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Rowan University’s New Veterinary School To Be Focused On Both Business And Practical Education

The Rowan School of Veterinary Medicine is slated to open in the fall of 2025 in Sewell, New Jersey, on Rowan University's main campus. It will become the 34th veterinary school in the United States.

Rowan will be one of two schools to offer doctorate degrees in medicine, as well as veterinary and osteopathic medicine. In addition to undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees, the school will offer internship and residency programs. The inaugural class will have 60 students.

Founding dean Dr. Matthew Edson told WHYY that the school will be non-traditional because of its focus on producing diverse graduates who are prepared to practice the day they graduate. Education will focus on business acumen and social skills, as well as practical preparation.

The medical complex will be 100,000 square feet, with a teaching hospital, classrooms, and laboratories. In November, the New Jersey State Legislature approved $75 million for construction of the facility, which is currently in the design phase.

Are There Any Disadvantages To Popular PPID Treatment?

Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID or Cushing's disease) is a disease that affects many older horses, but it can often be controlled with the use of a medication called Pergolide.

In other parts of the world, Pergolide is used in human medicine to combat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, restless leg syndrome, and hyperprolactinemia. Side effects can include fibrotic lesions of the atrioventricular valves in the heart.

Dr. Heidrun Gehlen, from the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the Free University of Berlin, gathered a team of scientists to determine whether the same effects would be seen in horses.

The scientists examined 23 horses between 19 and 30 years old, all of which had been diagnosed with PPID using the ACTH adrenocorticotrophin hormone test. The treatment group comprised 12 horses that had been receiving Pergolide for between 14 days and 6 years, while 11 other horses in the control group received no Pergolide.

The researchers performed an echocardiographic exam on all horses, and found that each was free of cardiovascular disease; no valve defects were found.

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Follow-up exams were then given to nine horses in the treatment group and five in the control group between three and eight months later. The findings were the same: use of Pergolide did not affect ventricular function or cause valve disease in horses.

Study: Surgical Intervention For Specific Poll Injuries Is Often Successful

Horses suffering from poll injures involving the cranial nuchal bursa often behave in very specific ways, reports EQUUS magazine. They often stretch down their neck and carry their heads low, and they are often reluctant to flex through their poll and avoid being on the bit.

Bursa are fluid-filled sacs found between bones. The soft tissue is designed to ease friction between the two structures. The cranial nuchal bursa is located between the nuchal ligament and the atlas vertebra.
Inflammation in this bursa, called cranial nuchal bursitis, can cause pain, limited flexion and decreased athletic performance. A study has shown that surgical intervention is often successful in treating this injury.

Dr. José M. García-López, of Tufts University, led a research team in reviewing the records of 35 horses diagnosed with cranial nuchal bursitis over the past 25 years.

The horses were between 5 and 22 years old, with a median age of 13. The majority of the horses were sport horses, primarily competing in dressage, which García-López noted may support the idea that specific ways of going could encourage the development of cranial nuchal bursitis.

Records showed that 14 of the horses were treated with anti-inflammatories, while the rest underwent a minimally invasive surgery to correct the problem. The surgery, called a bursoscopy, allows a surgeon to flush and remove debris from the bursa.

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The researchers found that 78.6 percent of the horses which underwent surgery returned to their previous level of work, while 66.7 percent of horses which received only medication were able to return to work. The horses that responded well to non-medical management generally presented with solely fluid accumulation, with minimal debris in the bursa or synovial thickening.

García-López and his team concluded that horses with bursa inflammation alone could be treated with anti-inflammatory medication; however, if debris is present in the bursa, surgery is recommended. The sooner the surgery is performed, the more likely the horse will return to an athletic career.

Equine Cancer: Difficult To Detect, Expensive To Treat

Diagnosing systemic cancer in horses can be difficult. Clinical signs are often vague and include things like weight loss, fever, disinterest and exercise intolerance – all issues that could be indicative of another issue.

If common causes like disease, parasites, digestive disorders, and other common ailments have been ruled out, Dr. Liya Wang and other researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences suggest that systemic cancers should be considered. The research team also notes that cancer should be suspected if a horse doesn't respond well to traditional therapies, or if he begins to lose organ function.

Bloodwork run on horses that have cancer often comes back as nonspecific, but it may show that the horse is anemic and has elevated globulin concentrations and increased neutrophils. Though additional diagnostic work in search of conclusive results is available, it's often quite invasive and extensive.
The inability to find a reliable cancer biomarker often delays diagnosis, and results in ineffective treatments and poor chances of survival.

Wang and her team crafted a study to see if thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) could be used as a cancer biomarker in horses with lymphoma.

Serum TK1 is used as a cancer biomarker in humans. TK1 is important for DNA replication and cell proliferation. In healthy cells, TK1 degrades rapidly after cell division. In cancer cells, TK1 production is increased and leaks into the blood.

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The researchers measured serum TK1 in seven horses with lymphoma, five horses suspected to have lymphoma, 107 horses with diseases that weren't tumor related, and 42 horses with no sign of disease. Serum TK1 was significantly higher in horses with lymphoma and suspected lymphoma. Serum TK1 was also elevated in the diseased horses without lymphoma.

The team concludes that these findings indicate that serum TK1 could be used as a cancer biomarker in horses.

Read the study here.