alyssa, Eoin and Emily participated in an investigative medicine field course. They had a week to conduct research based on a problem posed by instructors and then present their findings. Here’s how the week went from Alyssa’s point of view…

Monday, Sunterra facility, Innisfail, Alberta

This is our first day in the field. We were able to collect samples from bison directly after slaughter.

We’re collecting blood, hair and adrenal glands to measure stress hormones.

Tuesday, Laboratory, Foothills Campus

Today was drastically different from Monday! It’s interesting to switch gears so completely

from being in the field – getting messy and being around the animals to hunkering down in the lab.

Our original goal was to compare stress levels in bison going to slaughter at a traditional plant vs. a mobile ‘on farm’ abattoir.

Dr. Kathy Wynne-Edwards, Professor, Comparative Endocrinology helped us to process all of our samples.

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Quarterly Newsletter page �

This was a long day! The three of us in a conference room all day long playing with numbers and

preparing a power point.

Thursday, back at Foothills Campus

We sat down with our results and began to prepare our presentation for tomorrow. Dr. Rob McCorkell, Senior Instructor Game Farm and Wildlife met with us at the end of the day and we went through the presentation for his feedback.

Alyssa

Overall, this was a whirlwind. I think it taught us what was intended and in the end we learned that research is a dynamic thing and doesn’t always work out how you first want it to. And really, the focus was on our experience more than our findings. To try and get from hypothesis to results in a week is a process you wouldn’t normally go through, but it definitely helps us get an idea of what we want to continue with in our fourth year rotations!

We presented our findings to a full house!

Wednesday, Fort St. John, BC

Today we flew into northern British Columbia. We wanted to look at some bison farms in the area and we were able to have a look at a mobile abattoir. Lars Jorgensen who owns the mobile abattoir talked to us about his company Gate To Plate Inc. It was neat to talk to someone who has been at both ends of the production line, since Lars was an executive chef at a Vancouver hotel before starting his butcher shop and mobile abbatoir company.

Friday, presentation day, Foothills Campus

This is the big day! I’m a little stressed, but I think we should be proud of what we

have accomplished in such a short time.

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thIrd aNNUaL researCh day UCVM hosted its third annual research day in March. Events included talks and posters from undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research associates, technicians, and faculty.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein, a beef welfare and behaviour scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Congratulations to all the participants and the following award recipients:

Platform Presenters

David Min, graduate student with Dr. Chelikani in PAH“Regulation of food intake: Insights from functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain”

Dr. Michele Anholt, graduate student with Dr. Craig Stephens“The One Health Goal: Facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange”

Ester Li, undergraduate student with Dr. Jacob Thundathil“Role of Na+/K+ ATPase in regulating capacitation in mouse sperm”

James Nicol, graduate student with Dr. Renaud Leguillette“The effect of prednisolone and isoflupredone on airway inflammation, airway hypersensitivity, and clinical score in horses with Inflammatory Airway Disease”

Dr. Tara Christie, Manager Graduate Education and key note speaker Dr. Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Quarterly Newsletter page �

2009 aBVma memBer recognition awards

The Alberta Veterinary Medical Association recently

celebrated its 2009 Member Recognition Awards. We would

like to congratulate the following UCVM faculty members and

friends for their accomplishments!

Dr. Peter Eyre, first Dean of UCVM was awarded with the

ABVMA Honorary Life Membership.

Dr. J. Egan Brockhoff, sessional faculty member was named

the Young Veterinarian of the Year.

Drs. Greg Andrews, past UCVM Stakeholder Advisory

Committee (SAC) member and David Chalack, current SAC

member were recognized for 35 years of Active Service.

Poster Presenters

Dr. Stan Nakanishi, postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Patrick Whelan“Serotonergic inhibition of repetitive firing behaviours of motorneurons in postnatal mice”

Dale Balce, graduate student with Dr. Robin Yates“Investigating the reductive capacity of the phagosome and its influence on antigen processing in macrophages and dendritic cells”

Saara Rawn, graduate student with Dr. Jay Cross“Determining the function of placental lactogens in post-implantation murine pregnancy”

And thanks to our sponsors: The Office of Research and Graduate Education, Elanco, Pfizer Animal Health, Bayer Health Care - Animal Health, Boehringer Ingelheim, New England Biolabs, Qiagen, Intervet, Novaritis, MediCal Royal Canin

Research Day Committee members are: Michele Anholt, Tara Christie, Regina Krohn, Katy Macklon, James Nicol and Bryanne Hoar

Dr. Egan Brockoff at the ABVMA Awards

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NeWs from the dVLC Some UCVM veterinary students will get a sneak peak at the fourth year of their program this summer. With the help of members of the Distributed Veterinary Learning Community, UCVM will conduct clinical rotations that will simulate parts of the fourth year of the DVM program.

“This is a 16 week course with four practicum rotations: equine, small animal, food animal medicine and surgery and rural community veterinary practice. Two students will complete the program and it will truly be a full dress rehearsal with all the administrative components in place,” says Eugene Janzen, Assistant Dean Clinical Practice.

