Each year, World Animal Vaccination Day is observed on April 20th to raise awareness about the importance of vaccinating animals against various infectious diseases. Here are 3 articles spotlighting topics related to animal vaccines within the field of veterinary medicine.

 has been on the rise within human and veterinary medicine. When the client wearies of allowing vaccinations or is refusing them, it can have a snowball effect on the health of their pet and of any other animals the pet interacts with daily.

Preventive care for cats and dogs in shelter medicine through vaccination is important for reducing the risk of infection and disease transmission between animals and staff. Meghan Herron, DVM, DACVB, a veterinary behaviorist for Gigi’s pet adoption service in Canal Winchester, Ohio, explained in a session at the Fetch dvm360 conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that keeping animals calm and 

reducing fear when administering vaccinations

 can go a long way in keeping them and the veterinary team safe.

In her lecture at the 2023 American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Forum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Deborah Fuller, PhD, a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, provided an 

 and discussed their value to the future of veterinary medicine.

Articles

Highlighting 3 articles on animal vaccinations

3 must-reads for World Animal Vaccination Day

Companion Animal Parasite Council- Lyme Disease Forecast(Images courtesy of Companion Animal Parasite Council) 

Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) issued a warning of the ongoing expansion of heartworm, Lyme disease, and other tick-borne diseases throughout the United States in 2024. Based on CAPC’s 2024 Pet Parasite Forecast, Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases are continuing to spread across the US. According to an organizational release,

 CAPC has been providing an accurate forecast on parasitic diseases of pets for over 12 years and has demonstrated an almost perfect correlation between the forecast values and actual readings for the year, when compared to reported laboratory results from companion animals in the US.

Within the forecast, CAPC reported that ticks and mosquitoes continue to remain the principal transmitters of pet and human vector-borne diseases, The forecast found that Lyme, anaplasmosis, and ehrlichiosis specifically are advancing into North Carolina, Kentucky, and California. Heartworm disease is being spread throughout the mid-Atlantic region and pushing northward from mosquitoes.

 The last several years have presented a massive increase in mosquito-borne and tick-borne diseases. According to the CDC, within the US, cases tripled from 27, 388 cases in 2004 to 96,075 cases in 2016.

Companion Animal Parasite Council- Heartworm Forecast 

CAPC disclosed that contraction risks of Lyme, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and heartworm are increasing because of some of the following factors:

Changes in wildlife host and vector (mosquito and tick) densities.

Increasing international trade and travel.

Land use, urbanization, and human population growth.

Recently discovered vectors, such as the invasive Asian long-horned tick in the eastern US.

Short- and long-term changes in climatic conditions.

“What was true before may not be true today when it comes to the local threat of parasites to our pets and families,” said Heather Walden, MS, PhD, president of the CAPC Board and associate professor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. “Over the past 12 years, we have seen the movement of parasitic diseases and the vectors that carry them expand to new areas, signaling the need for pet owners to test their pets every year and protect them year-round.”

When it comes to creating the annual forecast, CAPC disclosed it is a collaborative effort between parasitologists and statisticians who are conducting ongoing research and data interpretation in top academic institutions across the country. The goal of the enlisted professionals is to gain a better understanding and monitor vector-borne disease agent transmission along with the changing life cycles of parasites. Currently, there are multiple peer-reviewed articles about the forecast that demonstrate a consistent and weighted correlation of 0.9 and higher than actual laboratory results to demonstrate the high accuracy of the CAPC Forecasts.

Nonprofit Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) Warns Parasitic Pet Diseases Will Spread Further in 2024. News release. Companion Animal Parasite Council. April 17, 2024. Accessed April 19, 2024.

Petersen LR, Beard CB, Visser SN. Combatting the Increasing Threat of Vector-Borne Disease in the United States with a National Vector-Borne Disease Prevention and Control System. 

. 2019;100(2):242-245. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.18-0841

The forecast is predicting parasitic pet diseases will spread further this year 

Companion Animal Parasite Counsel shares 2024 Pet Parasite Forecast 

Sentrx Product360

: Hey everyone, Dr. Adam Christman here, Chief Editor and Officer for DVM 360. Welcome to Products 360. We're so honored to be here at Charlotte Animal Referral and Emergency Center with Dr. Josh Broadwater, Veterinary Ophthalmologist. Thanks for being here.

: Yeah, and we're chatting with our friends at Centers because they had some awesome products that we're going to showcase with you today. So ready to fight about it?

: All right. Let's do it. Well, let's talk about lubricants in general. What's the importance of having them for our patients?

