Australian Veterinary Association December 2010

Transcription

1 ADVANCING VETERINARY SCIENCE Australian Veterinary Association December 2010 INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

2 AVA QLD DIVISION EXECUTIVE, STANDING & SUB-COMMITTEES & OTHER HONORARY POSITIONS 2010 President President Elect Honorary Treasurer Honorary Secretary Committee Members Invited Executive Members Honorary Newsletter Editor Veterinary Education Animal Welfare Rep. on Body Corporate AVA House Historian Policy Councillor Jodie Wilson Tony Thelander Bob Rees Michael O Donoghue Bruce Pott, Andrew Easton, Patricia Clarke, Robert Hedlefs and Nigel Thomas Malcolm McLennan, Jon Hill and Robert Cassidy David Paxton Michael O Donoghue (Convenor), Sue Fowkes, Sue Lapham, Patricia Clarke and Sandra De Cat Andrew Tribe, Ray Barbero, David Lovell, Laurie Dowling and Robert Cassidy John Odlum Malcolm McLennan Robert Hedlefs Fast forward

3 AVA Qld Division President s Word Wow! You would not believe how busy your AVA has been in Queensland in the last few months. Before I became involved in the AVA as a volunteer, I really had no clue about how much work is done every day by both AVA volunteers and the AVA employees who support us so well. As a full time practitioner, I find it really challenging, but I m really enjoying the diversity of the challenges, and the incredible range of issues dealt with by veterinarians in Queensland. Everything from fish and waterways health to sending a microchip to Tonga! One of my biggest challenges is speaking to the media, and it s something I ve had to do a lot recently! One example you may have noticed recently in the media, with coverage all around Queensland, was a story on the upcoming Snakebite season experts are predicting it will be a big one! I interviewed with journalists from ABC Brisbane; ABC Sunshine Coast; 4BC; ABC Darling Downs; Sea FM; Southern Cross Media; Breeze FM; 96.5 FM; the Courier Mail; 4RO Rockhampton; the Weather Channel on Foxtel; Central Queensland News and the Tablelands Newspaper. And that was from a single press release! We ve also talked to journalists about Cane Toads, Parvovirus; Pets and the elderly, and many more issues and even had some TV appearances. As well as that, we ve filmed footage for an upcoming Workplace Health and Safety film. And yes, I still do see my patients! We also recently finalised our Horse Health Chart competition congratulations to Demelza Kingston (a fourth year student from UQ) who was the winner. Demelza s entry was selected from a field of strong candidates, and we congratulate everyone who took the time to enter. Speaking of vet students, we d all like to wish you the best in your end-of-year examinations. Remember to dodge the Jacaranda flowers and if you do have any problems, remember that supplementary exams won t kill you or I d have been dead many times over! Best wishes for a safe and happy festive season to AVA staff, as well as our members, and their families, with sincere wishes for a prosperous 2011.

4 Letter from Dr Peter Reid I refer to your report on Hendra virus and pigs (Queensland News August 2010) in which questions are raised as to the scientific methodology, and assertions are made as to the practical relevance of the peer reviewed scientific finding that pigs are capable of being infected by Hendra Virus. (Ref: Mingyi L, Embury-Hyatt C, Weingartl H M. Experimental inoculation study indicates swine as a potential host for Hendra Virus. Vet. Res. (2010) 41:33) It is important to recognise that this paper was published because there has been an unexplained vacuum of published knowledge despite years of suspicion on this matter. This is a team of very highly regarded international scientists in the field of Henipavirus study from the Special Pathogens Unit, National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases, Government of Canada. The Unit receives funding from the United States Department of Homeland Security and has published work on the development of a recombinant sub-unit canarypox vectored vaccine for prevention of Nipah Virus (NiV) in pigs and is continuing work in this area because the threat of Henipaviruses is taken seriously. Nipah and Hendra are very closely related, and it was important that the question of whether pigs could be infected with Hendra was explored and the finding openly published. It is a matter of conjecture why this work had not been performed and published previously since the outbreak of Nipah disease in pigs and humans in 1998/1999 in Singapore and Malaysia. Despite questions raised in the Queensland News article over methodology and the challenge doses used in various experimental animal models, some of which are incorrect, the Head of the Special Pathogens Unit has confirmed that the Unit s opinion, pigs are a species susceptible to HeV infection. Guinea pigs have been previously used as experimental animal models for NiV and HeV challenge studies and were included to provide measurement of virulence control of the viral inoculum, and, if they survived, to obtain valuable antisera. Gottingen minipigs are a well known experimental animal model used in laboratory studies. They were anaesthetised prior to HeV live virus challenge and consequently their mouths were difficult to open for oral inoculation. NiV in pigs is highly contagious because it can be spread by coughing and it is therefore vital that further experimental work is funded to include titration of HeV viral challenge doses and to determine HeV transmissibility between pigs. Whether there will be a commitment to fund and publish this work in Australia or whether we will have to rely on it being performed in overseas BSL4 laboratories e.g. in Canada or at CDC, Atlanta, is the question? There is the important practical aspect to this research and it was very relevant that the risks posed particularly from feral pigs and domestic pigs exposed to environmental interaction with fruit bats, the natural hosts, be brought into focus. Based on the fact that the last published serosurvey for NiV in northern Australia was around 10 years ago and was very limited, it is prudent that a more comprehensive and targeted serosurvey of feral pigs should be undertaken to establish the risk from HeV and from potential NiV incursion from pteropid bats. In the meantime the message that active steps should be taken to promote infection control practices has to be reand also for people conducting informal free range pig inforced, particularly for people dealing with feral pigs, rearing enterprises in areas inhabited by fruit bats, before natural cases occur.

