The Veterinarian Magazine March 2022

TheVeterinarian ■ March 2022

■ www.theveterinarian.com.au

Rehoming animals amendment praised RSPCA appoints

Alex Greenwich and Max. Picture Facebook

RSPCA NSW has commended the passing of the Companion Animals Amendment (Rehoming Animals) Bill 2021 as an important step towards safeguarding impounded animals in the state.

The amendment outlines measures councils must take towards rehoming a seized or surrendered animal, including working with rehoming organisations to provide impounded animals the chance to be rehomed.

The proposed reforms include councils giving written notice to at least two rehoming organisations to inform them that the animal is available for rehoming, and to take steps to advertise the animal’s availability.

If a rehoming organisation provides written notice it can rehome an animal, councils are not to euthanise the animal.

Councils must also keep records that identify animals that have been rehomed and must keep records to identify those that have been destroyed, including a record of the actions taken towards rehoming, as well as alternative actions considered.

The Bill passed the NSW Legislative Assembly on February 18, and RSPCA NSW praised the Hon. Emma Hurst from the Animal Justice Party and Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich for championing the issue.

Greenwich told the Legislative Assembly the issue is close to his heart as his dog, Max, is a rescue animal.

“Had it not been for the proactive work of Monika’s DoggieRescue, Max would not have been with us, would not have given us the joy he does every day and would not have kept me in good shape.”

RSPCA NSW CEO Steve Coleman said the Bill will help build on good work done by many councils.

“Every animal deserves a fair go at a second chance, and we can only achieve this by working together,” he said.

“More than anything, this Bill sets up the framework for a solid network dedicated to saving more animals lives.”

RSPCA NSW is also anticipating working on the implementation of the Bill with the Minister for Local Government, aiming to balance the intent of the Bill with the resources available to shelters and councils.

The welfare organisation said this includes highlighting key welfare considerations, and it proposes the onus be on councils to ensure a rehoming organisation has capacity to take animals given to them, to avoid overcrowding, and to ensure responsible rehoming practices.

They have emphasised the need data to be sent from councils to rehoming organisations including microchip numbers, weight, age, breed, condition and behaviour assessments, and information about how the council came to possess the animal.

The RSPCA has also stressed the need for underresourced shelters to be able to opt out of the scheme if necessary.

The Bill can be accessed on parliament.nsw.gov.au.

■ SAM WORRAD

new Chief Science Officer

Following the departure of Bidda Jones AM who stepped down from the role of RSPCA Australia’s Chief Science Officer in December last year, the organisation has appointed Suzanne Fowler to the position. She was previously the Australian National University’s Senior Veterinarian and Head of Animal Services.

In welcoming Fowler RSPCA’s CEO Richard Mussell said her experience in animal welfare, and her passion and drive to improve the lives of animals was impressive. He said Fowler would play a key role in ensuring the RSPCA was able to continue improving the lives of animals by using animal welfare science to inform the organisation’s policies, positions, and campaigns, and working with stakeholders to achieve better animal welfare outcomes.

“The RSPCA is a science-based organisation, and we rely on animal welfare science to inform everything we do – from the advice we provide to the community on our Knowledgebase, to our advocacy for laws that better protect animals, to the rigorous standards we develop for the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme,” Mussell said.

Fowler said she was ‘delighted’ to be joining the RSPCA team, and to lead the organisation’s science and policy work.

“Animals enrich our lives in many ways. From our pets to farm animals to our amazing native wildlife, we owe it to them to ensure they live the best possible life, and I’m looking forward to working with the RSPCA team to advocate for continual improvement in the welfare of all animals,” she said.

■ ANNE LAYTON-BENNETT

Cat Management Act finally updated After being under review for several years changes to Tasmania’s Cat Management Act 2009 have finally been introduced. The new legislation came into effect on March 1 and will now require all cats four months and older to be desexed and microchipped.

It also limits to four the number of cats an individual can keep on their property unless they have a Multiple Cat Permit. Some exceptions to this include people who are fostering a cat for a cat management facility or an approved organisation, cat boarding facilities, and veterinary establishments.

Before a cat is sold or given away, the new rules state it must be at least eight weeks old, desexed, microchipped, wormed and vaccinated.

New owners must also receive written evidence a general health check of the cat has been performed by a veterinary surgeon. Exemptions include MCP holders, registered cat breeders, or where a vet has certified desexing may adversely affect the cat’s health and welfare.

While it is hoped the revised legislation will help reduce feral cat populations, unless the changes can be enforced, RSPCA Tasmania’s CEO Jan Davis said there would be challenges.

“A lot of people don’t believe cats should be registered, or that there should be a limit on keeping cats. But the biggest challenge is having no clear pathway to police these changes,” she said.

Although initially there will be no cost involved in applying for a MCP, this may change after 2022. Failing to desex or microchip a cat aged over four months could attract a fine of up to $8650.

Additional information is available at nre.tas.gov.au/ invasivespecies/cat-management-in-tasmania/ cat-management-act-amendments.

■ ANNE LAYTON-BENNETT

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News

Close-ups and camera traps Barry Brook and Jesse Buettel checking a camera site

With three billion animals estimated to fall prey to feral cats in Australia each year, strategies that can help reduce that number are guaranteed to receive attention. One innovative strategy, designed by University of Tasmania researchers, involves a network of 600 camera traps deployed across the island. Since being rolled out during 2015 in Tasmania’s southwest, approximately 750,000 unique images of animals across 150 species have been recorded.

More than 50,000 of these images are of Tasmanian devils.

The network was developed by UTAS wildlife ecologists Jessie Buettel and Barry Brook, a professor of environmental sustainability.

It uses an animal detection and classification tool, capable of identifying wildlife species with over 99 per cent accuracy, that was developed in collaboration with Zach Aandahl, a UTAS post-doctoral research fellow.

“Our aim is to design a permanent wildlife monitoring system that automatically captures, assesses, and classifies all the different species found in our forests, woodlands and grasslands.

This will allow us to find out where our species

are, how they select their habitat, and how they respond to changes to these habitats caused by natural disturbances like fire, and human impacts like land clearing, forestry activity and tourism,” Buettel said.

The ability to track species-specific animals such as feral cats, monitor their numbers and the impacts they have on vulnerable species, is an important aspect of the camera trap system.

Currently the modelling can identify 31 of Tasmania’s more common species. These include herbivores like wallabies and possums, large carnivores such as feral cats and Tasmanian devils, and smaller creatures like bandicoots, native rodents, and ground birds.

Buettel said the next challenge was to improve the tool’s ability to classify some of Tasmania’s rarer and more cryptic species that are captured less often on the cameras, with the ultimate aim of a permanent state-wide wildlife monitoring system. An additional 400 cameras are expected to be rolled out this year in Tasmania’s most remote regions that have never been previously surveyed and are only accessible by helicopter or via long hiking expeditions. To page 30

Japanese encephalitis detection, deaths increase Australia’s Chief Veterinary Officer has confirmed the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) has been detected in piggeries across several states, with two human deaths now reported.

In early March Mark Schipp said JEV has been diagnosed at one piggery in Victoria’s north, one piggery and Queensland and six piggeries in NSW, and cases have subsequently been confirmed in South Australia.

In late February a Victorian man in his 60s succumbed to the JEV outbreak, and this was followed by the death of a NSW man in his 70s on March 9.

“JEV is a mosquito-borne viral disease that mostly occurs in pigs and horses but can cause disease in people and rarely other animals,” he said.

“Animals and people become infected through the bite of infected mosquitoes.

“It cannot be caught through eating pork or pig products…the disease is not transmitted from person to person.”

Schipp said it is the first time the virus has been detected in southern Australia, with biosecurity authorities cooperating with human health departments to contain the exposure.

“The Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment are collaborating closely, together with state and territory counterparts.

“We are meeting regularly and working together to work through the next steps of this situation.

“We’re asking anyone who works with pigs or horses, even if they’re a pet in the backyard, to keep an eye out for and report any possible signs of this disease.”

Common symptoms in pigs are stillborn or mummified piglets, or piglets who display neurological issues in their first six months of life.

Adult boars can experience testicle congestion or infertility, while the disease tends to be asymptomatic in adult sows.

Schipp said that while most infected horses show no signs of JEV, indications of more severe cases include “fever, jaundice, lethargy, anorexia and neurological signs which can vary in severity.”

“JEV is a nationally notifiable disease, which means if you suspect an animal is showing signs of the disease, you must report it (and) To page 30

Devils: fussy about food Scavenging species around the world are not known for being particular about their food.

Whether they are northern hemisphere wolverines or sub-Saharan African spotted hyenas, for a scavenger any animal or bird carcass is a meal, but a study published recently in the journal Ecology & Evolution has found there is one scavenging exception to prove the rule: the Tasmanian devil.

Researchers from the University of NSW tracked the eating habits of 71 devils captured across seven different sites in Tasmania. They then analysed small whisker samples from each individual to discover what they had been eating.

Whiskers hold stable isotopes from food the animals have consumed in the past few months.

(The Veterinarian, December 2021).

Lead author Anna Lewis, a PhD candidate at UNSW’s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, said it was a surprise to find most devils showed a preference for certain foods, such as wallabies, possums, or rosellas, rather than a generalist diet that included whatever was available. www.theveterinarian.com.au

“We were surprised the devils didn’t want to all eat the same thing, which seems to be a devilspecific habit since there are no other scavengers in the world that we know of who do this,” Lewis said.

The current theory is that because there is no competition for carcasses in Tasmania, devils can afford to be choosy, and although picky devils came in all shapes and sizes, researchers found the heaviest devils tended to be the fussiest eaters.

“If you’re a scavenger in Africa, then you’re competing with all these other predators for food, but in Tasmania their main competition is just with each other. This could mean the size of a devil is a driving factor in its choice of food, or alternatively, that specialising in certain types of food could help a devil gain weight,” she said.

Tasmanian devil populations have decreased significantly since the mid-1990s due to the fatal facial tumour disease that continues to threaten their survival in the wild, so Lewis said the study’s results might prove useful in the conservation effort.

“From a conservation perspective the findings could help us work

Anna Lewis Picture Ariana Ananda

out if we’re feeding devils the appropriate thing in captivity.

There’s a long list of foods devils can eat, but it’s not specific in how often they eat all those foods or whether most only focus on a few different food types,” she said.

Further research will take a closer look at why devils make certain dietary choices, and if the animals select food consciously, opting for foods that other devils are not interested in, or choosing foods that are more abundant.

“Our next step is to look at why devils are tending towards certain foods, like pademelons and possums, and whether humans have a role to play in this specialisation, but in the meantime this study paves the way for future global research on specialisation in scavengers’ diets because it makes you wonder whether other scavengers, like hyenas or wolverines, would act like devils if they didn’t have other species to compete with.”

■ ANNE LAYTON-BENNETT MARCH 2022

TheVeterinarian

3

VETERINARY IMAGING SPECIALIST

News

Citizen science helping echidna conservation effort Although short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus) are considered Australia’s most widespread native mammal, their ability to thrive in diverse habitats resulted in limited research capability due to the difficulties involved in studying them in the wild. A paper published recently in PNAS has found that recruiting members of the public interested in helping to contribute to citizen science projects can have benefits both for the scientists and the species being studied, as well as providing an enriching experience for those who sign up.

Established in 2017 in collaboration with worldleading echidna ecologist Peggy Rismiller OAM, the Echidna Conservation Science Initiative, or EchidnaCSI, has provided high-quality data and material from this cryptic species over a wide geographic area. Over three years over 11,000 people from around the country downloaded the EchidnaCSI app and submitted 12,000 echidna sightings from across the country. This was the equivalent to 25 per cent of all echidna sightings listed in the Atlas of Living Australia, which co-author and Genetics Lecturer Frank Grützner, from the University of Adelaide’s School of Biological Sciences, said covered more data than had been collected over the past 100 years.

“The short-beaked echidna is the most widespread native mammal in Australia, inhabiting diverse environments from bushland, to snow, to desert and tropical regions that made studying the species problematic. Through taking a citizen science approach we’ve been able to

recruit thousands of members of the general public to collect data over large geographic and time scales,” he said.

Data from every state and territory was collected according to lead author Thalia Perry, a postdoctoral researcher at UA’s School of Biological Sciences, much of it received from densely populated areas, city fringes, and even within major cities.

“Although we expected most sightings to occur close to populated areas, we didn’t anticipate as many echidna sightings within or immediately surrounding all of Australia’s major cities. This raises a number of concerns as there’s very little appropriate habitat or food sources available for echidnas in these

environments. It also increases the risk of echidnas being struck by vehicles,” she said.

Unlike the common ring-tailed possums or koalas, echidnas have not previously been considered an ‘urban’ native species. This has prompted researchers to suggest the study’s findings indicate the presence of echidnas needs to be considered when policies surrounding biodiversity in cities are being established.

Those using the EchidnaCSI app learned how to identify echidna scats from those of other animals, with more than 400 collected for molecular analysis of diet and gastric health from locations as geographically unique as the Kimberley in WA, the Anangu-PitjantjatjaraYankunytjatjara, or APY-lands in central Australia, and remote areas of South Australia and far north and central Queensland, making it the largest collection for echidnas to date.

Rismiller said the data would go a long way towards helping researchers map echidna populations.

“The subspecies of echidna that inhabits Kangaroo Island is the only extensively researched and monitored Australian echidna population, resulting in the subspecies being listed as endangered. It’s therefore a matter of urgency to obtain more information to determine the conservation status of echidnas across Australia, particularly following the recent devastating bushfires in 2019 and 2020,” she said.

Reference: doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108826119.

■ ANNE LAYTON-BENNETT

Help available for Outcry over duck hunting season cattle carcasses Following large livestock losses in the floods, residents across the North Coast, Greater Sydney and Hunter regions have been encouraged to report any sightings of drowned animals.

Agriculture and Animal Services Flood Response Director Leigh Pilkington said while the discovery of deceased animals can be distressing, it is important they are disposed of quickly and safely.