The summer learning experience will ensure all the details are worked out before UCVM students actually get to their fourth year. As course coordinator for VM580, Dr. Janzen will lead the course. The faculty liaisons for each practicum rotation are: Dr. Emma Read, Dr. Soren Boysen, Dr. Gordon Atkins, and Dr. Gord Krebs.

Of course the most important partners in this venture are the participating clinics and UCVM is lucky to have good support for this mock rotation. Practices participating are: Moore & Co, Cedarwood Veterinary, CARE Centre, Leduc Veterinary Hospital, and Oyen Veterinary Services.

“This will be an important experience that will allow us to test drive all the required components,” says Janzen. “Our curriculum is very dependent on our partners in the DVLC and we simply couldn’t move forward without them.”

yoUr gIfts IN aCtIoNThanks to a generous donation from the Equine Foundation of Canada, we were able to purchase a Dynamic Respiratory Scope (DRS). UCVM is the first in Canada to have this specialized equipment. The DRS is a wireless endoscope that allows clinicians and researchers to see inside a horse’s upper airway while the horse is exercising or working. The rider wears a backpack, or the equipment is attached to a sulky or cart. The backpack transmits video of the horse’s airway. Those images can be recorded and played back, so the DRS can also be used as a teaching tool used in the DVM classes. Dr. Renaud Leguillette uses the DRS for clinical cases through his work with Moore & Company Veterinary Services of Calgary.

Dr. Eugene Janzen, Assistant Dean Clinical Practice

The DRS in action on the track at Bar None Ranching

Dr. Renaud Leguillette uses the new DRS at Bar None Ranching Ltd.

For more information about how to give to UCVM, please go to

http://vet.ucalgary.ca/giving_to_ucvm

Or contact Janet Webb at 403-210-6206 or

janet.webb@ucalgary.ca

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Quarterly Newsletter page �

stUdeNts oN the moVeCalgary DVM students are already making a mark on the world. Many students have been awarded trips or bursaries for trips that will expand their horizons and possibly open doors to future careers.

Last November, Adam Hering (2012) along with Laura Kippen, Cam Koerselman and Scott Zaari (2013) attended the 9th Annual Animal Welfare Judging & Assessment Contest in Michigan. It was Adam’s second time to the contest and he said it was well worth attending.

“Learning to separate what you think might be best, versus what is actually best for that animal is a good lesson.”

Scott Zaari also received a bursary to attend the North American Veterinary Conference this past January.

Members of the Class of 2013 Andrea Lo and Carson Grant won the Dr. Bonnie Buntain Travel Grant for International and/or Public Practice Experience and attended the Centres for Disease Control Veterinary Student Day in January.

Andrea says, “It was a great experience! We learned about public health and epidemiology case studies from experts in a world-renowned facility. We were presented with intern and externship opportunities from the CDC and also networked with vet students from all over North America”.

And Carson, along with Barbra Behiels and Monica Kovacs (2013) will head off on interesting trips with Veterinarians Without Borders to India and Africa this spring.

This coming June, Mel Tannahill, Class of 2012 will head south. She won a national veterinary student competition to attend the Foreign Animal Disease Program and a trip to the Plum Island BSL4 laboratory in New York. This trip is possible through the Smith-Kilborne Program which is designed to acquaint veterinary students with various foreign animal diseases. The program includes both classroom presentations on diseases and their implications combined with laboratory experiences. Mel was one of only two Canadian veterinary students selected by the Canadian

Food Inspection Agency to attend this program.

UCVM is on Twitter!UCVMnews can be accessed at Twitter.comWatch for updates and news items!

tWItter

Emily Ames and Clinton Doering (2012) will attend a prestigious event this summer. The Leadership

Program for Veterinary Scholars at Cornell University is a unique summer research experience for

veterinary students who seek to broadly influence the veterinary profession through a science-

based career. Only twenty five students are chosen to attend this program at Cornell. Emily and

Clinton will spend ten weeks exploring careers in research.

Emily says, “It will expose us to a whole bunch of career paths that aren’t necessarily typical and

we’ll see what can be done at a high level in these industries as a veterinarian.”

The UCVM Animal Welfare Judging Team

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Pat Curry, PhD Trainee with Susan Kutz, Alberta Ingenuity Graduate

Student Scholarship

Ina Dobrinski, Professor and Department Head, Comparative Biology and

Experimental Medicine, Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions New Scientist

Dennis Klugkist, Class of 2012, Intervet/Schering-Plough Student Case

Presentation Award, WCABP Conference

Erin Shields, Class of 2012, Alberta Government Persons Case Scholarship

Patrick Whelan, BSc, PhD, Associate Professor, Physiology (Neuroscience), Pfizer Award for Neuropathic Pain Research

Craig Stephen, DVM, PhD, Director Centre for Coastal Health, Professor Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has been named to the CVMA Task Force

on Innovation

aWards & aChIeVemeNts

Congratulations to the following for their significant awards or achievements:

Bringing innovation

and community together

to advance animal and

human health

University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

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Calgary, Alberta

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