Small Animal Medicine
The unit’s research is focussed on three key areas – infectious diseases, renal disease and oncology. A major area of clinical research for our group is feline disease. Our unique feline-only referral facility (The Valentine Charlton Cat Centre), two feline medicine specialists on staff and a feline medicine residency training program make for a high case load and excellent clinical research opportunities.
Current research projects in these areas have received total funding of around $170 000. Productive collaborations have been formed with industry partners and other researchers in our faculty and beyond including the Australasian wildlife genomics group, the veterinary pathology group, The Universities of Bristol and Glasgow and Colorado State University.
Sydney University’s Small Animal Medicine Unit. Left to right Dr Aitor Arteaga, Associate Professor Vanessa Barrs, Dr Katherine Briscoe, Dr Graham Swinney, Dr Ken Cockwill, Associate Professor Julia Beatty. Dr Natascha Evans (not pictured) has recently joined the team.
Current Research Projects
* What causes upper respiratory aspergillosis in cats? Identification of Neosartorya species implicated in an emerging clinical syndrome.
*Use of posaconazole in multimodality therapy to treat feline upper respiratory aspergillosis: results of a prospective study
*Computed tomographic findings in feline upper respiratory aspergillosis
*Evaluation of serum galactomannan assay in diagnosis of invasive feline aspergillosis.
*Prevalence of progressive and regressive FeLV infections in cats at high risk from infection in the Sydney region.
*Histopathological and immunohistochemical evaluation of feline lymphocytic-plasmacytic enteritis and alimentary lymphoma.
*Investigation of a novel phosphate-binder in management of chronic kidney disease in cats.