“We appreciate that finding these animals can be quite traumatic, particularly for their owners,” Pilkington said.

“Due to the nature and sheer scale of these floods, it is very hard to predict where deceased animals will be found, some can be washed hundreds of kilometres away.

“As flood waters begin to recede and access to previously isolated areas is improving, landholders and the wider community may find drowned stock and other animals in areas you wouldn’t expect.

“Deceased livestock do pose a human health risk, but by reporting them immediately, we can work to remove them as quickly as possible and reduce the risk of disease and contamination.

“NSW Department of Primary Industries and Local Land Services will continue to work with landholders, local councils, contractors and other agencies to remove carcasses and find appropriate sites for burial.”

Members of the public who encounter a deceased animal can report it to the Agriculture and Animal Services hotline on 1800 814 647.

NSW Department of Primary Industries and Local Land Services respond to natural disasters together as the Agriculture and Animal Services Functional Area (AASFA).

Oliver has encouraged flood-affected landholders to keep registering their requests for assistance via the hotline.

“By calling the hotline, our teams can assess your request and your individual circumstances, finding the best and safest way to help,” Pilkington said. To page 30 www.theveterinarian.com.au

The Victorian Government is under fire from veterinary and wildlife advocates about the commencement of the 2022 duck hunting season.

The Game Management Authority has announced a three-month season commencing at 8am on March 16.

Threatened blue-winged shovelers and hardheads are not to be hunted, and the bag limit for hunters is four birds per day.

Veterinarian Natasha Bassett has attended the opening of the season for several years, and in 2021 she was on site in the capacity of Wildlife Victoria’s Lead Triage Vet. “Even amongst my fellow veterinarians, aversion to the task of fronting up and bearing witness to the catastrophic fallout from this so-called ‘sport’ remains high,” she said in an emotional statement about her experiences observing the season.

Bassett initially attended in 2015 following a personal plea from a veterinary colleague.

“There is only a slight sense of foreboding as you pick out the figures of shooters waiting in the water…when the first volley starts, we watch but it’s hard not to turn away,” she said.

“A few birds plummet like stones, clean kills, lucky them.

“The worst is watching a duck skip a beat in flight, slowly drop in altitude, but still make it out and over these wetlands to some remote location where it will later die a slow death from infection or predation as it loses the capacity to stay afloat or fly.”

Bassett said some ducks drop faster and take cover in the reeds.

“The brutality is compounded by the triumphant whooping of shooters, by the fact they clearly don’t care about the suffering, that they may indeed even enjoy it,” she said.

The outcome for birds who make it to triage is generally grim, Bassett said.

“Any bird who can be caught is never in a good way, though without our intervention they would survive for days or weeks afterwards before succumbing to their injuries,” she said.

Once anaesthetised the ducks’ injuries are assessed, and while the pellets are small the damage is often catastrophic. “[Typically] one shot shatters a hock or wrist joint, then higher up fractures the femur or the humerus or shoulder, then there are a few peppering the main organs or lodged in the lungs and air sacs…or you get one wedged behind the eye or shattering the delicate structures of the bill,” she said. To page 30 MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 5

FACE TO FACE

n o i t c e r r u s e R e h T : n a k o r b a of M LS E M A C G N I N CLO ERT S E D IN THE

Picture Dave Mitchell

In the desert sands of a wealthy Arabian kingdom, a famously beautiful long-dead camel called Mabrokan has been brought back to life. Eleven healthy camel calves recently celebrated their first birthday in the red dunes of the United Arab Emirates. They look like normal camel babies, but these identical brothers are extraordinary.

They are clones, born from the frozen cells of the show champion, Mabrokan, who died more than a decade ago. Spearheaded by an Emirati royal, Sheikh Mansoor bin Zayed, this astounding achievement is the result of a collaboration between South Korean cloning expert, Professor Hwang Woo-Suk, and Australian veterinarian and camel expert, Alex Tinson.

As the world’s leading camel vet, Tinson’s story is as fascinating as his many outstanding achievements in the field of camel reproduction.

His autobiography, The Desert Vet, chronicles his journey ‘from city boy to Bedouin nomad’ and has attracted the attention of filmmakers and production studios.

More than 30 years ago, Tinson was head-hunted to improve the speed and performance of the UAE Crown Prince’s racing camel stock. At that time, the Crown Prince (now President and Ruler of the UAE), Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nayan’s camels ranked second to last out of the seven emirates.

Although new to the wiles and power plays of Middle Eastern culture, Tinson soon realized the goal was not simply to win the lavish cash prizes or the coveted Golden Sword. In the Arabian desert, whoever owned the fastest racing camels held the prestige of all the tribal clans.

Within a few short years of improved nutrition, training and breeding the Crown Prince’s racing stable secured their position at the top of the camel racing league. In the process of breeding faster racing camels, Tinson pioneered several world firsts in the field of camel reproduction: first camel calf born from embryo transfer, first calf born from a frozen embryo and first identical twin calves born from embryo bisection. Now he can add first cloned camel calves born from the frozen cells of a dead donor.

Thanks to the humble camel, Tinson is firmly entrenched in the UAE. His eldest daughter married an Emirati, and he has four Emirati grandchildren. Although he has built a life in the desert sands of Arabia, Tinson’s love affair with camels began in the deserts of Australia.

In early 1988, Tinson was the race vet for the Great Australian Camel Race, a gruelling 3300 km endurance race through Australia’s harsh Outback landscape. “On one of the legs a camel travelled 220 km in 23 hours,” Tinson said. “They covered distances no-one believed possible. That’s when my fascination for the camel really grew exponentially, along with my respect.”

And it was halfway during the race that he was offered the job that would change his life.

Tinson is a self-professed ‘camel tragic’, admiring the desert beasts for their beauty, intelligence, grace and grit. “Camels can deal with anything, no matter what you throw at them. They’re tough.

From a vet’s point of view, they’re an easy and fascinating animal to work with. Compared to cows and horses, camels can survive on less water and food and are more resistant to disease. And even though camels have an extra membrane in their placenta and the calf has a long neck and long legs, they give birth a lot easier.”

Now it seems they clone much easier too.

“The best pregnancy rate we’ve had from cloning is 52 per cent with an average of 30 per cent,” Tinson said. “In cows the pregnancy rate from cloning is 15 per cent and it’s only 8-10 per cent in horses.”

The President’s stable of 3000 racing camels live at Hili in the desert sands north of the oasis town of Al Ain. It is here that Tinson oversees the natural breeding, oocyte collection and embryo transfer operations. The cloning process is led by Professor Hwang Woo-Suk at the UAE Biotech Research www.theveterinarian.com.au

Center, a state-of-the-art lab set up by Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE and Minister for Presidential Affairs, Sheikh Mansoor bin Zayed.

Professor Hwang is the South Korean veterinarian and cloning expert who created the world’s first cloned dog. He is also known for his controversial claim of cloning the world’s first human embryos and his interest in resurrecting the woolly mammoth.

With the world’s leading camel reproduction expert and the world’s leading animal cloning expert on board, it’s no wonder UAE Biotech is achieving such amazing results. The centre clones camels for their racing prowess, high milk yields or good looks. Cloning for beauty is not as bizarre as it sounds when you realize beauty pageant winners are worth millions of dollars.

The champion show camel, Mabrokan, weighed over 1000 kg and had a massive head that towered three metres above his handlers in his ‘show stance’. In fact, Mabrokan was so renowned for his beauty that when he died, he was given the rare honour of being sent to Paris to be stuffed. His body is on permanent display in the foyer of the Ministry for Presidential Affairs.

“When Mabrokan died suddenly in 2010, a quick decision was made to preserve some of his tissues in case something ‘exciting’ could be done for him in the future,” Tinson said. “It was the height of summer with 50C+ daily temperatures which made the collection and preservation of tissue sub-optimal. But some testicular tissue and skin was harvested and preserved in liquid nitrogen at -196C in the hope they might be viable. These tissues literally laid in suspended animation for ten years until they were examined post-thaw

by Professor Hwang’s team. Against the odds, there were viable cells in the skin tissue samples.”

The cloning process involves Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT). In this process, the DNA of the surrogate oocyte (egg) is removed and replaced by the donor cell DNA using microneedles and robotic-like micro-manipulation under a high magnification microscope. Using the same SCNT method that had given the team successful births from living donor camels, the DNA from Mabrokan’s frozen skin cells was fused into a new egg using a micro-pulse of electricity.

The embryos created were cultured for six days in the lab under a delicate incubation process and transferred into surrogate female camels.

This resulted in a total of 45 pregnancies.

Of this number, 11 live calves with an identical match to Mabrokan were born in February 2021.

At the UAE Biotech Research Center it’s not just camels on the menu. The centre has set its sights on leading the world with large scale commercial www.theveterinarian.com.au

cloning of horses, camels, cattle, dogs, cats, and wildlife. But what of the ethics and animal welfare issues involved?

“Many people will be against cloning,” Tinson said. “I was against it at the start. But look at what it enables you to do. The research side is quite extraordinary. Take Murdia, a camel who won five Gold Swords last year. She is the fastest camel we’ve ever had. Now we have 22 cloned pregnancies from her. Imagine what you could do with those 22 copies in exercise physiology research, nutrition, and performance research.

“Our biggest issue in breeding technology is restriction to quality stock,” Tinson continued.

“So a good male can quickly become overused through mating, and fertility decreases. But if we clone our best camels, we can have these cloned animals in different locations. We can mate the clone without fear of overexerting the (original) camel. And if you mate these clones back to normal stock you maintain hybrid vigour and won’t decrease the gene pool.”

Although researchers have observed some adverse health effects (including an increase in birth size, defects in vital

organs, premature aging and immune system problems) in sheep and other mammals that have been cloned, Tinson is surprised at the lack of abnormalities in cloned camel offspring.

Perhaps it’s another reason to extol the wonders of the camel.

The science of cloning is ever evolving and opens the door to endless possibilities. Cloning could save animals on the endangered list and species on the verge of extinction.

Tinson’s team is already involved in cloning rare and endangered Arabian mammals. But the scope is even greater. Just like Mabrokan was brought back from the dead, extinct species could be brought back to life.

The UAE has proved many times over that it has the wealth, technology, and grandiose desires to make anything possible. As fantastic as it sounds, visions of woolly mammoths roaming an artificially designed ice park in the desert may one day be a reality.

Although DNA collected from Ice Age mammoths appears viable, there are other

logistical issues. Elephants are the logical surrogates, but their size creates problems.

“It’s too difficult to collect oocytes from a live elephant either vaginally or surgically.

One thought is to transplant ovarian tissue from an elephant into the ovary of a lab animal and grow elephant oocytes in, say, a rat,” Tinson said.

Researchers are also looking into gene-editing the skin cells of elephants to carry mammoth genes and growing the embryo in an artificial womb.

“But do we need to resurrect the mammoth when elephants are facing enough problems?”

It’s a pertinent question and one worthy of serious deliberation. The resurrection of an extinct species like the woolly mammoth seems technically within reach but the ethical and animal welfare considerations require further discussion, examination, and thorough understanding of the consequences.

“There’s no doubt that when you’re bringing something back from the

‘Many people will be against cloning.

I was against it at the start. But look at what it enables you to do.’ dead, there’s a real worry of developing a God complex. It’s a huge ego thing,” Tinson said.

“It’s a scary situation when you think we have a lot of human genetic material and a lot of potential surrogates. I worry what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands. And whose are the wrong hands?”

In the desert sands at Hili, Mabrokan’s 11 cloned calves are oblivious to the extraordinary story of their creation. Nor are they concerned with the future implications of their very existence. Like any other year-old camel baby, they frolic through the sand on their gangly legs and chatter and play with their pack. They live comfortable and unburdened lives, but these cloned beauties are watched very closely. Only time will tell if they realize the full potential of their acclaimed and identical show champion, Mabrokan, but to Tinson these babies will always be exceptional.

They are living proof of what can be achieved when one man pushes the boundaries of what is possible.

■ OLIVIA POZZAN

MARCH 2022

TheVeterinarian

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Taronga Zoo WELCOMES TWO NEW RED PANDA CUBS AND IS TURNING RED Sydney’s Taronga Zoo recently welcomed the arrival of two red panda cubs and is celebrating by allowing online subscribers to enjoy free behind the scenes access to the babies in their purpose-built, soundproof nesting box via a brand-new Red Panda Cub Cam. The yet to be named cubs were born on December 8, 2021, and have been bonding with their mother, Amala, and father, Pabu, ahead of making their first public appearance in Taronga Zoo’s custom-made red panda habitat.

According to keepers, Amala and Pabu are experienced parents, though the cubs have been closely observed in their nesting box since birth. “Amala is very attentive and nurturing,” Carnivore Keeper Rebecca Baldwin said.

“Through the monitoring of our CCTV cameras, we can see that she is constantly grooming and cleaning the cubs and is encouraging them to take their first wobbly steps within the security of their nest box.”

As the 51st and 52nd red panda cubs to be born at Taronga Zoo, the new arrivals also represent another success for the global red panda breeding program, which commenced at the Zoo in 1977. “The birth of these red pandas is very significant, because they’re not doing too well out in the wild,” Baldwin explained.

With less than 10,000 animals remaining in the wild, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has officially classed red pandas as endangered. A major factor contributing to declining wild red panda populations is habitat loss, particularly in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and China, where the environment in which red pandas prefer to live is slowly but surely being encroached upon by humans.

Illegal wildlife trafficking constitutes another threat to the species, as does accidental trapping of wild red pandas in snares intended for other animals such as deer and wild boars.

In addition to being important to the continuing success of the red panda breeding program at Taronga Zoo, the timing of the cubs’ arrival could not have been more perfect, coinciding with the release of a new film Disney and Pixar film titled Turning Red which features a red panda in cartoon form. Access to the cubs via

the Taronga Zoo’s new Red Panda Cub Cam is being sponsored by Turning Red, which is due to be released on the Disney+ streaming platform in March 2022.