: Adam, it's huge. So, you know, when we talk about the anatomy of the eye, we used to start with the lectures of saying, "Here's the cornea and here's the sclera" and all the parts of the eye, and now I start all my lecture with, "Here's the pre-corneal tear film" because it is so important to the eye. The pre-corneal tear film is what lubricates the surface of the eye. It's what keeps the clarity of the corneal surface. It's what washes away bacteria and debris from the eye, keeping us from getting infections and irritations and ulcers. So extremely important.

: Yeah. And the function of the tear film in general, I know for nutrition purposes, has a lot of functions, correct.

: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our cornea needs that tear film to provide lubrication, nutrition, all those things to keep our cornea healthy, keep our cornea clear so we can see so well, and our patients can be comfortable and have great vision.

: Excellent. Okay, so let's get into some of these products. Shall we? Okay, Josh, looks like the first one up we have is the Eye Lube pro. So tell us a little bit about this.

: So I see so many cases that come into the clinic for eye problems, ulcers, and I'm always having ulcer owners saying, "What can I do to prevent things like this from happening in the future?" And when you have lubrication and you can provide more lubrication to the surface of the eye, you can only help these patients to hydrate the eye, to try to protect the eye from future ulcers. There's so many things that this can be used for because of keeping from infections, keeping from irritations. You have dogs, correct?

: Do you have any that love to hang their head out the window while you're driving?

: I know what I try to bring them in, but... but yes, some of them do.

: So we in the field call that a practice builder, okay? Because that's what causes ulcers and irritations in foreign bodies to the eye. So I have owners that say when to use these products and I'm telling them anytime that they are basically taking the dog for a grooming, they're going to give them a bath, they're going to take them on a car ride. And anything like that, put this in the eye, try to protect the health of their eye from getting any irritation or ulcers.

: Okay. And so this Eye Lubr Pro, I understand, has 20% more hyaluronic acid in that. What's the significance of that?

: Hyaluronic acid is huge. I mean, it's been all the rave for years for different things. You hear dermatologists talk about it for skin things and for the eye, it's enormous. It helps with hydration. It helps with wound healing properties. So, and having something that can maintain on the surface of the eye longer is just gonna help this product to be able to be functional longer. So, in a clinic setting like this, every patient that's going under anesthesia for surgery or some sort of procedure, they are going to get dry. It naturally happens that they're not going to blink and tear production drops down with the eye as well. And so they are gonna get dry, they are gonna be predisposed to getting an ulcer. And so, something like this in the clinic is crucial because we're putting in the eyes frequently throughout anesthetic procedures to try to keep them from getting an ulcer. So it's products like this that are great.

: And I understand every 30 minutes are supposed to be applying as well. They're under general anesthesia. They're literally sleeping, right?

: That would be ideal. Yeah. You know, they make different products. Some other things that used to be used frequently were products with petroleum jellies and ointments, and they would really obscure vision when these patients were waking up and they just weren't as effective plus nobody wants to go home with their dog with, you know, thick petroleum ointments all over their eyes as well. So with something like this, we apply frequently like let's say every 30 minutes under anesthesia. Not only is it going to keep the eye lubricated, but it's going to allow the revision to be just fine when they wake up. It doesn't really impair vision at all, which is great. Nice. And I'd like and we'll show this in a little bit that it also has a nice precision application tip. Yeah. So it's really good. So you can just be very conservative a little bit goes a long way with something like this one drop is all you need.

: I like that he said that too at home because this is something that he wants some of his clients to give to their pets and the applicator tip and pieces is beneficial…

: …all the time. I would prefer almost every one of my patients that comes in the doors, you know, we have Shih Tzus and pugs that we see more than just about anybody else and And if I could just give them a stack of this every time that they come in to the door to avoid future corneal ulcers or dryness or irritation, it would probably save a lot of veterinary visits to someone like me.

: Yes, consistent administration of lubrication for these eyes and the Eye Lube Pro certainly got you covered on that. Okay, so next up, we're gonna chat a little bit about dry eye and here we have... Sentrx is Ocunovis ProCare BioHAnce

Gel Eye Drops with amino acids for dogs and cats. What are your thoughts on this?

: So I see so many dry eye patients in the clinic, it's probably the most common thing that causes other eye issues and in dogs and cats, certainly corneal ulcers and corneal infections as well. So all of these guys usually need to be started on tear stimulants or something like cyclosporine, Tacrolimus, but those can take weeks and weeks before they actually increase tear production in the eye. So, using a lubricant on the eye, especially something that has hyaluronic acid and especially something with cross-linked hyaluronic acid that's going to last much, much longer on the surface of the cornea, is going to keep these guys much more well-lubricated until those tear stimulants can really get really long into full effect to lubricate the eye even better.