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6 Controversy and Confusion: Revaccination of adult dogs and cats an update. Professor Richard A. Squires, School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, James Cook University Introduction Over the past years companion animal vaccines have helped substantially to reduce the incidence of potentially fatal infectious diseases of dogs and cats (Appel 1999). Before the introduction of routine vaccination in the early 1960s, canine distemper was regularly encountered by veterinarians. Nowadays, it is extremely unusual to see a case in most developed, temperate countries. Similarly, when canine parvoviral enteritis first appeared in the late 1970s it caused severe disease and death in both puppies and adult dogs (Pollock and Carmichael 1979). Nowadays, parvoviral enteritis is seen much less frequently, and then almost invariably in young dogs that have been incompletely vaccinated. Infectious canine hepatitis and feline panleucopenia two more diseases against which we routinely vaccinate have also become very uncommon in many parts of the world. In large part, vaccination should be given the credit for reducing the incidence of these life-threatening companion animal diseases. Why then, in recent years, have our companion animal vaccination protocols come in for so much scrutiny? Why have some leading veterinary associations and hospitals around the world decided to advocate and practice less frequent revaccination of adult dogs and cats (against some diseases) than some vaccine manufacturers still recommend? The answer to this question comes in two main parts: the first concerning the safety of companion animal vaccines and the second the duration of immunity induced by modern companion animal vaccines. In this article, I shall aim to review arguments for and against regular, frequent revaccination of adult dogs and cats. At the end of the article, I shall offer some recommendations. Safety Overall, modern companion animal vaccines seem to be remarkably safe. True, there have been occasional reports of adverse events (Sharp et al 1999; Harrus et al 2002; Evermann 2008), and even one unfortunate instance of bluetongue virus contamination of a vaccine batch that led to some canine fatalities (Akita et al 1994; Levings et al 1996), but these problems are few and far between. Some veterinarians passionately believe that a host of serious immune-mediated diseases (including hypothyroidism) can be blamed upon excessive use of vaccines, particularly live vaccines, but there is little or no objective evidence to support their arguments. There is, however, one well-documented and often fatal adverse effect of feline vaccination, seen in a small minority of vaccinated cats, that has caused a huge furore. In the early 1990s, veterinary pathologists at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA began to notice an alarming increase in the number of feline soft tissue sarcomas presented to their biopsy service (Hendrick and Goldschmidt 1991). Many of these extra tumours were occurring in anatomical locations used for injection of vaccines and other substances. A few years earlier (in 1985/6), the first FeLV vaccine had been launched in America. In 1987, it had become a legal requirement that all cats in the State of Pennsylvania be vaccinated regularly against rabies. The University of Pennsylvania pathologists noticed aluminium particles in and near the tumours. Knowing that aluminium was used in many vaccine adjuvants, the pathologists hypothesised that the dramatic increase in the number of feline tumours they were seeing at these injection sites might somehow be related to recently altered vaccination practices (Hendrick et al 1992; Hendrick 1998). Subsequently, large epidemiological surveys carried out in USA have confirmed an association between vaccination against both FeLV and rabies and development of injection-site sarcomas in cats (Kass et al 1993; Kass et al 2003; Kass 2004). A smaller study implicated killed, adjuvanted vaccines against panleucopenia and the feline respiratory viruses, herpesvirus and calicivirus (Lester et al 1996). There is scant evidence to suggest that modified live vaccines can induce sarcoma formation. In American studies, roughly 1-3 per 10,000 vaccinated cats were estimated to develop a tumour (Kirpensteijn 2006). Orange tabby cats may be more commonly affected than others, suggesting a genetic predisposition in some cats. It is thought that inflammation, most likely caused by vaccine adjuvant, precedes and predisposes to neoplastic transformation of fibroblasts at the injection site (Jelinek 2003). The more vaccines administered simultaneously, the higher the risk of cancer formation. It is not known for certain that annually repeated injections of adjuvant in the same anatomical location increase the risk of tumour formation at that site, but there are strong reasons to believe that this is the case. Understandably, the emerging association between vaccination of cats and occasional development of malignant neoplasia at injection sites caused widespread concern amongst practising veterinarians and American pet owners, even though only a small minority of cats were affected. It posed for the American veterinary profession a public relations challenge of colossal proportions. Many people, both veterinarians and pet owners, began to ask whether adult cats and dogs were perhaps being overvaccinated. Eminent veterinary immunologists who had argued for decades that annual revaccination was entirely without a sound scientific basis suddenly found an eager, attentive audience. So did veterinarians with passionate antivaccine sentiments, but little or no data. Eventually, a few excellent peer-reviewed publications appeared, strengthening the view that vaccines (both canine and feline) might not be quite as safe as had been hoped. For example, a relationship between vaccination and development of often-fatal canine immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia was identified (Duval and Giger 1996). This relationship was proved to be temporal, but not causal. Although unproven, a causal relationship is biologically plausible because in other species (e.g., humans) certain vaccines have been convincingly shown to cause serious immune-mediated diseases in some recipients (Shoenfeld and Aron-Maor 2000). Many veterinarians are convinced that other, slightly less serious canine immune-mediated