Turning Red tells the story of a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl named Meilin “Mei” Lee who turns into a giant red panda whenever she gets excited or stressed. After her initial transformation – which also has the side effect of turning her previously black hair bright red – Mei discovers her ancestors had a mystical connection with red pandas. The movie subsequently unfolds as an entertaining coming of age tale, with Mei navigating a path between toeing the line as an obedient daughter and embracing the chaos of youth, all while trying to deal with the intense emotions that cause her to transform into a gigantic red panda.

Even two months after their birth, Taronga Zoo’s new cubs are incredibly tiny when compared with Mei when she takes red panda form. Thanks to their small size and current

reluctance to leave their mother’s side, however, the Zoo’s Red Panda Cub Cam has been able to provide viewers with a keeper’s eye view of the new arrivals since they were born. Touted as allowing subscribers to access exclusive video content and behind the scenes action, the Red Panda Cub Cam has already shown the red panda cubs bonding with their parents and is expected to capture footage of the cubs as they hit various developmental milestones, including taking their first steps and emerging from their nesting box for the first time. As Baldwin noted, “whilst they are still small and weighing only a couple of hundred grams, the cubs are spending their time within the security of their nest box which makes for great viewing. They won’t start to venture out under the cover of darkness until they’re about 12 weeks old.”

Taronga Conservation Society CEO Cam Kerr AO agreed the Red Panda Cub Cam was a great initiative that enabled audiences to engage with and be educated about this endangered species.

“Being able to connect visitors and our global audiences with the world’s remarkable wildlife is at the forefront of what we do,” Kerr said.

“Platforms like this Red Panda Cub Cam is an example of how we connect our audiences with wildlife and in doing so, inspire them to act for the wild.”

In addition to sponsoring the Red Panda Cub Cam, Turning Red is sponsoring a competition to win an overnight Taronga Roar and Snore experience for open to anyone who adopts a red panda via the Taronga Zoo Parent program before 17 March 2022.

While the Red Panda Cub Cam will only be available for a limited time, most likely until the cubs leave the safety and comfort of their nesting box and begin to explore their habitat at Taronga Zoo more fully, the newest additions to Taronga’s red panda family have already become ambassadors for their species. They may be small, but the red panda cubs are already helping raise awareness of the plight of their endangered counterparts in the wild and encouraging support of Taronga Zoo’s important conservation work.

Free access to Taronga Zoo’s Red Panda Cub Cam can be gained for a limited time at www.taronga.org.au/ redpandacam ■ JAI HUMEL

www.theveterinarian.com.au

MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 9

Welcoming West Ryde Veterinary Clinic to Greencross Pet Wellness Company!

Dr. David Croft founded West Ryde Veterinary Clinic in 1976, it has grown into one of Sydney’s renowned centres of veterinary excellence, operating for 45 years from 1068 Victoria Rd. Now partnering with Dr. Croft and his team, we’re excited to support their skills and expertise with our resources across Greencross Pet Wellness Company.

We’re always looking for like-minded partners to join our Greencross network. Partnering with us involves us investing in your practice and working with you to support your team, to provide outstanding care to clients and patients and grow your practice.

If this of interest to you and you’d like to understand more about what being a partner practice entails, please contact us on a confidential basis at: partners@gxltd.com.au

Why Greencross is a great place to work!

1. Enjoy Flexibility. We’ll work with you on a roster that suits you!

2. Grow and develop with us. Discover both clinical and management career pathways!

3. Returning from a career break? Feel supported with a structured return to work program!

4. Enjoy a safe and progressive environment. Free training in Stress Free Pets accreditation!

5. Clinical excellence. We provide the highest standards of care!

For more information visit greencrossvets.com.au

Pigeon post from the UK

Ian Neville BA(Hons) BVSc MRCVS reports from Britain.

We are approaching the end of another European winter living with Covid. The Omicron variant arrived in the UK in early December 2021, by the 4th of January this year daily confirmed cases peaked just short of 275,000.

The numbers have since fallen back considerably, but other European nations including: France, Russia and Germany are still reporting between 100-200,000 new infections daily. Somewhat overshadowed and far from as widely reported or statistically dissected, avian influenza (H5N1 strain) returned to the UK in late October. Significant avian fatalities have occurred in the wild bird population. Most deaths have been recorded in waterfowl, particularly swans and geese. The ongoing control measures developed during previous avian flu outbreaks between 2005-14 have so far succeeded in ameliorating the spread and the impact on the poultry industry. Happily, the H5N1 strain presents negligible risk to humans.

The virus is thought to have been introduced by migratory birds travelling from Russia and Eastern Europe.

Another unwelcome import (or more likely the product of deliberate breeding in Scotland) this year was the first UK litter of hairless ‘French Bulldogs.’ French Bulldogs, along with Pugs, have been at the centre of the ‘designer dog’ controversy in recent years.

Even the Kennel Club (KC) is now ‘on message’ about the adverse effects of breeding brachycephalics entirely for their looks, and at the cost of their respiratory health (BOAS). The KC’s Bill Lambert said, ‘Breeding that focusses on what people see as novel, glamorous or rare features can mean the most important factors – like health, welfare and temperament – have been forgotten.’ Though hairlessness of itself does not constitute an extra health risk, aside from sunburn or shivering, the concern is that offering up another version of a trendy, baby-faced dog is likely to increase demand from fashionistas for the latest living canine accessory. It transpires that the pups in question are not purebred Frenchies, but probably crossed with Chinese Crested hairless dogs at some point in their genealogy, which is not a brachycephalic breed. There may be some argument that crossing Frenchies with any mesocephalic dog might ultimately be beneficial. However, a quick internet trawl for images of the new dog reveals that breeders have been hard at work perfecting ■ www.theveterinarian.com.au

a typically extreme squashed and wrinkled face though made all the more unsettling by the absence of any fur. The justification for producing these pups seems to be that they are ‘hypoallergenic’ and will open up the option of dog owning to people who otherwise would be unable to keep a pet … though of course there might be a bit of cash in it for the breeder too?

While there is little positive to report about English cricket downunder, Team GB at the Winter Olympics or propriety in No.10 Downing Street, the UK does manage some remarkable achievements from time to time. At the end of last year the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) revealed that the UK now has the lowest use of veterinary antibiotics in Europe.

Between 2014 to 2020 usage reduced by 52 per cent. The UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales Surveillance report found sales were down to 30.1mg/kg – half the 2014 level. This has contributed to some of the lowest levels and biggest reductions in antimicrobial resistance in livestock across Europe, especially in E.coli carrying resistant genes to critically important antimicrobials such as the fluoroquinolones and third and fourth generation cephalosporins.

Reductions have been achieved across the board in: the pig, chicken, game bird and fish industries. The reductions in pet animal prescribing are less spectacular at seven per cent since 2019. The traditionally low usage sectors of the beef, dairy, and sheep industries have reportedly been slow to share their data. The highest European sales of antimicrobials for use in production animals have been recorded in Italy, Spain, and Portugal in recent years (2018).

The multiple difficulties facing the veterinary profession at present and widely discussed, throughout the veterinary press and social media and in this column, have now aroused the attention of popular

journalism. On February 13, an article entitled, ‘Relentless calls and constant abuse’: why Britain’s vets are in crisis by Will Coldwell appeared in the respected British national, daily newspaper The Guardian. This accurate and concise examination covered the issues of: overwork, understaffing, burnout, new graduate attrition,

escalating early retirement, deskilling in general practice, Covid constraints, reduced well-being, lowered job satisfaction, mental illness, suicide rates, Brexit induced manpower shortages, unmatchable client expectation, increasing pet numbers, problematic designer dog fads, low uptake of pet insurance, abuse of staff, low morale and spending more time negotiating fees with clients, than treating their animals. Plans for an eleventh UK vet school based at the University of Central Lancashire are going ahead with a partial opening anticipated in September … so that should solve all the present issues … well as effectively as the other four new schools that have opened here since 2006! There are currently around 1,400 vet undergraduate places on offer in the UK annually: with a range of between 5-12 applicants per place across the universities.

MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 11

Management

Moneyball: How to uncover underappreciated vet practices

Simon Palmer is the Managing Director of Practice Sale Search, Australia’s largest practice brokerage. If you’d like more information on practice sales or want to have a confidential discussion about your practice’s circumstances, email Simon Palmer at info@practice salesearch.com.au or call 1300 282 042.

In 2002, Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team, was faced with the departure of star players and a limited budget to replace them. He realised that if he was going to look for players using the same metrics as all the other teams, he was going to find the same players that every other team did and be outbid every time. His solution was to find and use new metrics (Sabermetrics), in order to find underappreciated and affordable players and create a winning team from them.

Using these new metrics, the Oakland A’s were able to recruit a team that brought them to the playoffs in 2002 and 2003 with a third of the budget of their competitors. If the story of how Billy Beane revolutionised how baseball players were valued seems familiar, it’s because it was made into a book and a movie (starring Brad Pitt in 2011), called Moneyball.

A nice story…. A good movie…

But what does all this have to do with buying vet practices?

The central premise of Moneyball is that the metrics of baseball, used by insiders to rate players, missed some fundamental value that allowed great players to slip through the cracks and go unnoticed by recruiters.

In my experience, many vet practice buyers are making a similar mistake with how they are assessing practices. Most vet practice buyers are using the same metrics as other buyers to judge quality practices.

These metrics take far too narrow a view of the available data and have blind spots and biases that let quality vet practices slip right past them.

Buyer Blind spots In order to assess the future financial prospects of a practice, most buyers will focus primarily on its historical performance. While this is extremely important… it is only important in so far as it informs future profit and revenue.

‘Practice A’ would get more enquiries and higher bids from buyers every time as most buyers’ analysis will focus purely on historical trading and only use the first three rows of the table as inputs. I believe this buyer preference and method of assessment highlights some rather large blind spots in vet buyers’ view of practices:

If I launched the following two practices for sale at the same time: Practice A

Practice B

1. $820,000 gross

$800,000 gross

2. $120,000 profit

$100,000 profit

3. Modern equipment facility

Older tired equipment facility

4. Expensive website and high advertising spend

No website or advertising, poor signage

5. High rent

Reasonable rent

6. Normal COGS spend as a % of revenue

High COGS spend as a % of revenue

7. Number of common services e.g., dentals and X-rays performed per full-time vet

Number of common services e.g., dentals and X-rays performed per full-time vet

8. Practice open 5.5 days per week

Practice open 4 days per week

9. Principal working 5 days per week, including one evening – 48 per year

Principal working 4 days per week, 9am - 5.30pm, 46 weeks per year

10. High fee levels when benchmarked against other practices in the area

Low fee levels when benchmarked against other practices in the area

1. Vet buyers tend to ignore or undervalue opportunity If, as a buyer, you look at Practices A and B with a view to trying to assess future income and profit, I think there is a very high probability that practice B has a brighter future for several reasons: ■ Practice A already has a wide clinical range, is open 5.5 days a week, has high fee levels, a good website and is spending significant money on advertising. Its revenue doesn’t have many obvious avenues of opportunity to explore.

■ On the other hand, if practice B is able to produce $800k revenue and $100k profit without a website or advertising, with common services and poor availability, and with far lower fees than other practices in the area … imagine what would be possible if someone bought this practice who was able to change these things. There is huge opportunity in what the practice isn’t doing!

■ Not all expenses should be assessed equally. For example, most general vet practice consumable spend can be benchmarked as between 22 and 26% (vet consumable spend as a % of revenue). If a practice is spending considerably more than this, it can usually be fixed post purchase by shopping around. Rent as an expense is usually locked in via a lease at the current rate with mandated

annual increases and is not usually negotiable at all.

2. Vet buyers tend to ignore or undervalue the opportunity cost of time and effort In the example I gave above, the owner of Practice A is achieving its results working 1 more day per week and 2 more weeks per year than Practice B. If you add this up, the owner of Practice A is working 56 more days per year. Surely this needs to be considered and factored into the desirability of Practice B? Buyer’s inherent Biases 3. Vets have a suburban bias (as opposed to regional/ rural) There are many advantages of rural and CBD practices that are overlooked by buyers. You can read about them here: www.valuvet. com.au/2020/07/28/the-unsungand-underappreciated-virtues-ofa-regional-rural-practice-purchase/.

Conclusion Many buyers will express frustration at the amount of competition that exists for quality practices. If buyers can slightly adjust their view to incorporate some new metrics, they would be able to recognise value that is invisible using their current assessment of practices. They would be able to find quality practices overlooked or under appreciated by the market and be able to buy them at a reasonable price.

Thinking of selling your veterinary practice?

Make sure you get the right result.

1HHG DQ DSSUDLVDO H[LW SODQ RU MXVW ZDQW WR KDYH DQ LQIRUPDO FRQͤGHQWLDO conversation about your practice and personal circumstances?

Please contact us to arrange a time to talk about your options.

There has never been a better time to sell.

Australia’s leading veterinary practice brokerage 1300 282 042 | info@practicesalesearch.com.au | www.practicesalesearch.com.au

12 TheVeterinarian MARCH 2022

Simon Palmer Managing Director

Kevin Koton National Account Manager

■ www.theveterinarian.com.au

Dr Claire Adams Online now

Dr Henry Jones

I hear you guys switched to a mucosal vaccine?

Dr Claire Adams

Yes, we’re using Bronchi-Shield

Oral

Dr Henry Jones

What prompted the change?

Dr Claire Adams

We all agreed the benefit of increased mucosal immunity to protect against respiratory disease was worth it!

BTW, mucosal vaccines are also strongly recommended

by WSAVA for high risk environments such as shelters1

SHELTER

Dr Henry Jones

We considered it but it’s a hassle to change protocols Dr Claire Adams

We got the rep in, they sorted out the vaccination protocol and trained our staff. The new protocol worked out to be more cost effective too!

Dr Henry Jones

We’re also not sure if our clients would like it...

Dr Claire Adams

Hmmm...if the flu vaccine came out as an oral mucosal form, how many people would still stick with injections?

