In this issue:

Welcome Dr. Spinato

Dr. Maria Spinato has been appointed Director, Animal Health Laboratory, and Co-Executive Director, Laboratory Services Division, effective September 1, 2019.

Dr. Spinato graduated with DVM and DVSc degrees from the Ontario Veterinary College, is an Anatomic Pathology diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, and completed an MBA at the University of Regina. She brings 20 years of relevant management / supervisory experience to the role, as well as having deep knowledge of the Animal Health Laboratory. In her current role, Maria has managed a considerable pathology caseload, as well as supervising the postmortem laboratory section. She has special interests in gastrointestinal and small ruminant pathology, and has organized emergency exercises involving foreign animal disease suspects for the AHL. As a member of the Accreditation Committee of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Maria has also gained insight into animal health laboratory operations across North America.

“Dr. Grant Maxie has established the AHL as a top-level, high-quality organization that serves the testing needs of animal health industries, livestock producers, and animal owners. My goals are to support AHL staff and clients as we continue to work together in a rapidly evolving sector that will require innovative testing capabilities and adding value to laboratory data.” AHL

LabVantage LIMS update coming September 7-8, 2019

The AHL is currently using LabVantage 6 as our Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Many of you are familiar with our LIMS from using online e-forms or online submission result look-up.

From 6 PM on Friday September 6^th to finish on Sunday September 8^th we will be upgrading LabVantage 6 to the latest version - LabVantage 8.

There are several reasons for this upgrade:

Modern look and feel with simple, clear start-up screen, enhanced usability and efficiency
Improved navigation with the ability to track actions
Mobile friendly
Browser independent
Responsive menu and configurable tool-bars
Dashboards to view KPI

In order to do the upgrade, our LIMS will be completely off line during this time. AHL will have NO access as well. Those trying to work in LIMS or access cases, including AHL personnel, will be unable to do so.

AHL will be able to receive normal Saturday cases and provide testing in Clinical Pathology and Bacteriology as usual. As AHL will have NO access to client information – please make sure that you put full clinic contact information on the submission form if submitting during that period.

AHL will manually be emailing/faxing results produced by the laboratory equipment.

For e-form users – LIMS will be completely unavailable. If submitting, you will need to use paper forms and add email or fax information.

For our Client Portal users. Clients will be able to enter the submissions, but will have to save it and send it when the LIMS is back on-line. Client Portal persons can view results for anything resulted by 5:00 pm on Friday.

Once LIMS is back on-line on Monday, all of the data from the weekend cases will be entered into the new LIMS and resulted.

Thanks for your patience and continued support as we work through this upgrade. AHL

OAHN update – September 2019

Michael Deane, Kate Todd

Animal Health Laboratory, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON.

AHL Newsletter 2019;23(3):3.

It’s been a busy summer for the Ontario Animal Health Network, with the conclusion of multiple research projects, publishing many veterinary, producer, and owner reports, creating a small flock poultry video series, and continuing with publishing disease alerts, infographics, and information sheets. Read on to find out what we’ve been up to.

New infographics and info sheet

The OAHN Companion Animal network has created a new infographic on Bacterial Cystitis in Cats vs Dogs and an information sheet covering an overview, transmission, clinical signs, diagnosis, precautions, and additional resources on Brucella canis. Please find it here: https://oahn.ca/resources/brucella-canis-factsheet/.

Additionally, the network put together a Rabies Resource page for Veterinarians, containing links to resources, how-to videos for rabies testing sample collection, infographics, flow charts, and more. If you are a veterinarian, sign up to OAHN.ca, log in, and view it here: https://oahn.ca/resources/rabies-resource-page-for-veterinarians/.

The OAHN Equine Network also created a new infographic, which is focused on how veterinarians can reduce antimicrobial use in their equine practice. View the infographic here: https://oahn.ca/resources/infographic-how-you-can-help-reduce-antibiotic-use/.

OAHN small flock poultry veterinary video series

OAHN has been working with Dr. Victoria Bowes, a diagnostic avian pathologist with a special interest in small flock medicine, to produce a series of videos to assist veterinarians treating small flock poultry. We have completed our respiratory disease video series; neurologic disease and enteric disease series are coming soon! Veterinarians can access these videos by first logging into the OAHN site (https://oahn.ca/log-in/)and following these links:

Completed research projects

Each OAHN network has embarked on one or more research initiatives related to disease surveillance for their specific species. Recently, the poultry network published summary results of two projects, and the bee network published results from their research project as well. Find details below:

OAHN Bee Research Project: Surveillance on resistant Varroa destructor mite population to 3 synthetic acaricides in Ontario—https://oahn.ca/resources/surveillance-on-resistant-varroa-destructor-mite-population-to-three-synthetic-acaricides-in-ontario/.
OAHN Poultry Research Project: Antimicrobial resistance in fecal E. coli and Salmonella isolates of small poultry flocks in Ontario, Canada—https://oahn.ca/resources/antimicrobial-resistance-in-fecal-e-coli-and-salmonella-isolates-of-small-poultry-flocks-in-ontario-canada/.
OAHN Poultry Research Project: Small flock poultry medicine workshop for Ontario veterinarians—https://oahn.ca/resources/small-flock-poultry-medicine-workshop-for-ontario-veterinarians/.

We have lots of new reports, lab data, and resources. Be sure to check out OAHN.ca. AHL