: Excellent. And is there clinical evidence for cross-linked hyaluronic acid?

: Yeah, so one study showed that cross-linked hyaluronic acid actually led to an improvement in KCS or dry eye symptoms in dogs in a clinical setting within two weeks. And that's despite only being used twice daily.

: Okay, awesome. And I guess there's other evidence that's found in resident time studies too.

: Yeah, so it demonstrates that the duration compared to traditional eye lubricants, including human products, that it just lasts much longer, which creates much better owner compliance.

: Okay, and are there any other benefits to it?

: So it contains a lot of amino acids, which means that we're providing that nutritional support to the pre-corneal tear film that we need as well. And it's much easier to administer than many other lubricants that are out there. And it's also preservative and antibiotic-free as well.

: And Sentrx also has the Oculenis BioHAnce Ocular Repair Gel. So tell us about this one.

: Yeah. So this is great. So this product contains a 0.75% cross-linked hyaluronic acid, which is the highest out there that you're going to find. That's going to allow much better protection, much better coverage on the cornea, much better lubrication, much better ability to help the wounds heal that we're using it for essentially.

: Okay, great. And so what are some other uses for it?

: So a product like this is we typically think about it with being used with corneal ulcers, wounds, traumatic wounds to the cornea after a surgical procedure to the eye. There's a lot of other uses as well. One of the more common things I see it for are chemical burns to the eye. So shampoo, the owner washes their dog and unfortunately some shampoo gets inside the eye and under the cornea. And those are very painful and those are tough to heal and so a product like this with such a high concentration of the cross-linked hyaluronic acid going to be able to not only provide a lot of comfort but help a woman like that heal much quicker as well. A product like this with ulcers that are secondary to dry eye as well is fantastic. Again, just providing that better lubricant lubrication and coverage and protection to the surface of the eye because those guys are dry. They don't have much tear production, so we can lubricate them even better. Ulcer secondary to hairs are just sticky or rubbing on the surface of the eye. This is going to help again lubricate and prevent some of that irritation from those hairs.

: There's so many benefits. Are there even additional benefits of it?

: Yeah, one of the biggest things is a product like this with that 0.75% cross-linked hyaluronic acid. It's going to last much, much longer, two to five times longer than most of the other products are out there. So what does that mean? So you have dogs again, right?

: So if one of those, if I said, can you go home and put this drop in eight times a day? I imagine you probably have one that's going to look at you and say, no way that's happening. Now imagine there's a painful ulcer on the surface of the eye that now there's no way to get rid of it. want to let you put a product like that, right? Any product is in the eye. So that's the advantage of something like this because you can use it way less frequently because it lasts so much longer with such good coverage and protection on the eye. So you're able to use it maybe two times a day, somewhere around there, and a painful dog that doesn't want you to pry their eyelids open and try to put this in. And owners are going to be way more compliant with something like that versus a lot of the traditional lubricants that we think about.

: Yeah, great. And is there any clinical evidence?

: There is. So with that 0.75% hyaluronic acid, that cross-linked hyaluronic acid, it provides 50% greater healing rates in mass clinical studies in animals with a damaged cornea. And unlike serum, it's also shown not to bind to any antibiotics and it doesn't interfere with the efficacy of the antibiotic as well.

: And coming soon, Oculenis XL, the 0.75% corneal repair gel, which is in a 10-mL vial. So it's about 3.3 times bigger than the traditional vial, but for about 1.7 times the cost of it. This is going to be great for those cases that are going to mean need much more frequent administration of the drops. It's also great for large animal cases. So courses that get ulcers, which happens all the time. it's gotta be great for something like that as well.

Videos

Explore the Sentrx Animal Care line of evidence-based eye-care solutions

Next-gen ocular devices to optimize healing and comfort in canine patients

Final Thoughts

This has been wonderful friends. As we’re wrapping up, any final thoughts? 

I just go back to what a cool opportunity DNA testing is to do everything you can as a team to help promote a healthy life for that pet. So we can do genetic testing at any point in a pet's life, but when you get the chance to get insight during a new puppy exam and set up your whole team’s care approach as well as the care for that animal at home, it gets everything aligned so that you’re doing everything possible for that pet. I think that is really the most cool thing about DNA testing at the end of the day for me. 

 Making the human and animal bond as powerful as possible. I love it, yes. 

Jenna Dockweiler, MS, DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT: 

Plus one to all of what Dr. Kock says, but also you mentioned earlier the importance of choosing a reputable genetics lab. I think it's important to mention that there are no requirements for animal DNA testing in the U.S., so there's no standards to follow that are required. Choosing a reputable company is really of utmost importance. At Embark, we do follow ISO standards and are CLIA approved, which are the human standards for genetic testing. 