Dr Henry Jones

…

Simply administer 1 mL of Bronchi-Shield Oral in the buccal cavity for 12 months’ protection against Bordetella bronchiseptica. Protects puppies with a single dose from 8 weeks of age. Over 2 million doses sold in Australia2.

Reference: 1. Day, M., et al (2016) WSAVA Guidelines for the vaccination of dogs and cats. J Small Anim Pract, 57(1), E1-E45. 2. BIAH Data on file.

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Australia Pty. Ltd. Level 1, 78 Waterloo Road, North Ryde NSW 2113. Toll Free 1800 808 691. ABN 53 071 187 285.

Bronchi-Shield® Oral is a registered trademark of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH – used under license. All rights reserved. BI1547TA-03/20.

■ EDITED BY JENI HOOD BSc (Hons) BVMS PhD

Abstracts Leptospirosis is an emerging infectious disease of pig-hunting dogs and humans in North Queensland Background: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution, caused by pathogenic serovars in the genus Leptospira.

Feral pigs are known carriers of Leptospira species and pig hunting using dogs is a common recreational activity in Queensland, Australia.

Methodology and principal findings: This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of Leptospira spp. serovars in pig-hunting dogs above the Tropic of Capricorn in Queensland and by establishing the geographic distribution, serovars and incidence of human cases of leptospirosis in Queensland, identify potential overlap between human and canine exposure. We also explored the knowledge and risk-taking behaviours of pig-hunting dog owners towards zoonotic diseases. Ninety-eight pig-hunting dogs deemed healthy by physical examination and owned by 41 people from Queensland had serum submitted for Microscopic Agglutination Testing (MAT) to determine antibody titres against Leptospira serovars, while 40/41 dog owners completed a survey on their knowledge of diseases relating to pig hunting. Human leptospirosis cases (n = 330) notified to Queensland Health between 2015-2018 were analysed. Approximately one quarter (23/87; 26 per cent) of unvaccinated pig-hunting dogs were seropositive to Leptospira spp. Although harder to interpret, 8/11 (73 per cent) vaccinated dogs were seropositive to Leptospira spp.

Pig hunters may be more likely to contract leptospirosis compared with the general Queensland population, based on responses from surveyed hunters. The highest concentration of human leptospirosis was in the wet tropics region of Far North Queensland. There was little overlap between the serovars dogs were exposed to and those infecting humans. The dominant serovar identified in unvaccinated dogs was Australis (13/23; 57 per cent), with serovar Arborea (36/330; 10.9 per cent) responsible for the highest number of human leptospirosis cases. Topaz was the second most common serovar in both humans and dogs and was previously unrecorded in Australian dogs. Most hunters surveyed used hand washing as a zoonotic disease risk reduction technique.

Conclusions: Leptospirosis is an emerging disease of growing significance. The infection requires a 'one health' approach to understand its epidemiology. With shifting climatic patterns influencing human-animal-environment interactions, ongoing monitoring of diseases like leptospirosis is critical to helping prevent infection of individuals and disease outbreaks.

Bronwyn Orr1, Mark E Westman12, Richard Malik34, Auriol Purdie1, Scott B Craig5, Jacqueline M Norris16 PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022 Jan 18;16(1):e0010100.doi: 10.1371/ journal.pntd.0010100.

1Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

2Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute (EMAI), Woodbridge Road, Menangle, Australia.

3Centre for Veterinary Education, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

4School of Veterinary and Animal Science, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia.

5WHO Leptospirosis Laboratory, Public and Environmental Health, Department of Health, Coopers Plains, Australia.

6The Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Free PMC article

Quality of Life measurement in dogs and cats: a scoping review of generic tools Quality of life (QoL) assessment in companion animals is an essential aspect of veterinary medicine that helps guide treatment decisions and ensures optimal animal welfare. Veterinarians and pet owners can use disease specific or generic QoL assessment tools to evaluate an individual animal's QoL. The aim of this scoping review was to identify and assess published generic QoL assessment tools suitable for use in either dogs or cats. A literature search identified 82 relevant publications, nine of which contained appropriate generic QoL assessment tools in accordance with inclusion and exclusion criteria. To page 30

14 TheVeterinarian MARCH 2022

Drug dose and animal welfare: important considerations in the treatment of wildlife A recent publication in Parasitology Research by (Old et al.

Parasitol Res 120:1077-1090, 2021) raises the topical and often controversial issue of the treatment of wildlife by personnel with little or no formal scientific training (e.g. wildlife carers).

In a valuable contribution to the subject, Old and colleagues document a wide range of topical (pour-on) application doses and frequencies of moxidectin (Cydectin) administered in situ to bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus) by members of the wildlife carer/treater community in southeast Australia to treat sarcoptic mange disease. This treatment occurred under minor use permits issued by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Management Authority (APVMA). These permits do not require veterinary supervision, although carers are registered and are expected to comply with the guidelines of this permit.

The prevalence and severity of sarcoptic mange in wildlife is influenced by a variety of factors including mite biology, environmental conditions, population density, animal behaviour and immune susceptibility (Browne et al. Bioscience, 2021).

In bare-nosed wombats, combinations of these elements play a substantial role in making the treatment of an already difficult disease more complex. (Moroni et al. Parasit Vectors 13:471, 2020) comment that any pharmacological treatment of free-ranging wildlife must consider these factors when assessing their feasibility and implications, especially in the context of emerging drug resistance and potential long-term ecological impacts. As individuals with significant interest in sarcoptic mange and representing a range of professional research and veterinary expertise, we see value in providing expert commentary on this issue.

Kate Mounsey1 2, Robert J Harvey3 4, Victoria Wilkinson5, Kotaro Takano3 4, Julie Old6, Hayley Stannard7, Leanne Wicker8, David Phalen9, Scott Carver5 Parasitol Res. 2022 Mar;121(3): 1065-1071.doi: 10.1007/ s00436-022-07460-4.

1School

of Health and Behavioural Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, 4558, Australia. kmounsey@usc.edu.au.

2Sunshine Coast Health Institute, Birtinya, QLD, 4556, Australia. kmounsey@usc.edu.au.

3School of Health and Behavioural Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, 4558, Australia.

4Sunshine Coast Health Institute, Birtinya, QLD, 4556, Australia.

5School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, 7005, Australia.

6School of Science, Western Sydney University, Hawkesbury campus, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.

7School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2678, Australia.

8Wildlife Conservation and Science, Zoos Victoria, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia.

9Sydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.

Free PMC article

Male dairy calf welfare: A Canadian perspective on challenges and potential solutions Male dairy calf welfare is a key issue in the Canadian cattle industry. The welfare of male dairy calves can be explored through the aspects of health and biological functioning, affective states, and natural living. Presently, the main welfare issues associated with the production of male dairy calves include morbidity and mortality, colostrum and feeding management, transportation, isolation, castration and disbudding, and euthanasia. Opportunities to improve male dairy calf welfare include improving accepted industry practices, enhancing education and compliance with industry codes of practice, To page 30

■ www.theveterinarian.com.au

ESSAY

Unnatural selection: breeding practices in pedigree dogs Discusses mechanisms responsible for disseminating inherited diseases in pedigree dogs and examines the tools available to improve the health and welfare of those breeds most severely affected.

Introduction Arguably, selecting for aesthetic traits in dogs started with the founding of the UK Kennel Club and implementation of a set of breed standards that acted as guidelines to describe the ideal characteristics, temperament and appearance of each breed. These standards encouraged breeders to move toward particular morphological types and failed to take into account negative health consequences arising from alterations to anatomy that were the result of thousands of years of natural selection. Consequently, breeding practices tend to focus on a few individuals perceived as desirable, which has compromised the genetic status of each breed, with dogs now having more than 1000 known inherited conditions (Mellersh, 2008). This paper examines the effects of breeding practices on the health and welfare of pedigree dogs and suggests strategies to improve life quality for future generations.

Discussion What mechanisms are at work and what evidence do we have that contemporary breeding practices are perpetuating inherited disorders?

Leroy and Baumung (2011) examined the effect of three popular mating practices on pedigree dog breeds: popular sire, line breeding, and close breeding. First, the study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of these breeding practices in 10 breeds, based on genealogical data from the French Kennel Club (n=80,785). Second, they examined the effects of these breeding practices on the dissemination rate of deleterious alleles, using simulations following Mendelian segregation rules. Simulations were carried out using an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance.

Of those diseases with known modes of inheritance, two thirds are passed to offspring by autosomal recessive means (Patterson, 2000).

Use of popular sires in the genealogical data from the French Kennel Club was observed and confirmed. The effective number of breeding sires represented between 33-77 per cent of the total number of sires in the study (Leroy & Baumung, 2011). The use of close breeding was quite common, with 1 per cent to 8 per cent of dogs being inbred after two generations (Leroy & Baumung, 2011). Simulation results confirmed that the popular-sire practice leads to a dissemination of recessive genetic disorders.

The dissemination rate was 4.4 times higher than random mating, providing evidence for a single mechanism allowing the continued spread of inherited diseases (Leroy & Baumung, 2011).

Conversely, line breeding and close breeding tended to decrease the risk of dissemination (Leroy & Baumung, 2011), since backcrossing and inbreeding of individuals with lethal recessive alleles results in an increased proportion of homozygous recessive progeny and removal of these alleles from the population (Leroy & ■ www.theveterinarian.com.au

Baumung, 2011). The death of such progeny, highlights important animal welfare consequences for individual animals when these practices are employed. Furthermore, line breeding and close breeding reduces the genetic diversity of a population and negatively impacts on its overall fitness.

Leroy & Baumung’s (2011) study examined single-gene disorders with a recessive mode of inheritance, but what about more complex multifactorial diseases? These can be examined by investigating syringomyelia (SM) in Cavalier King Charles spaniels (CKCS). Knowler et al.

(2011) sought to identify the prevalence of SM in CKCS in a known population and evaluate if breeding guidelines set out by Cappello & Rusbridge (2007) are appropriate. These guidelines identify CKCS for breeding suitability based on age, presence of clinical signs associated with SM and presence of SM detected by MRI. Animals were ranked using an alphabetical system based on these parameters and assigned as either A, C, D, E or F. In this study 550 CKCS were identified as having one (392) or both parents (158) with a confirmed SM status. Offspring classed grade A, that is dogs over 2.5 years with no SM signs, generally occurred only when there was at least one grade A parent (Knowler et al., 2011).

Offspring from dogs with at least one parent over 5 years with no MRI-identified SM, had an even greater chance of being SM-free (Knowler et al., 2011). Furthermore, no offspring from two parents over 5 years without SM were found to have SM (Knowler et al., 2011).

Conversely, offspring with SM were more likely when both parents had SM (92 per cent), but even one SM-affected parent increased the probability of SM-affected offspring (77 per cent) (Knowler et al., 2011). These findings highlight the heritability of complex debilitating diseases and the importance of screening for these diseases. Great care must be taken when selecting breeding individuals.

An objective measure is required to quantify the impact of pedigree dog diseases and to identify breeds most at risk and diseases with greatest impact on health and welfare. Collins et al. (2011) outlined one such method, improving upon the existing generic illness severity index for dogs (GISID) (Asher et al., 2009).

Augmentation of the GISID by Collins et al.

(2011) resulted in the breed-disorder welfare impact score system (BDWIS). This is calculated taking into consideration the prevalence and severity of a disease, and adjusting for the proportion of the animal’s life affected by the disease.

Collins et al. (2011) outlined a process that could be implemented once breeds and disorders have been identified, to improve health and welfare. One limitation in applying the BDWIS is the lack of prevalence data to

use for calculations. Only 1 per cent of data is available for each of the 396 disorders in the 50 most popular breeds (Collins et al., 2011).

Future research should focus on gathering data for these conditions. Once collected and reliable BDWIS scores are obtained, we can focus on those breeds and conditions that have received the highest scores. This will result in the biggest improvement in health and welfare for those dogs most severely afflicted.

Conclusions Resolving the issues involved in pedigreedog breeding is multifaceted and complex.

Veterinarians must work with breeding organisations to move away from detrimental breeding practices and toward programs that value health and welfare. Careful consideration must be taken when altering breeding practices in order not to further negatively impact the genetic diversity of each breed. Sound science should be used to convince breeding organisations and the public that we need change to achieve a future of improved health and welfare for dogs.

■ OLIVER CONRADI References Asher, L., Diesel, G., Summers, J.F., McGreevy, P.D., Collins, L.M. (2009) Inherited defects in pedigree dogs. Part 1: Disorders related to breed standards. The Veterinary Journal 182:3, 402-411.

Cappello, R., Rusbridge, C. (2007) Report from the Chiari-Like Malformation and Syringomyelia Working Group round table.

Veterinary Surgery 36:5, 509-512.

Collins, L.M., Asher, L., Summers, J., McGreevy, P. (2011) Getting priorities straight: Risk assessment and decision-making in the improvement of inherited disorders in pedigree dogs.

The Veterinary Journal 189:2 147-154.

Kowler, S.P., McFadyen, A.K., Rusbridge, C. (2011) Effectiveness of breeding guidelines for reducing the prevalence of syringomyelia.

Veterinary Record 169:26, 681-687.

Leroy, G., Baumung, R. (2011) Mating practices and the dissemination of genetic disorders in domestic animals, based on the example of dog breeding. Animal Genetics 42:1, 66-74.

Mellersh, C. (2008) Give a dog a genome.

The Veterinary Journal 178:1, 46-52.

Patterson, D.F. (2000) Companion animal medicine in the age of medical genetics.

Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 14:1, 1-9.

This essay is one of a number selected for The Veterinarian magazine Prize for Written Communication for Sydney University third-year veterinary science students.

MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 15

Clinical Feature

Infectious bursal disease (very virulent form) Nicole Byrne and Jarrad Sanderson, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment Infectious bursal disease (IBD) or Gumboro is a viral disease affecting the immune system of young chickens. Present worldwide, the disease is highly contagious in young birds and destroys lymphoid organs, specifically the bursa of Fabricius. Symptoms include depression, watery diarrhoea, ruffled feathers and dehydration.

