Susan E. Little, DVM, PhD, DACVM, shares one of the most important things veterinarians should recognize regarding the surge in tick populations, and more

About the recent boom in tick populations

, Susan E. Little, DVM, PhD, DACVM, Krull-Ewing professor of parasitology at the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, talks about her lecture 

, presented at the 2025 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX). Little discusses the boom in tick populations over the last decades, as well its driving factors and the risk of tick-borne diseases in pets.

Below is a partial transcript which has been lightly edited for clarity.

The increase we've seen in tick populations in the last few decades has just been incredible. I mean, I think it was beyond what anybody's estimations were in terms of what the tick explosion was going to look like, and so we've got more ticks, more places. They've moved up in latitude, up in altitude. The geographic spread has just been phenomenal, and there's a number of reasons for that. We've certainly seen habitat change and increased wildlife host populations, right? So that leads to increased ticks and ticks [in] more places.

We've seen introduction and establishment of new species, and so those have taken off because they found a welcoming environment with the habitat and the host there to feed them. And then we're also dealing with the effects of climate change, and so we've got earlier springs, later falls, milder winters. I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but on average, our winters are much milder than they've been historically. And so with that increased temperature, the ticks have really taken advantage of that. It gives them more degree days to be out there, finding a host, feeding on a host, and if they find a dog or a cat that's not protected with tick control, they're going to take advantage of that.

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Susan E. Little, DVM, PhD, DACVM, shares important things veterinarians should recognize regarding the surge in tick populations, and more 

Exploring the rise in tick populations

A blackwalk underway post-bushfire (Image courtesy of The International Fund for Animal Welfare)

Collaboration and training aid wildlife in disasters

Five years ago, Australia experienced the devastating Black Summer bushfires which scorched millions of hectares of the landscape, 33 people perished, and an estimated 1 billion animals were killed or displaced nationally.

 Since then, wildlife and animal welfare organizations are working to strengthen disaster preparedness and response capabilities across the country.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is one of the organizations which has been part of this collaborative approach focused on helping the wildlife and emergency response sectors be better prepared to rescue and care for injured animals in the face of future disasters.

“An effective and resilient response system requires collaboration across various sectors, organizations, and levels of government. It cannot be achieved by one individual or group. When we all work together, we can build a well-coordinated emergency response plan for wildlife across multiple levels of government and regional networks,” explained Robert Leach, IFAW’s Animal Rescue Program officer, to 

“IFAW now acts as a conduit between the wildlife sector and government agencies in Australia. And in addition to direct field support, we’ve worked with key wildlife rescue organizations and agencies to improve the capacity and coordination of wildlife response during bushfires—including post-fire ‘blackwalk’ search and rescue training, and specialized wildlife training for veterinary professionals.”

As part of this work, IFAW partnered with Western Australian wildlife hospital WA Wildlife to upskill general practice veterinary professionals in wildlife triage and treatment through a hands-on mentorship program.

“Extending on the great work that’s been delivered on the eastern side of the country, our 3-day Mentorship Program for Veterinary Professionals is designed to increase the capacity of general practice veterinarians to triage and treat sick and injured wildlife brought to them by members of the public and wildlife rehabilitators, while also establishing a cohort of trained veterinary professionals able to respond to, and support wildlife impacted by emergencies including bushfires. We’re not considering them as specialists, but they’re certainly wildlife-capable,” said Leach.

“The program is attracting a wide geographical range of participants, including a significant representation from regional areas—underscoring the broad reach of the program and extending critical wildlife triage and treatment capacity to areas where wildlife incidents may be more frequent and resources more limited.

A kangaroo injured in a bushfire is brought in for triage and treatment (Image courtesy of Robert Leach)

In addition to practical sessions in wildlife treatment in clinical settings covering wildlife specific techniques for radiography and anaesthesia, the program included training in triage and emergency response scenarios such as bushfires, flood, and oil spills.

“The feedback from the participants so far have been overwhelmingly positive, describing that the course boosted their confidence in multiple aspects of wildlife handling and treatment. We’ve received such great interest to date, conveying the desire by the state’s veterinary sector for additional learning opportunities in the wildlife and emergency response field,” said Leach.

“We saw over 50 veterinary professionals completing their mentorship in just the first 6 months of this program running, and we’re pleased to announce that the program will be extended for another 6 months to meet the demand and continue building this much-needed capacity.”