 Oh wow, that's fantastic. I didn't know that actually. Wow, excellent! 

Well, thank you so much to our panelists for giving an overview of Embark's DNA testing and the benefits it affords to our clients and professionals. We want to thank both Dr. Lindsey Kock and Dr. Jenna Dockweiler for joining us today. Thank you so much, friends, for being here. This is wonderful and a special thank you to Embark for sponsoring this fantastic discussion. 

Thank you for tuning in. To find more content like this, head on over to 

. On behalf of DVM360 and myself, Adam Christman, thank you so much for joining us and we'll see you next time.

Jenna Dockweiler MS, DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT, Lindsey Kock, DVM, and Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, provide closing remarks on DNA testing from Embark. 

Breeder Inheritance Patterns

Share with me a couple of cases that you want to share with the audience. 

Jenna Dockweiler, MS, DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT:

 So actually one very cool case for me as a theriogenologist, which going back to the if we can't read a swab for any reason. We had a little husky. She was about 17 months old at the time that her owner ordered her first test and essentially, her genotyping ended up failing three times. If there is another dog's sample within that DNA sample, so like if there's a duplicate sample, it gets contaminated with another dog, the machine just won't read. So after the third one, we looked more deeply into it. We found that there were actually two distinct DNA signatures within that sample, one of which had an XX karyotype, so female, and one of which had an XY karyotype, so male. 

Looking back at this patient, she kind of had what I would consider to be a doggie appearance like a broad skull, bigger in stature than her littermate sister, and had never gone into heat, although her littermate sister had cycled twice already. So very likely that she's an XXXY chimera. What chimerism is, is when two little embryos kind of stick together very early in only a few cell stages of development, and then develop into one single dog. It's not very well understood in dogs. It's not very common, but there are no known health complications associated with chimerism beyond the reproductive consequences. 

Unfortunately for this little girl, her owner was pursuing DNA testing as part of a responsible breeding program, which of course is likely not going to be her fate ultimately. But at least we had an answer for her as to why she was wasn't cycling. So we probably saved her a pretty expensive primary anestrous workup. 

 Wow, that's fascinating. Wow, that's really wild. 

 I think that brings up an interesting point. We've talked about education on results with clients in the exam room and in looking at, depending on who you're talking to, right, I think results can be a lot more straightforward for a pet that's been spayed or neutered. But if you have a breeder come in and want to go through results, I think the first thing I would do is change that 15-minute appointment to 30 because, going through a Punnett square, doing a little biology lesson, and going through the basics of inheritance and what that means, is so important for our clients who are breeders. Especially with breeds where there's maybe less of a pool to choose from, so to speak. 

When issues pop up or there are variations in the DNA, it doesn't mean necessarily that they aren't candidates for breeding, but it means that they probably need some assistance in interpreting those results and making some smart breeding decisions. In those more in-depth cases that come up, I think those are really interesting, but can be fun to work through, but take a little bit more time, too. 

Let's talk more about that, actually, with breeders, 'cause I think this is a fantastic discussion we're going with. With breeders and DNA testing, where have we been with that? 'Cause I know DNA testing has not been around that long ago, so where are we at this day and age with it? 

 Breeders have actually been using DNA testing probably longer than the pet owning population has. So kind of the two halves of genetic screening, if you will, are testing a population that is at risk for a disease and seeing who might pass those disease alleles on to the next offspring. So, breeders have been using sort of that second half of the definition for quite some time now. 

Like Dr. Kock said, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can't use your dog in a breeding program if they do come up with a genetic risk. It just means that we have to pair smartly to avoid producing at-risk puppies. And actually, my own dog is an example of this. She is a factor seven carrier, so that is a recessive disease, meaning that she would need two copies in order to be at risk for excessive bleeding. She's only got one copy, but I can't breed her to a boyfriend who's got one or two copies, because doing so would potentially produce at-risk puppies. And as a responsible breeder, I'm not willing to do that. You just have to be a little bit smarter about who you're choosing to breed to. 

What is that conversation like when you get the results back as a veterinarian to the breeder when you're going over the results? What next? 

 I would say that most breeders are fairly savvy with genetics. Most of the good breeders are fairly savvy with genetics, but again, just putting it out there right at the outset that this doesn't mean that your dog can't be bred. Even dogs who are at risk for genetic conditions can sometimes in some circumstances be responsibly bred if they're paired smartly and if the breeding is not expected to exacerbate their condition. Because of course they are our primary patient rather than the potential litter. I think that putting that at the outset because some breeders can be very upset even if they have a carrier result but say hey this doesn't eliminate your dog from the breeding pool we just need to be smart about this. 