Presentation of clinical signs depends on the strain of the virus and presence of maternal immunity.

Chickens less than three weeks of age infected with IBD have subclinical infections which can cause severe, long-lasting suppression of the immune system. Immunosuppressed chickens respond poorly to vaccination and are more susceptible to other diseases, making IBD an economically important disease.

Aetiology The virus that causes IBD is a double-stranded, non-enveloped, ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus, belonging to the genus Avibirnavirus in the family Birnaviridae. It is very resistant to dessication and can persist in the environment for extended periods. The virus is most easily isolated from the bursa of Fabricius.

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) strains are classified into two serotypes but only serotype 1 causes disease in chickens. Serotype 2 infections are non-pathogenic. IBDV has been identified in other avian species, and antibodies to the virus have been found in several wild bird species.

Wild birds may thus play a role in the spread of IBDV. The serotype 1 strains can be further classified based on phenotypic traits such as virulence and antigenicity. Serotype 1 IBD virus classifications are attenuated (vaccine strains), classical (cIBDV), variant (varIBDV) or very virulent (vvIBDV).

The natural reservoir hosts of IBD are chickens (serotype 1) and turkeys (serotype 2).

direct contact with excretions from infected birds, or indirect contact with mechanical vectors and fomites. The virus is extremely resistant in the environment, increasing the likelihood of indirect transmission. The virus is also highly resistant to heat and chemicals and can last 4 months in contaminated bedding and premises.

Clinical disease The incubation period in clinical infections is usually very short, approximately 2 to 3 days.

Clinical signs in the acute phase of the disease include anorexia, watery diarrhoea and ruffled feathers. Mortality peaks by day 4 and then subsides, with the surviving chickens recovering to a state of apparent health after about 7 days.

This is dependent on the age and breed of chickens, the virulence of the strain and presence of maternal antibodies.

A prominent characteristic of vvIBDV is the ability to induce high mortality. Mortality ranges from 5–25 per cent in broilers and 30– 70 per cent in layers (Ignjatovic 2004). Syndromes of clinical disease are similar to classical virulent strains. However, clinical signs are more acute in individual birds and subacute in flocks.

Diagnosis IBDV should be considered when birds present with very high morbidity and severe depression lasting 5-7 days. The rate of mortality is variable depending on the virulence of the IBD virus strain. Differential diagnoses include Newcastle disease, acute coccidiosis, infectious bronchitis, Marek’s disease, avian influenza, stress, water deprivation and intoxication, and haemorrhagic syndrome due to sulfa drug toxicity or other causes.

Preliminary diagnosis for IBD can be achieved by observations of clinical signs and gross lesions in the bursa of Fabricius located in the cloaca.

Laboratory testing is required for isolation and identification of IBDV. Laboratory tests performed for IBD diagnosis depend on the presences of specific antibodies to the virus, or on the presences of the virus in tissues, using immunological or molecular methods. Where IBD is suspected, samples should be collected from both live, clinically diseased chickens, and recently deceased birds. At a minimum, collect: ■ ■

fresh serum from live birds (for serology) bursa of Fabricius, spleen and faeces (fresh samples for antigen detection and virus isolation)

Distribution Global Classical serotype 1 IBDV strains are endemic globally. The vvIBDV strain is endemic in parts of southern Asia, Indonesia, Middle East, Africa and south America, spreading to north America in 2008.

For the latest information on the distribution of IBD, refer to the WAHIS information database website of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) (wahis.oie.int/#/dash boards/country-or-disease-dashboard) or the FAO EMPRESi Global Animal Disease Information System (empres-i.review.fao.org).

Australia Australia In Australia, both classical and variant strains are present, but these are genetically different from the classical, variant and very virulent strains found overseas. Australia remains free from vvIBDV. Vaccination In Australia, commercial broiler and layer breeder flocks are vaccinated against IBDV so they are antibody positive. Commonly, breeder birds are vaccinated at about 8-12 weeks with a live vaccine, followed by an inactivated vaccine before point of lay. Transfer of maternal antibodies to progeny birds usually provide enough protection against the field virus challenges.

In Australia, chickens less than 6 weeks old are usually not vaccinated.

Transmission The IBDV is spread horizontally from infected to healthy chickens via the faecal-oral or respiratory route. Disease transmission is by ■ www.theveterinarian.com.au

Figure 1. Two enlarged bursae: yellowish grey (right) and haemorrhagic (left). Source: Lucien Mahin – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15772580 MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 17

Clinical Feature ■

bursa of Fabricius, spleen and thymus (in formalin for histopathological confirmation) and any other lesions (for histopathological differential diagnosis)

Blood and fresh tissue samples should be chilled and transported at 4°C with frozen gel packs.

Formalin fixed samples can be transported at room temperature. Do not freeze samples at -20°C or below as it reduces the sensitivity of virus isolation and molecular diagnostic tests.

Lesions seen on post-mortem will depend on the strain of the IBDV. For pathogenic strains of the virus, the bursa of Fabricius is swollen, oedematous, yellow in colour and occasionally haemorrhagic.

Lesions seen in vvIBDV are more obvious with haemorrhage in the bursa of Fabricius and musculature tissue, with rapid atrophy of the bursa and thymus.

Chickens that have recovered from the disease will have a small, atrophied bursa of Fabricius due to lack of regeneration of affected bursal follicles.

Risk to Australia of introduction of vvIBDV Exotic strains of IBDV, including vvIBDV, are found in many countries, including neighbouring Asian countries. This poses a threat to the Australian poultry industry as the virus could be introduced to Australia through illegal importation of infected birds, contaminated poultry products or contaminated fomites transported unintentionally by farm workers.

If an outbreak of vvIBDV occurred in Australia, the economic impact would be significant for Australia’s poultry industry. The outbreak would cause significant losses from death of birds, the cost of control or eradication, and potentially loss of international market access.

18 TheVeterinarian MARCH 2022

Control If exotic strains of IBD virus, including vvIBDV were to occur in Australia, the policy as described in AUSVETPLAN is to eradicate the disease through activities such as destruction of poultry, quarantine and movement controls, decontamination, product recall, tracing and surveillance.

The implementation of control measures takes into account the highly resistant nature of the pathogen, the ease of spread on fomites and that early detection of certain strains can be difficult.

For further details on Australia’s response policy, see the AUSVETPLAN Infectious bursal disease response strategy located on Animal Health Australia’s website: animalhealthaustralia.com.au/ ausvetplan/.

Keeping Australia free from vvIBDV Australia has robust farm biosecurity and quarantine measures in place to support the early detection and response of new strains of IBDV. These include mandatory disease notification procedures, emergency animal disease preparedness and response procedures, and animal disease surveillance programs.

Stringent biosecurity policies and border controls further reduce the risk of introducing exotic strains of IBDV into the country, and strict import regulations exist for poultry and poultry products.

Infection with both vvIBDV and exotic strains of varIBDV are reportable throughout Australia.

For further information see the National list of notifiable animal diseases at www.awe.gov.au/ biosecurity-trade/pests-diseases-weeds/animal/ notifiable.

How Australian veterinarians can help Under Australia’s current quarantine protocols and importation restrictions, the risk of vvIBDV

introduction is regarded as low. However, it is important that Australian veterinarians main-tain current knowledge and remain alert to the possibility of emergency disease incursions, as early detection and laboratory confirmation are critical for a rapid and effective response.

Veterinarians can also encourage clients with poultry to practise good farm biosecurity.

Unusual cases of disease, particularly when an emergency animal disease (EAD) is suspected, should be reported directly to state or territory government veterinarians or through the Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline (1800 675 888). If you see clinical signs that indicate an EAD like vvIBD, contact your state or territory government veterinarian who will tell you if the investigation could be pursued as a significant disease investigation. If your case is approved, costs will be subsidised by government as part of ensuring Australia maintains disease freedom and rapidly detects any incursion of an EAD. References Animal Health Australia (2021). Response strategy: Infectious bursal disease (hypervirulent form) (Version 5.0). Australian Veterinary Emergency Plan (AUSVETPLAN), Edition 5, Primary Industries Ministerial Council, Canberra, ACT. FAO (2021) AVIS – Poultry diseases – Overview.

FAO, Rome (Accessed 10 Nov 21).

Ignjatovic J (2004). Very Virulent Infectious Bursal Disease Virus. The Australian and New Zealand standard diagnostic procedure (ANZSDP), CSIRO Livestock Industries AAHL, Geelong, VIC. MSD Manual Veterinary Manual (2019) Infectious Bursal Disease in Poultry (Gumboro disease). MSD, Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA (Accessed 9 Nov 21).

OIE (2018) Infectious Bursal Disease. OIE, Paris (Accessed 4 Nov 21).

■ www.theveterinarian.com.au

Clinical Review

Treatment of FIP in cats with subcutaneous remdesivir followed by oral GS-441524 tablets

Richard Malik DVSc MVetClinStud PhD FASM graduated from the University of Sydney in 1981. He is a specialist in small animal internal medicine and has a special interest in infectious diseases of dogs and cats. Although active in clinical research through postgraduate scholars, he is semiretired, living in the southern Highlands of NSW on a brumby sanctuary. He helps out at a few practices including Southern Tablelands Veterinary Hospital, Double Bay Vet Clinic and Paddington Cat Hospital. He also works for the Centre for Veterinary Education helping to organise CPD.

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is an infectious disease of cats, predominantly young cats. It occurs when feline enteric coronavirus multiplying in the intestines undergoes a critical mutation which changes its tissue tropism from enterocytes to macrophages. FIP virus then moves round the body in macrophages – the ultimate Trojan horse mechanism. This leads to a disseminated infection and the development of a fibrinoid necrotising vasculitis and serositis due to deposition of immune complexes consisting of cat antibodies and FIP viral antigens.

Broadly speaking there are two forms of FIP – effusive (‘wet’) FIP and non-effusive (‘dry’) FIP. The actual disease process can occur in the abdominal cavity, the thoracic cavity, pericardium, the eyes, or the central nervous system. Mix and match combinations of different tissue involvement and dry and wet disease are not unusual.

Until recently, a diagnosis of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) was a death sentence for a feline patient. But that notion has been turned on its head over the last few years as a result of the pioneering work of Professor Niels C. Pedersen and colleagues at UC Davis.

Over the last 12 months, many vets in Australia have also successfully managed FIP cases using remdesivir and GS-441524.

Omega-interferon (Virbagen) and polyprenyl immunostimulant (PPI) were the first drugs used to treat FIP and both had reasonable efficacy in some patients. Omega interferon was useful in cases of effusive (‘wet’) FIP, often combined with low dose prednisolone according to Ishida’s protocol, whereas PPI, which was pioneered by Prof Al Legendre, was more useful in cases of non-effusive (‘dry’) FIP. In some cases, both drugs were used in concert. The trouble was that both forms of therapy were often expensive especially when both dugs were used, so although patients might improve and have durable clinical remissions while receiving treatment, permanent clinical cures were exceedingly rare. As a result, most vets still considered a diagnosis of FIP to be a prelude to euthanasia.

That all changed a few years ago because of the culmination of a lifetime of FIP research by Pedersen.

Niels is an amazing veterinarian, a North American, with Danish heritage. He grew up on a chicken farm and initially wanted to be a large animal clinician, but with great foresight, decided a background in basic science would hold him in good stead. So, soon after graduation, he travelled to Canberra to the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU where he undertook an immunology PhD on kidney www.theveterinarian.com.au

Figure 1. (A) BOVA Remdesivir reconstituted and ready for therapy. Once it is reconstituted, the content of a vial is stable for at least 120 days at 5oC – and usually a vial is used up in 3-7 days. The vial is best stored refrigerated.

(B) The pathway by which remdesivir travels intracellularly to be activated as GS441524

transplant rejection with Professor Bede Morris in the late 1960s, using sheep as the experimental model to study lymphocyte kinetics.

When Niels returned to UC Davis as clinical faculty, he developed a special focus on infection and immunity.

Although he contributed to a huge range of topics in canine and feline internal medicine and genomics, FIP was his favourite disease because of its commonness and also its complexity. His studies extended from the 1980s, when the focus was on diagnosis, virology, and pathogenesis, to the present day, with an increasing focus on therapy.

Working with colleagues at Kansas State University, Niels showed that a purpose-designed protease inhibitor GC-376 could prevent and cure experimental FIP in research cats.1,2 Clinical trials in the field using cats with naturally-occurring disease were disappointing, especially when cats had ocular or CNS disease. Not easily defeated, he moved onto a different drug - GS-4415243,4 - a nucleoside analogue developed by the North American Pharma Gilead. This molecule proved to be much more effective than GC-376 for treating FIP, both in experimental infections and in spontaneous cases. Starting with pharmacokinetics, and then dose escalation studies using a wide range of clinical cases, Niels and colleagues determined that the dose required depended on whether the patient had dry or wet FIP and whether there was ocular or central nervous system (CNS) involvement.5 The widespread availability of GS-441524, often of high quality, and initially very expensive, provided a way for dedicated cat owners to save cats with FIP. Studies by Samantha Evans a clinical pathologist at Ohio State University suggested a cure rate of approximately 80 per cent in the field. Procuring the drug in the recent past was complicated and fraught with issues, which were circumvented at some level by help from various iterations of the Facebook collective ‘FIP Warriors’.

Unfortunately for Australian cat lovers, the APVMA and Vet Boards eventually twigged to what was happening, and Border Force made it much more difficult to source

GS-441524 and safely import it for veterinary use. Indeed, punitive warnings by the regulatory bodies and vet boards were directed at veterinarians who facilitated the treatment of cats with FIP using black-market drugs.

Ironically, the COVID 19 pandemic provided a novel solution to this problem. Gilead had developed remdesivir (GS-5734) as a drug for treating hepatitis C, Ebola, and human Coronavirus disease.

