OAHN Update - December 2021

Mike Deane, Tanya Rossi

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

OAHN is pleased to announce that Dr. Tanya Rossi has joined OAHN as the Animal Health Network and Data Manager. Tanya graduated from OVC with a DVM in 2009, and practiced mixed large animal practice for two years before returning to the University of Guelph to earn a PhD in Epidemiology. Her research has focused on chronic and infectious diseases in large animals (particularly equines), and she has worked on vaccine safety and COVID-19 surveillance at PHAC. She also has a strong interest in diagnostic test validation, and surveillance systems. She is excited to work with the OAHN expert networks and hopes to contribute her own expertise to this important initiative.

New Resources, Reports, and Podcasts

Throughout the summer and fall, OAHN has been very busy creating new animal health resources, and finishing up many research projects. In addition, we held our quarterly species-specific meetings and created the resultant veterinary and owner/producer reports which reflect what is being seen in veterinary practice, labs, and abattoirs throughout Ontario. To view the reports, go to OAHN.ca [1] and navigate to the species you are interested in.

New resources include:

a Bovine Anaplasmosis [2] fact sheet
a Lyme Disease in Horses [3] infographic
poultry fact sheets on Fowl Adenovirus, Inclusion Body Hepatitis [4], and Avian Reovirus [5]
the Companion Animal Expert Network Public Health Update 2021 [6]
two new bovine podcasts: Bovine Anaplasmosis with Dr. Kathryn Reif [7] and Disease testing in newly introduced cattle project summary and quarterly lab data [8]

Completed projects include:

Mid-season treatments for Varroa mites, residue testing in Honey [9] (Bee Network)
Investigation of ovine herpesvirus-2 as the cause of an idiopathic fatal vasculitis syndrome in Ontario sheep [10] (Small Ruminants Network)
Prevalence of seroconversion to SARS-CoV-2 among dogs, cats and ferrets in close contact with humans with confirmed or probable COVID-19 [11] (Companion Animal Network)
Investigation of an elevated number of condemnations for septicemia in veal [12] (Bovine Network - login needed to view)

We are looking forward to a busy and productive winter which will hopefully see many new publications from our ongoing research projects, and more resources to help veterinarians, pet owners, and industry members. AHL