The patients and the people of the OVC Teaching Hospital are featured in the 2009 Dogs in Canada Annual, on sale now at bookstores and newsstands across the country.

Guelph-based writer and multi-media artist Dawn Matheson and photographer Dean Palmer spent two days documenting life and death stories in the Small Animal Clinic and the hospital’s intensive care unit. The 8-page spread follows a Bouvier with a broken leg, a large mixed-breed dog paralyzed by a fall, and a 12-year-old Pomeranian with an enlarged heart and respiratory issues.

The Dogs in Canada Annual is the nation’s best-selling all-in-one guide for raising a puppy with distribution of more than 150,000 copies.

Eat right, exercise, don't smoke and drink in moderation. Population medicine professor Andrew Papadopoulos knows the mantra for preventive health care. He should - he's spent 18 years preaching the gospel as an expert in public health policy and administration, including heading the Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa).

These days, he confesses he's finding it more of a challenge to practise what he preaches. Since being appointed a faculty member this summer in the Ontario Veterinary College - where he's also completing a PhD - he's been busy learning and commuting from his home in Mississauga. That's put a dent in his exercise time. For the same reason, he finds it's sometimes easier to grab something to eat on the fly - and not necessarily the best thing.

Still, the former public health inspector plans to get back on track. Why study health policy and governance intended to improve the province's well-being if he can't ensure his own?

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Horse owners will be able to determine the risk of their animals catching an infectious disease and gather information about infection control thanks to two new online initiatives from the University of Guelph.

The first is an online calculator that allows horse owners to punch in their management practices and learn their animals' risk levels. The second initiative is a blog by Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) researchers that provides information about various equine infectious diseases, along with practical tips on disease prevention and control.

The Biosecurity Risk Calculator will be launched this week at the Ontario Equestrian Federation Conference. Developed by Equine Guelph in partnership with Vétoquinol Canada, the online tool measures both risk andprevention.

Meanwhile, "EQUIDBLOG" aims to provide information and insight about equine infectious diseases to horseowners and veterinarians. The site is co-ordinated by Prof. Scott Weese and Maureen Anderson of OVC's Department of Pathobiology. They are specialists inlarge-animal internal medicine with expertise in infectious diseases andinfection control.

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The OVC community will celebrate the excellence of students, faculty and staff at the Fall 2008 In-Course Awards on Thursday.

This year’s event includes a new award from the Class of 2008, dedicated to the memory of former classmates Tammi Weekes-Lentz and Daniel Siatkowski.  Third-year DVM student Adriana Pastor will receive the OVC Class of 2008 Memorial Scholarship for demonstrating a strong commitment to service through her involvement with and contributions to the community at large.

Pathobiology professor Dr. Darren Wood will receive two honours: the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association Teacher of the Year and the K.M. Bhatnagar Memorial Humanitarian Award.

Dr. Don Trout, Clinical Studies, will receive the Carl J. Norden Distinguished Teaching Award.

The awards ceremony will take place Thursday, Nov. 20 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m in the OVC Lifetime Learning Centre.

For a complete list of awards and recipients, go to http://www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/dvm. 

Science may be a step closer to solving the riddle of a deadly wasting disease that affects more than 50 species of birds including macaws, cockatoos and cockatiels, parakeets and parrots.

OVC researchers are collaborating with scientists at the University of California who recently identified a virus they believe to be the cause of PDD, or proventricular dilatation disease. Called avian bornavirus, it belongs to the same family that causes encephalitis in various mammals, including horses and cats.

Dale Smith, Pathobiology, and Michael Taylor, an avian and exotics specialist at the OVC Teaching Hospital, are working with the California group to learn more about the virus and develop techniques to diagnose and treat the disease.

The Guelph team also includes Davor Ojkic and Josepha Delay of the Animal Health Laboratory and DVSc student Raj Raghav. Another collaborator is Ady Gancz, an Israeli veterinarian who obtained his DVSc in Guelph.

Smith was one of the featured speakers at the Canadian Parrot Conference held Nov. 15-16 at the Holiday Inn Guelph. She provided an update on PDD research to the annual conference that brings together bird enthusiasts and avian experts to share knowledge about the care, behaviour and husbandry of parrots. To learn more, visit the website where you can watch a clip of Smith’s recent appearance on Rogers TV. 

The 2008 Schofield Memorial Lecture will explore “Research and Veterinary Science: Crossing Continents and Disciplines” with Dr. Franziska Grieder, director of the division of comparative medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

Grieder’s areas of expertise include viral-induced neuroimmunology and neurodegeneration, emerging viral threats, and the molecular genetics of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus — which is on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of bio-warfare agents.

The Schofield lecture is held in conjunction with the OVC’s annual Graduate Research Symposium, which features poster sessions and presentations by U of G graduate students. The day-long event takes place on Wednesday, Nov. 19 with the poster sessions starting 10 a.m. The Schofield lecture is at 4 p.m., followed by a reception and awards.

The Schofield lecture commemorates Francis Schofield, a renowned veterinary pathologist who taught at the college from 1921 to 1955. Internationally respected for his work in animal diseases, he is also revered in Korea during that country’s occupation by Japan.