How important is it to you when you're hearing this information about understanding genetics and with breeders that we're doing more responsible breeding? 

I have found that for each breed of dogs or cats—we’re not talking about cats today, but cats too—that there's an individual language with that breed. I think that's always the really interesting thing to learn is I always start that conversation with, "Tell me about your breeding program.” 

Breeders love to talk about physical traits too which as a veterinarian is sometimes, to be honest, hard to wrap my mind around the genetics of those physical traits. Coat colors can be really complex, but breeders have this whole real life knowledge of what that means. I think the best conversation and the best relationship is when I can listen to them coming into the exam room to talk about their experience, to talk about what they have physically seen, and come to that with the perspective of the actual science of genetics, right? That's when we can meet in the middle, and we can have that conversation about, yes, I know that this genetic variant is something that's been a concern within your breed. And that this might be a little bit scary for you, but let's look into the science of how the inheritance works and kind of walk through, this is a genetic recessive trait, right? Doesn't mean that your dog is at risk for having this clinical disorder, it just means we have to choose the right mate for this dog. Coming to it as a partnership, it makes such a big difference in the success and in the care for those animals. 

Jenna Dockweiler, MS DVM, DACT, CCRT, CVAT, and Lindsey Kock, DVM, explain how DNA testing impacts breeders.

Inheritance patterns for breeders

For 14 veterinary students from North Carolina State University (NCSU), spring break wasn't just about relaxation—it was about seizing a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the forefront of the veterinary industry and make career shaping connections.

With generous financial support from the Veterinary Business Management Association (VBMA) at NCSU and its sponsors plus my ambassadorship as a student affiliated with 

, I was able to attend the Fetch Charlotte Conference in March. This gave me the opportunity to fully immerse myself in all the conference had to offer to make the most of this experience

From left to right: Bec Mitchell, Anna Froneberger, and Emily Haupt, all first year veterinary students from North Carolina State University (Images courtesy of Emily Haupt) 

My time at the conference was packed full of networking and educational opportunities which aided in my professional growth. I visited numerous vendor booths to learn more about their companies, services provided, and externships that they offered to veterinary students, which I found to be very helpful. I enjoyed speaking with the representatives of these companies as we have learned about many of them in school and I’ve also seen their products while working in clinical practices.

I also attended a handful of lectures that were of special interest to me, including anesthesia for cardiac patients, feline dermatology, and laser therapy. One particularly impactful lecture that I attended was a presentation by Quincy Hawley, DVM, co-founder of 

, about burnout preparedness in the veterinary profession. Advocating for mental health within our field is close to my heart and something that I am very happy to see being discussed in a more mainstream manner to ultimately improve the career that I and my fellow future doctors are about to enter.

To be a more active participant while at the conference, I had the pleasure of being a moderator for a lecture on dental extractions. I stood up at the podium in front of the attendees in the lecture to briefly introduce myself and then the speaker. I thought that this was a unique experience to represent myself as a veterinary student and NCSU as a whole, which opened up conversations afterwards with veterinarians across the country who were interested in how I got involved with the conference and impressed that I was getting this exposure so early on.

One of the highlights of my experience was attending a suture lab where I received hands-on instruction of various suture patterns and then practice it on model skin. After the lab, I spoke with the representative for the lab’s sponsor, PRN Pharmacal, who ended up gifting our group practice sets and suture to take home.

Suture practice on a model skin pad during a suture lab

Besides the conference itself, I felt completely spoiled by dvm360. I had the opportunity to spend time more personal time with them in a variety of settings, like going go-karting and visiting the NASCAR Hall of Fame Museum. It was fantastic to be so supported by leaders in the veterinary profession and feel that we are being enthusiastically invested in.

One of the final experiences I had at the conference was listening to Temple Grandin, PhD, MS, and Marty Becker, DVM, speak about the importance of looking after the emotional wellbeing of animals under veterinary care. I have learned about both of their efforts in implementing “Fear Free” strategies with a variety of species throughout my undergraduate degree in Animal Science and during my time so far as a veterinary student. It was an honor to be able to be in attendance.

 for providing this experience. Fetch Charlotte was an exceptional platform for networking with distinguished leaders within the veterinary field in a well-organized, approachable way. I felt a renewed sense of passion for this career after attending and am thrilled that I have the privilege of joining this deeply rewarding field!

First year veterinary student, Emily Haupt, shares her experience while at the conference and the impact it had on her. 