Remdesivir is a prodrug of GS-441524, containing an extra chemical side chain (including a phosphate group) that is supposed to improve intracellular penetration (Figure 1B). Remdesivir (as the product Veklury) was given provisional registration (for two years) by the TGA in July 2020 for treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infections in human COVID-19 patients. This process of registration would normally have taken several years, but the severity of the pandemic expedited the process by relying on preliminary trial data.

As remdesivir became a licensed human drug and Gilead licensed manufactures around the world, it has meant there are now more options of quality raw material available. This has circumvented problems with using a drug purchased on the black market, with the allied issues of unknown purity and consistency of product over time.

In 2020, the animal compounding pharmacy BOVA Australia secured reliable supplies of remdesivir in a suitable format for IV and subcutaneous administration to cats. Studies in Australia have determined the shelf-life after reconstitution to be in excess of 12 days and confirmed efficacy in vitro against Coronaviruses using tissue culture. Drug analytic purity is regularly checked by HPLC. For the past year, veterinarians in every state of Australia have been using remdesivir for the treatment of cats with FIP. There has been a mixture of effusive and non-effusive cases, including some cats with ocular involvement (uveitis) and others with multifocal CNS disease.

Based on approximately 500 cats treated between October 2020 and November 2021, remdesivir is proving to be highly effective at managing FIP infections. It is slightly easier to MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 19

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Clinical Review administer subcutaneously and seems a little less painful during injection compared to GS-441524 and does not cause the local injection site reactions seen with injectable GS-441524.

Initially, remdesivir was used exclusively in Australia, although for the last 2 months it has also been available in Britain from BOVA UK. The molecular weight of remdesivir is 603 g/mol, while the molecular weight of GS-441524 is 291 g/mol. This might suggest that cats being treated with remdesivir require approximately twice the dose compared to GS-441524, although this does not account for possibly improved intracellular penetration of remdesivir in certain tissues compared to GS-441524. The suggested dose rate for remdesivir in human patients with COVID19 is a 200 mg loading dose intravenously (IV), followed by 100 mg IV daily. For a 70 kg human patient, this represents a daily dose of 1.3 mg/kg, so using allometric scaling, a dose of 5-10 mg/kg daily for a cat was considered to be in the right ballpark. Our experience over the first 500 cases , however, was that many cats ended up needing a higher dose of remdesivir for permanent cure, and so we have revised our dose recommendations upwards (see later).

Remdesivir is provided by BOVA as a 10mg/ml sterile solution ready to use in a 10ml vial.

Diagnosis The full differential diagnosis of FIP is beyond the scope of this article, but readers are strongly encouraged to read the superb article by Professor Séverine Tasker in the Journal of Feline Medicine & Surgery.6 Although FIP can occur in cats of any age, most cases occur in kittens and cats younger than 3 years-of-age. Persistent and often high fever that fails to respond to antibiotic therapy (and often NSAIDs) is a common finding, as is elevated total plasma protein due to increased globulin concentrations (diffuse gammopathy on serum electrophoresis). In effusive or ‘wet’ FIP, the albumin to globulin ratio may drop to < 0.45. Acute phase reactants such as serum amyloid A and α1-acid glycoprotein tend to be markedly elevated. Many cats with FIP also have secondary immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia, increased AST and ALT activities and icterus.

Diagnostic imaging is critical to a timely diagnosis, and this has been greatly facilitated by adoption of digital radiology and the widespread availability of diagnostic ultrasound in small animal practice. Pleural effusion is readily appreciated from chest X-rays, while abdominal effusion is best detected using ultrasound (Figure 3), especially if you have a range of high frequency transducers. Note that in some cases the fluid pockets can be focal and loculated.

Often there is some fluid around the kidney underneath the renal capsule, kittens can have scrotal oedema, while in the odd case the effusion is limited to the pericardial sac. But the key thing is – look for (i) effusion in any body cavity, (ii) granulomas in the kidney, liver, or lungs, (iii) large intra-abdominal and mesenteric lymph nodes (Figure 5) or marked thickening of the iliocaecocolic region (‘focal FIP’) (Figure 5).

Chest radiographs after drainage of pleural effusion can show changes consistent with viral pneumonia.

yet the patient still likely has FIP as reflected by a favourable response to remdesivir or GS-441524 therapy.

Treatment We have been treating cats with FIP using remdesivir (IV and SCI) since October 2020 and more recently using GS-441524 (orally), so our protocols are constantly evolving with experience. So, far, about 500 cats have been treated. We try to avoid being too prescriptive in our recommendations, as our suspicion is that there is not a single protocol which suits all patients, and every case has unique considerations, including the size of the patient, whether the cat is still ‘happy’ and eating adequately, or is depressed and dehydrated. An important consideration is the emotional and financial commitment of the owner. A key feature to mention is that both drugs are very safe, even in sick cats and kittens.

Figure 2. (A) Abdominal ultrasound scan showing abundant highly echogenic fluid (fibrin strands) in a cat with high protein ascites due to effusive FIP. (B) The inset shows the viscid yellow to straw coloured fluid. (C) Ground glass appearance of the abdomen in a plain abdominal radiograph suggesting fluid in the abdomen

Figure 3. Marked mesenteric lymphadenomegaly in a cat with dry FIP

If you see an effusion - tap it - as fluid is the best diagnostic sample

Effusive disease is obviously much easier to diagnose as ascitic, pericardial or pleural fluid provides a convenient sample which can be examined cytologically and via fluid analysis and then subjected to immunofluorescence (IFA) for FIP antigen or reverse transcriptase PCR to detect FIP nucleic acid. IFA is performed at VPDS, B14, University of Sydney (easily arranged through Vetnostics, QML, ASAP, VetPath, Gribbles or IDEXX). It is usually cheapest, however, to submit the sample directly to the University laboratory. www.theveterinarian.com.au

Figure 4. RapidDiff-stained smear of a fine needle aspirate from the mesenteric lymph nodes of a 4-year-old Oriental cat with dry FIP. The prominent macrophages are the key to the cytological diagnosis. Photo Trish Martin

Dry FIP is more problematic, as usually it requires a fine needle aspirate biopsy of pyogranulomatous lesions in the liver, kidney, or abdominal lymph nodes. Occasionally, wet FIP cases can paradoxically have fluid specimens which are negative on IFA and/or PCR testing,

Note the dose recommendations which follow are higher than those initially recommended a year ago. Although lower doses worked in many patients, we found this was often a false economy, as disease recurrence at the end of treatment and development of viral resistance during therapy seems to be related to an insufficient initial dose. So, we have learnt to be more aggressive from the get-go, which in the long term ends up being less expensive (i.e., no requirement for a 2nd course of therapy)

Our greatest experience has been with remdesivir. This drug is expensive, and the owner needs to make a commitment to a costly treatment course that spans a period of 3 months. For most clients, this represents an emotional and financial strain. My view is that in many cases money is better spent on the antiviral therapy per se rather than on extensive diagnostics and monitoring.

One approach in newly diagnosed cats with severe disease, is to hospitalise cats for the first 3-4 days of therapy while remdesivir is given intravenously (IV), effectively as a loading dose.

Patients begin their treatment with remdesivir while they are receiving IV fluid therapy (use 2-4 mL/kg/hr; Hartmann’s solution or Plasmalyte on the first day, and subsequently 0.45 per cent NaCl and 2.5 per cent dextrose containing 20 mmol KCl/L). On day 1 of hospitalisation, remdesivir is administered at a high dose intravenously (10-15 mg/kg diluted to 10 mL with saline and given SLOWLY over 20-30 minutes or longer, manually or using a syringe driver; in human patients it is given over 2 hours) to provide a loading dose to fill up the volume of distribution for the drug. This achieves rapid antiviral efficacy. In cases with CNS disease, we suggest 20 mg/kg as the daily IV dose. Note that many cats can appear somewhat depressed for a few hours after the IV infusion of remdesivir. In human patients, remdesivir may cause infusion-related reactions, including low blood pressure, nausea, vomiting, sweating, or shivering, but we have not observed this in our feline patients.

The benefit of starting therapy intravenously is that dehydration, if present, is corrected, and you have IV access in case you need to administer other drugs (e.g., anticonvulsants, corticosteroids). Importantly, once the IV catheter is secure, daily injections of remdesivir do not cause any pain or discomfort. However, if the cat is eating and is diagnosed at an early stage in the disease course, then IV therapy is not necessary and the same doses can be given subcutaneously – saving a great deal of money.

Cats with FIP treated with remdesivir typically improve markedly over the first 2-3 days. We have observed, however, that effusive cases and especially those that have presented with pleural MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 21

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Clinical Review effusion prior to treatment should be monitored closely, as the combination of the antiviral effect of the remdesivir and greater than maintenance delivery of crystalloids can result in transient worsening of pleural effusion. This necessitates drainage twice daily using a 19-gauge butterfly needle and a 3-way stop-cock (ideally using ultrasound guidance to find the best window for needle insertion). These ‘secondary’ pleural effusions can be fatal if not detected early and seem to occur in about 1 in 10 effusive cases treated with remdesivir.

A further problem occasionally seen at this time is the development of neurological signs, including seizures. Our view is that this is not a drug effect per se, but rather the unmasking of subclinical CNS FIP. Such cats need careful observation, while the development of seizures mandates the use of anticonvulsant medication, such as midazolam (0.3 mg/kg IV), alfaxan or propofol (given IV to effect), followed by levetiracetam (Keppra) (10–20 mg/kg, PO every 8 hours). Phenobarbitone is a reliable anticonvulsant, however it has the propensity to increase the metabolism of many drugs, and until we better understand the pharmacokinetics and metabolism of remdesivir and GS-441524, it is probably safer to use levetiracetam in this setting. Some clinicians also administer dexamethasone or prednisolone as a one-off treatment to help settle down the CNS inflammation.

Although we advocate preliminary IV therapy for the sickest FIP patients, cats and kittens that are still ‘happy’, and eating do not require IV therapy at the outset and can instead be started with subcutaneous injections at 10-12 mg/kg/day (20 mg/kg for CNS disease).

This, of course, is far less expensive as the cats or kittens do not need to be placed on an infusion pump and kept in hospital, a stressful environment. With clients who have financial constraints, this might be preferable way to begin therapy. Some clever colleagues, like Jim Euclid, have developed a hybrid approach where kittens receive subcutaneous fluids as a bolus daily and remdesivir is injected into the fluid ‘lump’.

Subsequently, cats were given ONGOING subcutaneous injections of remdesivir. Initially, this was for 84 days, and such cases represented the bulk of cases we have treated to date. More recently, we have been using aggressive IV/SCI remdesivir for preliminary therapy, and then cats are transitioned onto oral GS-441524 for 10 weeks of consolidation therapy.

After initially using lower doses, which did not succeed in every patient, we now use the following treatment protocols, as follows:

Figure 5. Marked thickening of the iliocaecocolic region of a Devon Rex cat with so called ‘focal FIP’, usually a form of noneffusive FIP. Photo Penny Tisdall

to make things simple and sterile, in a box to be kept in the fridge, with a new syringe to be used every day.

In cats that continue to find the SC injections painful, we have used gabapentin orally (50 to 100 mg per cat) and/or transmucosal or SC buprenorphine administered 30-60 min prior to the injection for sedation/analgesia. The area to be injected can also be clipped so that topical EMLA cream can be applied 30 minutes prior to injection. BOVA manufacture a faster acting local anaesthetic gel which might be useful in some patients. In exceptional cases, we have placed a new cephalic catheter every 4-5 days to allow owners to give IV therapy rather than SC injections. The injection site reactions which have been reported with INJECTIBLE GS-441524 overseas do not seem to occur with remdesivir.

After 2-4 weeks of remdesivir, and after fluid in the abdomen has disappeared, and ocular and CNS signs improved or resolved, we now suggest a change to GS-441524 tablets. This is done for 3 reasons (i) it reduces costs (ii) it eliminates painful SC injections (iii) in some patients, it is more effective. Remdesivir injections are probably more reliable than oral GS-441524, and in the worst cases you might elect to give them for 4 weeks, but for most cats 2 weeks is sufficient, and the convenience and lower cost of the oral formulation trumps everything else.

i. for cats with wet FIP: 10-12 mg/kg once daily (SID) for 2 weeks ii. for cats with prominent ocular involvement: 15 mg/kg SID by subcutaneous injection (SCI) for 2 weeks; cats with severe uveitis should be also given topical corticosteroids (Pred Forte or Maxidex) for 2-3 days (no longer!) and atropine eye ointment iii. for cats with neurological FIP with CNS signs: give 20 mg/kg SID SCI for 2-4 weeks.5 It is important that owners are counselled properly on how to optimally administer daily injections. Cats will find the injection less painful if the remdesivir solution in the syringe is allowed to come to room temperature rather than be injected when cold from the fridge.

Furthermore, teaching them simple tasks such as using a new needle when injecting the cat (i.e., use a different needle to the one used to withdraw the drug from the vial) and using 21 or 23-gauge needles, will make injections more tolerable. Even though 21-gauge needles are larger, possibly the ability to inject more quickly gives them an advantage in some cats.

Alternately, veterinarians might prepare a full weeks’ worth of injections for the owner, www.theveterinarian.com.au

Figure 6. Focal dry FIP, with pyogranulomatous inflammation of intraabdominal lymph nodes.

Rather than undertaking an exploratory laparotomy, lymph node biopsy, histology and immunohistology, it might be more cost effective, where there is a high suspicion of FIP, to trial 3 days of IV remdesivir therapy.

A FNA of the enlarged lymph node is probably the ideal diagnostic option for practitioners with this skillset

The use of GS-441524 tablets is comparatively new to Australia but has been used widely overseas (see https://sockfip.org/fip-treatmentwith-oral-formulations-of-gs-441524/). Usually, the recommended ORAL dose of GS-441524 is just the same as the dose of SCI/IV remdesivir: wet FIP cases get 10-12 mg/kg PO SID, ocular cases 15 mg/kg PO SID and CNS cases 20 mg/kg (or higher), although we tend to err on the side or more rather than less, as GS-441524 is more cost effective and is even safer than remdesivir.

