VETPARTNERS has awarded research grants to colleagues totalling £120,000 for projects as diverse as helping horses with noisy guts to udder dermatitis in dairy herds.
The European veterinary group received 46 applications for funding for clinical research projects after announcing an opportunity for team members wanting to undertake research relevant to their area of practice.
The fund is open to VetPartners team members working across any species in clinical settings in the UK or Europe who want to undertake research within their job to answer key clinical questions of interest.
Twelve research projects, from clinical teams working in small animal, equine and farm practice, have now been given the go ahead.
Initially £10,000 is available for each project to cover essential items, including consumables, specialist equipment and software, as well as open access publication fees. In addition, assistance from the VetPartners Clinical Board will be available, ensuring those new to research will be mentored through all stages of their projects, from appraising existing evidence to sharing their own results via peer-reviewed publication, conferences, vlogs and infographics.
Participants were asked to pitch an idea to members of the Clinical Board and any awarding of fund is approved by members of the Senior Management Team, including CEO Jo Malone, Director of Clinical Research and Excellence in Practice Rachel Dean and Clinical Research Manager Jenny Stavisky.
Dr Dean said: “Although the intention was to fund 10 projects, the proposals we received were of such high quality that in the end we could not narrow it down to less than 12, so we increased the research fund from £100,000 to £120,000. This, along with a package of support from the Clinical Board support team, will ensure our applicants have a great research experience and learn some new skills.
“We are dedicated to evidence-based veterinary medicine and so it is critical we fund practice-based research that answers questions our teams face every day.”
| Will Gratwick | LLM Vets Whitchurch | Prevalence and risk factors for udder cleft dermatitis in UK dairy herds |
| Cosmin Chintoan-Uta | Poultry Health Services, Edinburgh | Development of rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing (RAST) for poultry. |
| Tim Potter | Westpoint Farm Vets | Use of on farm adenosine triphosphate (ATP) monitoring to control disease and promote better management processes in calf rearing |
| Robert Howe | LLM Farm Vets (Lancs) | Integrated Parasite Management (IPM) |
| Caroline Scobie | Westway Vets | Does the treatment of proteinuria in cats with CKD improve important clinical outcomes? |
| Nicole Dyer | Ash tree vets | Is there a significant difference in intestinal worm burden in dogs given prophylactic anti-parasitics compared with animals not treated routinely. |
| Louise Mallinson | Beechwood Vets | Project Poo – How long does acute diarrhoea last for in dogs, and what influences the outcome? |
| Lucy Clarke | Ash Tree vets | Incidence of occult urinary tract infection (UTI) in diabetic dogs |
| Tashina Roy Choudhury | Three Counties Equine Hospital | Association between a clinical or post mortem diagnosis of larval cyathostomiasis and positive serology for cyathostomiasis |
| Charlie Thomas | Rosevean | The effect of SGL2 inhibitors on resting insulin in animals with Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS). |
| Tom McGinley | The Liphook Equine Hospital | Measurement of salivary cortisol in horses undergoing routine dentistry, with and without sedation. |
| Sandy Baird | Aireworth Vets | Noisy Guts |
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