IFAW also implemented a wildlife search and rescue training course to upskill wildlife rescuers to be confident operating on firegrounds, which has been rolled out in New South Wales.

“This training has been designed to upskill the everyday wildlife rescuer into a capable and confident wildlife emergency response team member with the knowledge and understanding to efficiently and safely undertake their tasks on firegrounds. Outside of an agency-led wildlife response, this training is also applicable to any volunteer-led post-fire search and rescue operation, colloquially named as ‘blackwalks’,” explained Leach.

“Historically, wildlife groups that undertake these operations have their own in-house training, likely passed down by generational knowledge. IFAW’s training has been designed to combine these learnings with up-to-date best practices to provide a standardized knowledge baseline for both the wildlife sector and emergency management agencies involved in wildlife responses.”

Leach said that firegrounds, even well after fires are extinguished, can be highly dangerous for untrained personnel. 

“This training not only teaches the technical aspects for planning and undertaking a fireground search, but also reinforces the safety elements necessary for teams to not just focus on the animals, but have their own safety prioritised,” said Leach.

“We also know that fireground operations are just as mentally taxing as they are physically, so we found it critical to include a module on responder mental health to normalize and provide support for some potentially incredibly traumatic scenarios that these responders may be faced with.”

Leach said he is proud of the progress that IFAW has made in connecting various groups, government and response agencies, and building capacity in the wildlife sector.

“However, there is much more that needs to be done, especially through greater government recognition and resourcing for the critical role the veterinary and wildlife rescue community plays in disaster response,” said Leach.

New Journal of Australian Postgraduate Research launches

Rachel Westcott, PhD, BVMS(Hons) BSc, from south Australia, launched a new online open access scientific journal, the

 Journal of Australian Postgraduate Research

, with the mission to help postgraduate students of all levels at Australian universities publish their work and begin a publication profile.

The idea for the new journal came about because of Westcott’s journey completing her own PhD in 2018 from the School of Medicine at Western Sydney University, which focused on emergency management and public health.

“My PhD was by papers, with an exegesis connecting the published research. Publishing was an experience. Finding a journal that ‘fitted’ was tricky, given that most veterinary journals are about veterinary medicine. Publishing is slow, expensive, complicated and reviewer comments can be brutal and not always for the best,” shared Westcott to 

Rachel Westcott, PhD, BVMS(Hons) BSc and Emilis Prelgauskas, B.Arch FRAIA HE014

Engine Room Solutions directors, at the JAPR stand at the Quality in Postgraduate Research 2024 conference in South Australia (Image courtesy of Lee McBride)

“PhD scholarships, like mine, are generally only for 3-and-a-half years. The publishing of 1 paper can take 12 months or more, so if you need 4 or more published or accepted papers for a PhD, you will either run out of time, money, or both, which leads to a whole new array of problems!”

After successfully navigating the publication process and finishing her PhD, Westcott together with her architect partner, started to think about how things might change for the better for postgraduate students, and the 

Journal of Australian Postgraduate Research

“We have developed a new model of peer review to give students and supervisors greater control of the process, and to make that process faster, simpler and much less expensive. We have Word and Latex templates, and issue Digital Object Identifiers to identify each publication like other journals and publications do,” explained Westcott.

The journal has an editorial board, and Westcott is the editor of the publication and is happy to assist postgraduate students with any questions about submitting papers for publication.

“One of the great things about a veterinary undergraduate degree is that it can take you many places. A number of vets of my acquaintance are stepping sideways into research—not necessarily in a primary veterinary research area —and often, as I did, in parallel with regular veterinary practice,” said Westcott.

“Our mantra is accelerating excellence, and whilst the postgraduate journey can be challenging, it is worth it. We encourage you to consider pursuing that path.”

For further information on the Journal of Australian Postgraduate Research, visit https://engineroomsolutions.com.au/.

Friends of the Earth Australia. Australia’s Black Summer. Friends of the Earth Australia. Published May 2020. https://www.foe.org.au/australia_black_summer

Articles

Updates on improvements to wildlife disaster preparedness; and a new journal fills a niche for getting academic papers published.