In CNS cases, where large doses are being given, it’s probably best to give 10 mg/kg PO every 12 hours (BID), to circumvent the ceiling effect said to limit absorption of large doses.

Why are the doses roughly the same? On a mg/kg basis, GS-441524 has twice as many active molecules as remdesivir (because of the difference in their molecular weight), but the bioavailability of GS-441524 is perhaps 50 per cent (only half what is given is absorbed, and this is affected by feeding and also by a ceiling dose effect) - so the two considerations cancel out.

We suggest that the GS-441524 tablets are given with a very small treat e.g., Dine creamy treats (to make sure the pill goes down), with the main meal given 1 hour later. The tablets provided by BOVA are Tuna flavoured 50 mg tablets that are quad-scored so they can be halved or even quartered.

In situations when owners cannot afford a full course of therapy, we have used mefloquine (Larium; 5 mg/kg orally once daily compounded into capsules or 62.5 mg twice weekly) after preliminary remdesivir/GS-441524 therapy. Mefloquine has been shown to have an antiviral effect by Phillip McDonagh, Jacqui Norris, Merran Govendir and colleagues at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science.7 This probably occurs by mefloquine usurping biochemical intracellular pathways utilised by FIP virus, a mechanism that has recently been shown also for the anti-leprosy drug clofazimine,8 and several other drugs. In several cats where owners were unable to afford a full course of remdesivir, mefloquine has seemed effective in getting the cats across the line to achieve clinical cure.

The main advantage of buying remdesivir and GS-441524 from BOVA for treating FIP cases is that the products we are using are subjected to quality assurance. It is only a matter of writing a prescription with the client’s name and address, the name of the patient and the dose to be administered, and the compounder can usually provide vials or tablets to any veterinarian in Australia within 24-48 hours.

Currently, the cost of a 100 mg vial of remdesivir is $250 plus GST and postage ($280 typically at the practice). The cost of GS-441524 tablets is a pack of 10 tablets for $600 plus postage and handling. Of course, buying multiple vials and tablets at one time reduces postage and handling fees. We believe most owners will feel much more comfortable obtaining a product from a well-known Australian company, rather than sending money overseas and hoping that black-market drugs of unknown quality will make it to Australia safely without being seized by customs.

Veterinarians wishing to explore this option, or with general questions about FIP case management, can e-mail Sally Coggins (dr.sallyc@gmail.com), Richard Malik (richard.malik@sydney.edu.au), David Hughes (concordvets@concordvets.com.au), Gretta Howard (drgretta@gmail.com), or Professor Jacqui Norris (jacqui.norris@sydney.edu.au), for advice in relation to diagnosis or therapy.

Many Australian veterinarians with an interest in FIP have developed considerable expertise in the management of these cases. For example, Andrew Spanner in Adelaide has treated in excess of 20 cases with excellent results. Feline MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 23

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Clinical Review

Figure 7. BOVA Australia‘s Gs-441524 tablets.

They are tuna flavoured and can be divided into halves or even quarters. MUCH EASIER than injections for most cats. Less stress and less expense

clinicians, cat only practices and many internal medicine specialists have managed cases and so for vets who are hesitant in treating their own cases, they have the option of referral.

Clinicians that have accepted FIP case referrals from general practitioners include but are not limited to: QLD Rhett Marshall, Marcus Gunew, Alison Jukes, Rachel Korman; NSW Katherine Briscoe, Michael Linton, Randolph Baral, Melissa Catt; VIC - Carolyn O’Brien, Keshuan Chow, Amy Lingard; WA-Martine Van Boeijen and Murdoch University Veterinary Teaching Hospital; TAS Moira van Dorsselaer.

All these clinicians (and likely more we are not aware of) are happy to accept cases for diagnostic work- up and therapy. They are all probably happy to discuss management of cases with you.

Figure 8. Bengal kitten with CNS and ocular FIP (A: before) and (B: after) after Remdesivir.

This cat also had pulmonary granulomas

A compromise is to collect a few drops of blood to monitor PCV, total plasma protein (TPP) using refractometry and the colour of plasma – in that way one can determine is anaemia is improving, icterus is resolving and whether the reduction on gamma globulin concentrations is resulting in a lower TPP. Do not be concerned by transient increases in globulin concentrations during early therapy; when high protein effusions are absorbed, lots of extra immunoglobins are dumped into the patient’s plasma. This can be common even up to week 8 of treatment but resolves by week 12.

There is no reason what-so-ever why a wellmotivated veterinarian should not be able to manage these cases in their own practice.

This is often more convenient to the owner, especially if they struggle with the daily injections and need a practice that is close and convenient.

Sally Coggins, working with Lara Boland, Emily Pritchard, Associate Professor Mary Thompson, and Professor Jacqui Norris at Sydney School of Veterinary Science will be interested in treating cases with comprehensive diagnosis and monitoring provided gratis. This will form part of Sally’s PhD program, so you will be helping her progress her studies by referring cases. As a result of these studies, hopefully we will develop have a better idea of how quickly the cats respond and exactly when therapy can be safely discontinued. Owners will still need to purchase remdesivir and GS-441524 for therapy. This group also has an interest in treating cases with interferon-omega and mefloquine.

Most FIP cases do very well with GS- 441524 or remdesivir therapy. Niels Pedersen has assembled an amazing resource for veterinarians interested in managing FIP cases - https://sock fip.org/dr-pedersen-research/. The website is pure gold. Some recommendations are provided on how to monitor cats during therapy. I am not very protocol driven, so for me the key things to monitor are appetite, attitude, level of activity and changes on body weight and condition over time. Most clinicians like to monitor haematology and serum biochemistry every month to ensure that all measurable abnormalities are improving, although this can be stressful for the patient and add to the cost of therapy. www.theveterinarian.com.au

Figure 9. An MR image in the transverse plane post contrast with T1 weighting. Note: the dilation of the lateral ventricles with very mild enhancement of the ependymal lining (orange arrows). Photo Christine Thomas

What about the kitten with multifocal CNS disease, where CNS FIP is the most likely cause of the clinical signs? The traditional approach is serology (to try to exclude cryptococcosis and toxoplasmosis), a good dietary history and trial of thiamine to rule out vitamin B1 deficiency, then MRI scans (Figure 9) and a CSF tap for fluid analysis and multiplex neuro-qPCR analysis). This approach is very expensive and there is also a finite risk from the anaesthesia and especially CSF collection. We have found that 3-5 days of IV or SC remdesivir therapy can be used as a therapeutic trial in cats with likely CNS FIP and is a cost-effective alternative to the full diagnostic work-up which might cost $3-5,000, or more.

Likewise, if the choice is an exploratory laparotomy, biopsy of abnormal tissues, histology, and immunohistochemistry for FIP antigen to diagnose dry intraabdominal FIP versus a

3–5-day trial of remdesivir or GS-441524, the drug trial might be considered to be better option in terms of both welfare and reduced cost. In most cats with non-effusive FIP – there is a prompt improvement with antiviral therapy, with normalisation of fever, improvement in appetite and better overall attitude within 2 to 3 days. If the patient fails to respond to antiviral therapy, then of course exploratory laparotomy and biopsy of representative organs is sensible, as the major DDx are lymphoma and lymphocytic cholangitis.

This is a matter of every clinician’s personal style. A FNA for cytological and sometimes immunohistochemical assessment or PCR is cogent non-invasive option where this expertise is available, but sometimes this does not give a definitive answer. Some veterinarians insist on getting a tissue diagnosis and positive immunohistology or PCR in every patient, while others are keen to ‘treat for the treatable’ with a 3–5-day trial of remdesivir/GS-441524, and then proceed to ex lap if there is no unambiguous response to therapy.

It is incredibly satisfying to see cats and kittens that are unwell turn the corner and become normal. It really is something that lifts your spirits as a clinician. It is good science and good veterinary medicine, and it is good for your soul!

Conclusions In the past, a diagnosis of FIP was an intellectual exercise, so we could end a cat or kitten’s suffering with the certainty of an accurate diagnosis.

Now, because of Niels Pedersen life-time studies of FIP, we are in a position to successfully treat perhaps 80 per cent or more of cats with FIP, if the client has sufficient finances. It’s too early to say how many of these will later recur.

There is a huge learning curve to the diagnosis and management of cases, but with effort, a good GP vet should be able to work with a diligent owner towards obtaining a clinical cure.

The most important thing is to not place too many obstacles in the way of a committed owner, and to support them through the 12-week marathon treatment course, by helping them find the best way to medicate their patient. This might involve a sedative/analgesic regimen to help make the cat more tractable and prevent discomfort, having the client bring their cat to the clinic daily for remdesivir injections, or swapping to GS-441524 tablets when the stress of injections is just too much for the owner.

MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 25

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Clinical Review It is also important to manage hiccups along the way and perhaps providing a payment plan that will let the treatment be affordable for a committed client.

Finally, the impact of COVID-19 on coronavirus research has been profound, and there are several very promising drugs in development such as molnupiravir from Merck and the drug combination nirmatrelvir and ritonavir from Pfizer.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 stage approach to therapy Stage 1 - INDUCTION IV/SC Remdesivir injections For cats with wet FIP: 10-12 mg/kg remdesivir by subcutaneous injection (SCI) once daily (SID) for 2 weeks For cats with ocular involvement: 15 mg/kg SID remdesivir SCI for 2 weeks For cats with neurological FIP and CNS signs: remdesivir 20 mg/kg SID for 2 weeks Stage 2 - CONSOLIDATION After 2 weeks of injectable remdesivir, swap to GS-441524 tablets For cats with wet FIP: 10-12 mg/kg GS441524 orally SID for 10 weeks For cats with ocular involvement: 15 mg/kg SID GS-441524 orally SID for 10 weeks For cats with neurological FIP and CNS signs: GS-441524 10 mg/kg orally BID (20 mg/kg/day) for 10 weeks

References 1. Kim, Y.; Liu, H.; Galasiti Kankanamalage, A.C.; Weerasekara, S.; Hua, D.H.; Groutas, W.C.; Chang, K.O.; Pedersen, N.C. Reversal of the progression of fatal coronavirus infection in cats by a broad-spectrum coronavirus protease inhibitor. PLoS Pathog. 2016, 12, e1005531.

2. Pedersen, N.C.; Kim, Y.; Liu, H.; Galasiti Kankanamalage, A.C.; Eckstrand, C.; Groutas, W.C.; Bannasch, M.; Meadows, J.M.; Chang, K.O. Efficacy of a 3C-like protease inhibitor in treating various forms of acquired feline infectious peritonitis. J. Feline Med. Surg. 2018, 20, 378–392.

3. Murphy, B.G.; Perron, M.; Murakami, E.; Bauer, K.; Park, Y.; Eckstrand, C.; Liepnieks, M.; Pedersen, N.C. The nucleoside analog GS-441524 strongly inhibits feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) virus in tissue culture and experimental cat infection studies. Vet. Microbiol.

2018, 219, 226–233.

4. Pedersen, N.C.; Perron, M.; Bannasch, M.; Montgomery, E.; Murakami, E.; Liepnieks, M.; Liu, H. Efficacy, and safety of the nucleoside analog GS-441524 for treatment of cats with naturally occurring feline infectious peritonitis.

J. Feline Med. Surg. 2019, 21, 271–281.

5. Dickinson PJ, Bannasch M, Thomasy SM, et al.

Antiviral treatment using the adenosine nucleoside analogue GS-441524 in cats with clinically diagnosed neurological feline infectious peritonitis. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.

2020. doi: 10.1111/jvim.15780.

6. Tasker S. Diagnosis of feline infectious peritonitis: Update on evidence supporting available tests. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.

2018;20(3):228-243. doi:10.1177/1098612X187 58592 7. McDonagh, P.; Sheehy, P.A.; Norris, J.M. Identification and characterisation of small molecule inhibitors of feline coronavirus replication. Vet. Microbiol. 2014, 174, 438–447.

8. Yuan, S., Yin, X., Meng, X. et al. Clofazimine broadly inhibits coronaviruses including SARSCoV-2. Nature (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41586-021-03431-4 9. https://sockfip.org/ - the BEST resource on the internet or anywhere for FIP. www.theveterinarian.com.au

Figure 10. Two cat with dry FIP after successful therapy. As a keen young vet told me by e-mail not so long ago – “this is why I did vet science!”

COSTINGS 2 kg kitten with wet FIP 4 100 mg vials remdesivir - $1000 35 50 mg tablets GS-441524 - $2100 Handling and GST - $30 plus $310 = $340 Total $3440 about $290 a week for 12 weeks

4 kg cat with dry FIP 7 100 mg vials remdesivir - $1750 70 50 mg tablets GS-441524 - $4200 Handling and GST $30 plus $600 Total $6550 about $545 per week for 12 weeks

Figure 11. Two littermates which both developed FIP and both of whom were successfully treated with remdesivir and GS441524 MARCH 2022 TheVeterinarian 27

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ESSAY

The welfare of sheep: Mulesing and its alternatives for controlling breech flystrike Addresses the welfare problems caused by mulesing and discusses the criteria of alternatives currently available for controlling breech flystrike in sheep in Australia.

Introduction Flystrike in sheep is a life-threatening condition whereby fly larvae, primarily Lucilia cuprina, infest the flesh, often in the moist, wrinkled, breech area. Mulesing is currently the main method for preventing breech flystrike of sheep in Australia. Although the combination of topical anaesthetic and long-acting nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) – carprofen was demonstrated to give the greatest pain relief during and after mulesing – NSAIDs are not currently registered for use in sheep in Australia (Paull et al., 2007).

Post-treatment pain alleviation by topical anaesthetic thus becomes the only option.

Therefore, welfare concerns involving alternatives to mulesing, for instance, intradermal-cetrimide injection, clip application, and breeding flystrike-resistant sheep, are being investigated.

