Issue 5, November 2009

Visiting Graduate PhD student / Virology

We welcome Dr Haytham Ali, DVM, who joined the department under the U.P.E.I. Graduate Student Research Mobility program. His home institution is the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt, and he is funded by the Egyptian government. For the next two years, he will be performing his Ph.D. research under the supervision of Dr Arnost Cepica. Dr Paul Hanna is a member of the supervisory committee. The research involves investigations into the viral etiology of bovine abortions in Egypt

Blue Whale Excavation:  An update

The November 2009 issue of the Canadian magazine, The Walrus, provided an update on the excavation of the carcass of a blue whale in western Prince Edward Island in May 2008.  That excavation had been coordinated by a team from the University of British Columbia (UBC), in collaboration with the regional centre of the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC), including Drs Pierre-Yves Daoust, Scott McBurney and María Forzán, as well as Fiep de Bie, and Darlene Weeks.  The whale skeleton was subsequently transported to Victoria, British Columbia, for cleaning and assembly, under the direction of Michael de Roos, a young but very experienced private contractor.  Removing the grease from some of the very large bones proved far more challenging than expected, but the work is now progressing very well, and current expectations are that the skeleton will finally be installed in the new Beaty Museum of Biodiversity at UBC in late spring 2010.

Excavation of the whale in Western PEI, May, 2008

Assembling the whale’s skeleton in BC, May 2009

Bayer Angiostrongylosis Forum in Portugal

Dr Gary Conboy was an invited speaker for the Bayer Angiostrongylosis Forum at the Congress of the European Internal Medicine-Companion Animals held in Oporto, Portugal on September 8-10, 2009.  Dr. Conboy presented a paper entitled. "Efficacy of a single topical application of Advocate topical solution (10% imidacloprid + 2.5% moxidectin) in the treatment of dogs experimentally infected with Crenosoma vulpis.”  Needless to say, Dr Conboy was also delighted with the renowned Portuguese wines and cuisine!

Atlantic Canadian Association of Parasitologistss

The Atlantic Canadian Association of Parasitologists held their annual meeting at the Custom’s House in Pictou, Nova Scotia on Oct. 23-24, 2009. Twenty researchers from Atlantic universities attended with more than half of the presentations coming from graduate students. Dr Brent Dixon from Health Canada was the invited speaker and discussed; "Foodborne and zoonotic transmission of Giardia and Cryptosporidium". Presentations by members of the Dept. of Pathology & Microbiology included Dr Gary Conboy’s “Fatal pulmonary trematodosis in a raccoon”, Dr Spencer Greenwood’s “Bumper Car Disease in the American lobster: molecular approaches to understanding pathogenesis of the ciliate Anophryoides haemophila” , and  Vicki Savoie-Swan’s (PhD candidate with Dr Fred Markham and Neil Ross), “Investigating differential protein expression in Crassostrea virginica infected with Haplosporidium nelsoni - overcoming a failed hypothesis”.

      Dr Gary Conboy                            Dr Brent Dixon                       Dr Mike Duffy                Dr Spencer Greenwood

Scientific Visit to Ireland

In October 2009, Dante Mateo visited the Aquaculture and Fisheries Development Centre of the University College Cork, Ireland, thanks to the Craig Dobbin Scholarship from the Ireland Canada University Foundation. Under the supervision of Dr. Sarah Culloty, Dante carried out a short study on lysozyme activity in haemolymph of soft-shell clams Mya arenaria from Irish and Canadian locations after bacterial challenge. As health aspects of soft-shell clams health haven't been explored in Ireland, further collaboration between institutions is hoped.  Dante Mateo is doing a PhD under the supervision of Dr Gerald Johnson and Dr Spencer Greenwod investigating the inflammatory response in bivalves

Our Alumnus

Dr Felipe Almendras will assume the position of general manager and manager of Animal Nutrition of DSM Nutritional Products Chile (DNP) next January.  Dr Almendras studied Veterinary Medicine at the University Austral in Southern Chile and in 1981 completed his MSc degree in fish pathology in our department. After leaving AVC, Dr Almendaras did a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Chile. He started working for the company in 1996 and since 2002 has been manager of the Market of Aquaculture division in Chile.  He is considered an expert of salmonid diseases and aquaculture and has worked with many important clients in Chile and abroad.

New Book on Comparative Perinatology

A research partnership between AVC and The Toronto Hospital for Sick Children in Canada, and the Universidad de Tamaulipas, Universidad Metropolitana and Universidad Nacional in Mexico culminated in the recent publication of a book entitled “Perinatología y Ginecoobstetricia Animal (Animal Perinatology and Gynecoobstetrics).  This research network started several years ago to do a comparative study on perinatal mortality in babies, piglets, calves, foals and puppies.  Drs Daniel Mota, Alejandro Nava, Dina Villarreal and Maria Alonso Spylbury were responsible for putting together over 8 years of clinical and experimental work in this book. Dr Alfonso Lopez was coauthor of 6 chapters, along with his former graduate student Dr Julio Martinez Burnes (UNAM MSc 1983; AVC PhD 2001).  Dr Martinez-Burnes is currently the Director of the Tamaulipas Council for Science and Technology (Cotacyt) and he is also a part-time professor at the University of Tamaulipas, where he is passionate about teaching veterinary pathology.

Recent Publications

Mateo DR, Spurmanis A, Siah A, Araya MT, Kulka M, Berthe FC, Johnson GR,  Greenwood SJ.  Changes induced by two strains of Vibrio splendidus in haemocyte subpopulations of Mya arenaria, detected by flow cytometry with LysoTracker. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms  2009; 86:253–262.

Conboy G.  Cestodes of Dogs and Cats in north America.  Veterinary Clinics of North America - Small Animal 2009;39: 1075-1090.

Conboy G.  Helminth Parasites of the Canine and Feline Respiratory Tract.  Veterinary Clinics of North America - Small Animal 2009;39: 1109-1126.

Lovy J, Kostka M, Dycová I, Arsenault G, Pecková H, Wright GM, Speare DJ.  Phylogeny and morphology of Glugea hertwigi from rainboy smelt Osmerus mordax found in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms  2009; 86:235–243.

Abstracts and Poster Presentations

Godard, D.R., Groman. D., Park, B.J. and V. P. Palace. 2009. Pathological Effects of Sub-lethal Explosive Based Instantaneous Pressure Change (IPC) on Fish.  Proceedings of the 14th Biannual Meeting of the European Association of Fish Pathologists, Prague, Czech Republic. September 2009.

Hay, V., D. Groman, H. Mlynarski, T. Lunder, E. Rimstad and N.C. Simard. 2009.  Infection Kinetics of Salmonid Alphavirus Subtype 3 in Laboratory Raised Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar.   Proceedings of the 14th Biannual Meeting of the European Association of Fish Pathologists, Czech Republic.  September 2009.

Greenwood SJ, Acorn AR, Clark KF, Jones SA. Bumper Car Disease in the American lobster (Homarus americanus): molecular approaches to understanding pathogenesis of the ciliate Anophryoides haemophila. Atlantic Canadian Association of Parasitologists, Pictou, NS. Oct. 23-24, 2009.

Conboy, Gary. Fatal pulmonary trematodosis in a raccoon. Association of Parasitologists, Pictou, NS. Oct. 23-24, 2009.

The importance of stupidity in scientific research by Martin A. Schwartz

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