Veterinary scene down under: Improving wildlife disaster preparedness, plus the launch of the Journal of Australian Postgraduate Research 

Ольга Холявина/stock.adobe.com

Good morning, and happy Monday dvm360 readers! We hope that everyone had a great weekend and is ready to tackle another work week. Throughout the week, the dvm360 team will continue to be posting conference coverage of Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX), the latest news in veterinary medicine, and some interviews as well! Be sure to continue to check on dvm360.com throughout the week to see all this content, and more.

Here is a sneak peek of some of the content you can find this week on dvm360.com:

dvm360 student ambassador Paige Varney, a first year student at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, recently wrote an article sharing her experience working in emergency veterinary medicine, beginning when she was working in an emergency hospital in high school.

During an interview with dvm360, Alex Sigmund, DVM, DACVO, shared common misconceptions surrounding corneal ulcers to help general practitioners who could be seeing these patients in their practice.

On this week’s episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, welcomed Evan Antin, DVM, to discuss the current state of the wildfires in Southern California, plus ways the veterinary community can help the animals affected by the wildfires.

The Feather in Her Cap Association shared its 2025 winners for outstanding achievements in animal health industry during its 8th annual Feather in Her Cap Awards ceremony.

UC Davis College of Veterinary Medicine has successfully completed its first retinal reattachment surgery after Tashi, a 7-year-old Shih-Tzu, was brought to the veterinary ophthalmologist after her family noticed she would look around aimlessly, but then progressed to bumping into furniture, and hesitating to jump.

Here is a sneak peek of this week’s headlines 


Sneak peek: UC Davis completes its first retinal reattachment surgery, and other veterinary news

A new veterinary certificate in anesthesia and sedation is now available for veterinary professionals. The Foundations of Anesthesia and Sedation Veterinary Certificate program was created to help improve anesthesia competency in veterinary practices across the United States, according to Parnell, a veterinary pharmaceutical company and codeveloper of the program.

The self-paced program contains 10 modules with the following topics

Discussing Sedation and General Anesthesia with Pet Owners

Patient Handling and Monitoring Under Anesthesia

The program, which was developed in collaboration with IGNITE Veterinary Solutions—a veterinary learning company—also includes 7 downloadable in-clinic resources, 4 videos, and 10 quizzes, with participants earing RACE-approved continuing education (CE) hours.

 According to the company, the certificate program addresses the lack of standardized and accessible anesthesia training for veterinary professionals.

 According to Parnell, the certificate program was developed by board-certified veterinarians.

"We understand the complex demands veterinary professionals face in their anesthesia protocols and we're committed to ensuring they not only have access to our products but feel confident using them in practice," Chelsie Estey MSc, DVM, DACVIM (Neurology), vice president of US Pet Care, Parnell, said in a company release.

 "We've created a comprehensive learning experience that enables veterinary teams to feel comfortable with anesthesia and sedation while building long-term expertise and earning 10 RACE-approved CE credits."

A 2023 study assessing anesthetic-related deaths in dogs throughout the world found that 81% of anesthetic-related deaths happened postoperatively.

According to the study’s findings, which looked at a cohort of 55,022 dogs from 405 veterinary centers from various countries, the percentage of anesthetic-related deaths in the group studied was 0.69%.

Factors including age, obesity, and a higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification—which subjectively assesses a patient’s overall health based on five classes—were linked to a higher rate of mortality, according to the study’s authors. Urgent and short procedures were also found to have an increased mortality, as well as non-urgent but unscheduled anesthesia. Meanwhile, lower mortality risk was linked to some sedatives, systemic analgesics, hypnotics, and the use of locoregional anesthesia.

“Careful patient evaluation, drug selection and monitoring can be associated with reduced mortality,” wrote the authors of the study.

 “These findings can be used to develop guidelines and strategies to improve patient safety and outcomes. Further research is needed to refine protocols, enhance data quality systems and explore additional risk mitigation measures,”

Parnell introduces new veterinary certificate in anesthesia and sedation. News release. Parnell. January 21, 2025. Accessed January 31, 2025. 

https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/news-releases/parnell-introduces-new-veterinary-certificate-in-anesthesia-and-sedation-302355607.html

Foundations of Anesthesia & Sedation Veterinary Certificate. Parnell. Accessed January 31, 2025. 

https://parnell.com/products/petcare/foundations-of-anesthesia-sedation-veterinary-certificate

Redondo JI, Otero PE, Martínez‐Taboada F, Doménech L, Hernández‐Magaña EZ, Viscasillas J. Anaesthetic mortality in dogs: A worldwide analysis and risk assessment. 