Discussion Lepherd et al. (2011a) assessed the short-term systemic effects of mulesing (n=10), intradermal-cetrimide injection (n=10) and clip application (n=10), compared with two control groups (i.e., tail-docking only (n=10) and no treatment (n=10)). Bodyweight, haematological and biochemical profiles and concentrations of three acute phase proteins (APPs), haptoglobin, serum amyloid A and fibrinogen, were measured repeatedly for 29 days post-treatment (Lepherd et al., 2011a). Results showed that the mulesing group had the most marked and prolonged increase in APP concentrations, a transiently increased neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and a persistently decreased albumin/globulin ratio (Lepherd et al., 2011a).

The magnitude and duration of these test results were followed by the intradermalcetrimide group, then the clip group (Lepherd et al., 2011a). The mulesing group had the lowest weight gain by the end of the study and was the only group to develop mild persistent anaemia (Lepherd et al., 2011a).

Therefore, clipping showed a significantly reduced short-term systemic effect compared with mulesing, with the intradermal-cetrimide treatment lying between the two (Lepherd et al., 2011a). In this case, clipping should be promoted because it can provide sheep with better welfare. However, the sample size in this study was too small to be representative.

Effectiveness, practicality and expense of methods for controlling flystrike in sheep are important to farmers making decisions. To compare the effectiveness of different methods, Lepherd et al. (2011b) assessed the gross and microscopic damage and wound healing after mulesing (n=30), intradermal-cetrimide treatment (n=30) and clip application (n=10), compared with a control group (n=30) handled without treatment. The results showed that mulesing provided a more consistent and desirable outcome for preventing flystrike because the lambs had a clean breech bare-skinned ■ www.theveterinarian.com.au

area and noticeable tightening of skin folds around the perineum, which helped to avoid the moist and soiled conditions that attract blowflies (Lepherd et al., 2011b). The only complication in mulesing wounds was that numerous foreign bodies (e.g., wool fragments) in the wound bed and scar caused persistent inflammation, thus affecting later remodelling of the wound bed and delaying healing (Lepherd et al., 2011b). Although intradermal-cetrimide treatment underwent the same second-intention healing phase as mulesing, wound healing was delayed because of the persistence of necrotic tissue (eschar) adhering to the wound bed, which acted as a large foreign body, impeding re-epithelialisation of the wound (Lepherd et al., 2011b).

Together with the deep penetration of chemical into the underlying dermis, subcutis and muscle, they were found to impede wound contraction and interfere with skin stretching, thus causing poor expansion of bare area (Lepherd et al., 2011b).

On the other hand, the clips provided a more acceptable result, with noticeable tightening of skin wrinkles on ventrolateral breech and on either side of the tail, compared with the intradermal-cetrimide treatment (Lepherd et al., 2011b). Fewer complications were associated with the clips, despite the skin dag formation and the variations in scar size between left and right breech (Lepherd et al., 2011b), presumably due to clip slippage and handedness of the operator. However, since samples from the clip group were collected only at 32 and 47 days post-treatment (Lepherd et al., 2011b), further studies are required to assess the wound healing at earlier time points. More-extensive studies are required to determine whether the apparent wound healing outcomes of both alternatives are able to achieve an acceptable degree of flystrike prevention comparable with mulesing.

Farmers’ perspectives on preventing flystrike are also very important. Wells et al. (2011) interviewed 22 farmers with Merino sheep that were mulesed or scheduled to be mulesed about their intended methods for preventing flystrike and their comments on mulesing and its alternatives (Wells et al., 2011). The study showed that although most interviewees regarded breeding resistant sheep as the best long-term approach, they still intended to continue mulesing because they believe that consumers do not care about it and the current alternatives are not as effective and efficient as mulesing, particularly the clips (Wells et al., 2011). However, none of them had tried the clips and their beliefs were based only on opinions of other producers who had used them (Wells et al., 2011). Despite consumer indifference towards mulesing, breeding programs for flystrike-resistant sheep should be encouraged on farms as there are advantages other than welfare in doing so (e.g., improving wool quality, reducing cost of

mulesing and chemical usage for flystrike prevention). Therefore, public concerns about sheep welfare should be raised through media and by introducing a market premium for un-mulesed wool so farmers will become more inclined to stop mulesing. Further studies with more interviewees are required to give a more objective overview of current farmers’ responses to the issue of sheep welfare and mulesing.

Conclusions The studies above have provided a broad view on the issues of mulesing and its alternatives.

Although intradermal injection and clips are available to improve the welfare of sheep and produce similar effects on breech conformation, many farmers still intend to continue mulesing. Therefore, further studies of the effectiveness of these alternatives in preventing flystrike are necessary to persuade farmers to stop mulesing. Alternatives also need to be cost-effective and efficient for farmers to implement them. Finally, ongoing breeding programs for flystrike-resistant sheep should be encouraged and public concerns about the impact of mulesing on welfare of sheep should be raised through media so farmers will be more inclined to phase out mulesing.

■ LIK HANG LAI References Lepherd, M.L., Canfield, P.J., Hunt, G.B., Thomson, P.C., Bosward, K.L. (2011a) Assessment of the short-term systemic effect of and acute phase response to mulesing and other options for controlling breech flystrike in Merino lambs. Australian Veterinary Journal 89:1-2, 19-26.

Lepherd, M.L., Canfield, P.J., Hunt, G.B., Thomson, P.C., Bosward, K.L. (2011b) Wound healing after mulesing and other options for controlling breech flystrike in Merino lambs: observations on gross and microscopic wound healing. Australian Veterinary Journal 89:1-2, 27-37.

Paull, D.R., Lee, C., Colditz, I.G., Atkinson, S.J., Fisher, A.D. (2007) The effect of a topical anaesthetic formulation, systemic flunixin and carprofen, singly or in combination, on cortisol and behavioural responses of Merino lambs to mulesing. Australian Veterinary Journal 85:3, 98-106.

Wells, A.E.D., Sneddon, J., Lee, J.A., Blache, D. (2011) Farmers’ response to societal concerns about farm animal welfare: The case of mulesing. Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics 24:6, 645-658.

This essay is one of a number selected for The Veterinarian magazine Prize for Written Communication for Sydney University third-year veterinary science students.

MARCH 2022

TheVeterinarian

29

News Close-ups and camera traps cat populations and track their From page 3

Cameras have picked up animals in areas the researchers never expected them to be - eastern quolls on the north-west coast, and cats on the far south-west coastline, for example.

Although it seems clear cats have been established for a long time, Buettel said it was possible native animals were adapting to, or had become more wary of, such predators.

“They’ve been here so long it’s hard to see how any eradication could occur in that sense. But I think it’s more important to understand where they are, what they’re doing and go from there,” she said.

PhD student Alexandra Paton, from UTAS’ School of Natural Sciences is using the camera trap network to monitor Tasmania’s feral

Japanese encephalitis detection From page 3

measures should also be taken to protect animals from mosquitoes, for instance, applying a safe insect repellent and putting a summer rug on horses.”

Acting Chief Medical Officer Sonya Bennet said pigs are the focus from a human health perspective.

“They can infect mosquitoes who then infect humans, this is not the case with horses,” she said.

“Severe illness arising from JEV infections in humans is rare and most people will have no symptoms at all if infected.

“However, a very small proportion of people infected my develop a serious illness such as encephalitis and experience symptoms including neck stiffness, severe headache and come, and more rarely, permanent neurological complications or death.”

Bennett said that illness usually

Outcry over duck hunting season From page 5

Bassett said that while there is some relief in being able to offer a more humane death via lethal injection, it puts a considerable strain on the veterinary team.

“Whilst other states have banned this ‘sport’, the travesty prevails here,” she said.

“Despite the fact that the numbers of active shooters in this state falls year upon year, we still have this travesty where a group of people is now allowed to run amok in areas that would normally be protected, aiming at, though usually not cleanly dispatching, species that would ordinarily be protected.”

Bassett said she would ultimately like the public to see what she does while working in the triage tent.

“The sheer beauty and will to live of our native duck species…the ludicrous splash of colour flicking across the head of a pink-eared duck,” she said.

“How can that vibrant pink, like 1980s eyeliner, be found in nature?

“Yet here it is, found on one miraculous 400g package of beating heart and bright eye struggling to hold on to life on my clumsy trestle table in a tent on a muddy shoreline.”

Wildlife Victoria CEO, Lisa Palma, said the organisation and its supporters are devastated by the start of another season.

30 TheVeterinarian MARCH 2022

numbers. Her project includes using the data to estimate feral cat densities in different parts of the state to enable better targeted cat control measures.

“The cameras are good at detecting cats, but questions remain about where to best place them to increase cat detections, whether or not we should try luring cats to cameras with treats and interesting smells, and whether or not the cats might be afraid of these foreign objects in their habitat, particularly if we use a white flash at night,” Paton said.

The researchers hope answers to these methodological questions will inform future research and monitoring programs.

■ ANNE LAYTON-BENNETT begins with symptoms such as a sudden onset of fever, headache, and vomiting.

She added that work has commenced to plan for targeted vaccinations, with two vaccines available for protection against JEV in Australia.

“However, prevention is always better than a cure and there are simple steps we can all take to avoid our exposure to infected mosquitos,” she said.

“People in areas of high mosquito activity in Eastern Australia should use mosquito repellent containing picaridin or DEET on all exposed skin (and) wear long, loose fitting clothing when outside, and ensure accommodation, including tents, are properly fitted with mosquito nettings or screens.”

JEV can be reported on the Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888.

■ SAM WORRAD

“In this day and age, when we know duck numbers are significantly reduced, the Victorian public have indicated they are opposed to duck shooting and other states across Australia have banned this barbaric event, it beggars belief that the Government is yet again allowing another season to take place here in Victoria,” she said.

This season, the Game Management Authority has permitted hunting of the Pacific black duck, mountain duck, chestnut teal, grey teal, pink-eared duck, and wood duck.

Palma said that duck shooting was a cruel practice that has no place in contemporary Australia.

“We know there are significant declines in our precious native duck species,” she said.

“We know that shooters often can’t tell one duck species from another, and we know that five out of eight ‘game’ species are in significant long-term decline.

“Why on earth is this event still happening in Victoria?”

In 2021, Wildlife Victoria responded to more than 3000 enquiries from the public regarding duck welfare.

The organisation and its statewide network of volunteers went to the aid of 7118 ducks.

Recreational duck hunting is permitted in the Northern Territory, Tasmania, South Australia, and Victoria.

■ SAM WORRAD

Help available for cattle carcasses From page 5

“If people are able to take a note of any tags, brands or ear markings on the stock, as well as information about current location and a description of the animals, that will help us support the stock owners through this process.”

Landholders can register with the Agriculture and Animal Services hotline on 1800 814 647 if they need assistance with animal assessment and disposal.

Abstracts - male dairy calves From page 14

and increasing veterinarian involvement in on-farm animal welfare.

The benefits of improving male dairy calf welfare include maintenance of the cattle industry's social license and improved producer mental health and occupational satisfaction. The main barriers to improving male dairy calf welfare are economics and cultural attitudes within the industry towards male dairy calves.

Lexie M Reed1, David L Renaud1, Trevor J DeVries1 Can Vet J. 2022 Feb;63(2):187-193.

1Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare (Reed, Renaud, DeVries), Department of Population Medicine (Reed, Renaud), Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph; Department of Animal Biosciences, Ontario Agricultural College (DeVries), University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1.

Abstracts - quality of life

TheVeterinarian Sydney Magazine Publishers Pty Ltd ACN 102752787 ISSN 1447-9768 PO Box 305 Millthorpe NSW 2798 Tel: 02 9487 6627 Director - Clem Martin Email: clem.martin@vetmag.com.au Editorial Advisory Board Thomas Donnelly BVSc DipVP DipACLAM Nicholas Kannegieter BVSc DipVetClinStud PhD FACVSc David Lidbetter BVSc MVS FACVSc DipECVS Dip ACVS Angus Martin BVSc Mary Porter BVSc (Hons) MACVSc Jeffrey Smith BVSc FACVSc Dip ACVO David Vella BSc BVSc (Hons) DABVP Editor - Luke Martin Tel: 0418 698 228 Email: luke.martin@vetmag.com.au National Sales Manager James Martin Tel: 0432 575 877 Email: james.martin@vetmag.com.au Designer - Anne Norrell Email: annenorrelldesign@gmail.com Printed by Newstyle Printing 41 Manchester St, Mile End SA 5031 Post Print Approved PP255003/06488 All material in The Veterinarian is subject to copyright and must not be reproduced wholly or in part without the written permission of the Editor.

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From page 14

Each tool was assessed for evidence of psychometric evaluation including statistical analysis, reliability, and validity. Commonly included items were determined to highlight potential important aspects of dog or cat QoL. Five of the nine publications used a statistical method such as factor analysis to determine tool design and structure. Although at least one aspect of reliability and validity was assessed for seven of the tools, none were validated across all measures.

Two of the publications contained minimal to no statistical analysis.

Common items for both dogs and cats included those regarding activity level, the desire for interaction and appetite. In addition, common items for cats included those regarding mood and grooming. This scoping review identified and evaluated currently available generic QoL assessment tools, providing a reference point for future tool development and validation.

Annabelle E Fulmer1, Linda J Laven2, Kate E Hill2 Animals (Basel). 2022 Feb 8;12(3): 400.doi: 10.3390/ani12030400.

1Maroubra Veterinary Hospital, 88 Bunnerong Rd, Pagewood, Sydney, NSW 2035, Australia.

2Tawharau Ora, School of Veterinary Science, Massey University, P.O. Box 11222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand.

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CREATURE

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Native to the Sahara Desert, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and the Arava and Negev deserts, the fennec fox is known for its unusually large ears which serve to dissipate heat. The name Fennec comes from the species’ Arabic name, fanak.

Families of the animal dig burrows in the sand for habitation and protection. The burrows can be as large as 120sqm.

Fennec fox (Vulpes zerda)

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