The program is an effort to address the industry need for standardized and accessible anesthesia training for veterinary professionals, Parnell says

New veterinary certificate in anesthesia and sedation is launched 

Margo Mosher, global head of sustainability for Mars Veterinary Health, talks about the BluePearl Blood Bank program's efforts to reduce waste.

Reducing waste in blood banking

, Margo Mosher, global head of sustainability for Mars Veterinary Health, discussed how the BluePearl Blood Bank program is working to reduce waste and improve efficiencies to benefit patients and the environment. The interview was recorded at the North American Veterinary Community’s 2025 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) in Orlando, Florida, where Mars Veterinary Health presented an educational session, “How to Practice Sustainable Veterinary Medicine,” that addressed the company’s sustainability initiatives such as efforts made through blood banking.

The following is a transcript of the video:

: We're really proud of our blood bank initiative that BluePearl has been championing. And, as you know, blood is a really critical supply for treating pets in need, and they've been doing an amazing effort to create community blood banking. This has helped ensure a supply of blood when it's needed, but also has some really great waste benefits to it.

So, by sourcing blood more locally, we can make sure that it is being used when it's needed. Blood does expire, and one of the challenges is making sure that we can get it where it's needed quickly enough, before it has expired. And so, by sourcing through their community efforts, we've been able to have really better inventory management of the blood and [are] tracking it more effectively to make sure we know when it's coming up on expiration. [We] can then notify our local clinics and get it there in time for it to be used. That's been a really big benefit of the community blood banking.

The other aspect is, because it's more local, we can also reduce our shipping in many instances. Rather than sourcing it from many miles away and having to bring it on refrigerated trucks, we can do shorter mileage, because it is more community based to get it where it's needed with just less driving, which obviously is a great climate change win by reducing those miles driven.

Margo Mosher, global head of sustainability for Mars Veterinary Health, discussed how the BluePearl Blood Bank program is working to improve efficiencies to benefit patients and the environment. 

Jörg Mayer, DVM, MS, DABVP, DECZM, DACZM, discusses how bee venom and honey can benefit oncology cases.

Using apitherapy in patients with cancer

Honey and bee venom are being studied for their potential health benefits in veterinary medicine. In an interview with 

, Jörg Mayer, DVM, MS, DABVP, DECZM, DACZM, professor of zoological medicine at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine in Athens, discussed how these substances produced by honeybees can be used in treatments for patients with cancer. The interview was recorded at the North American Veterinary Community’s 2025 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) in Orlando, Florida, where he presented a bee symposium that included a series of educational sessions.

Jörg Mayer, DVM, MS, DABVP, DECZM, DACZM

: We actually can use the products that the bees produce to improve the health of our patients and that whole concept is called 

. It's thousands and thousands of years old. People have used it since dawn of civilization, and one easy example is the use of honey. Scientific evidence is there that [shows that] even eating a tablespoon or 2 tablespoons of honey a day has anticancer active properties.

There is the whole aspect that I am personally super excited about, about using bee venom to treat cancer patients. So, bee venom is a magical substance. There is, or we know of, about 20 different bioactive compounds that are in there. We don't yet fully understand all the mechanisms of how bee venom can be super anti-inflammatory, but also proinflammatory, if it's needed. It is also antineoplastic. So, we can use it, and that's what I'm doing in my research, treating cancer patients with it. And it's one of those case scenarios where we can use these adjuvant treatments to already existing [treatments], maybe chemotherapy.

Honey itself, for example, has the potential to protect the animal's body against negative consequence of chemotherapy. My dream, in the future, is that oncologists will embrace these papers. They will look at the scientific literature and while they're still using their traditional chemotherapy or radiation therapy, but then they will include apitherapy as an adjuvant treatment, because, to be honest, we can't do much harm with it. And the cool thing is that usually it's easy administered, it's available everywhere, it's cheap, it's readily [available]. Sometimes economy plays a role in treatment. And so, we have an alternative now and this is why I'm really excited to keep doing more research in that field.

Jörg Mayer, DVM, MS, DABVP, DECZM, DACZM, discusses how bee venom and honey benefits veterinary oncology, in a dvm360 interview