7 diseases (such as immune-mediated thrombocytopenia and polyarthritis) are sometimes linked, at least temporally, to vaccination. However, the evidence is less clear cut, and once again a causal relationship can only be inferred. Although our vaccination protocols first came under scrutiny because of safety concerns, I believe that safety is no longer the central concern, the debate has moved on. At issue now, is whether or not veterinarians can justify their revaccination recommendations to inquisitive, wellinformed client owners of adult dogs and cats who would rather not repeatedly vaccinate their animals, if it is not entirely necessary. History of revaccination practices and state ments from professional societies Current recommendations concerning annual revaccination of dogs and cats date back to the late 1950s and early 1960s and are not soundly scientifically based. In one of the earliest studies, approximately 1/3 of puppies vaccinated with a modified-live distemper vaccine did not have a protective antibody titre when they were checked one year after initial vaccination. On this basis, it was recommended that dogs should be revaccinated annually as a safety measure. Forty years on, many immunologists argue that antibody titres are an indirect and often rather conservative measure of anti-viral immunity, since they tell us next to nothing about cellular immunity and memory B-cells. Protective distemper titre cut-off values tell us what amount of passively transferred maternal antibodies would be sufficient on its own to protect an unvaccinated puppy. The puppies used to develop the original revaccination guidelines were not challenged with virulent distemper virus, so it is not clear how well (or poorly) protected they would have been against distemper, one year after vaccination. In 1961 another researcher was concerned that widespread vaccination of dogs against distemper might substantially reduce natural exposure and therefore natural boosting of immunity. He suggested that practitioners might choose to revaccinate adult animals whose immune status was in doubt. He did not make a blanket recommendation for annual booster injections, but felt that practitioners would be best placed to exercise discretion in deciding on the frequency (if any) of revaccination. Nevertheless, routine annual revaccination of adult animals became the accepted norm in some countries during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978 the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) issued a set of guidelines on revaccination frequency based primarily on contemporary practices. An updated AVMA report in 1989 made no substantial alterations to the earlier recommendations. Annual revaccination was recommended for all vaccine components, with one exception. Because of its public health significance, rabies was treated differently. It was required that duration of immunity (DOI) be demonstrated for rabies virus vaccines. DOI studies showed that several rabies vaccines could provide solid immunity that lasted for at least 3 years so these vaccines were given triennially in some states. It is perhaps a testament to the overall safety and efficacy of companion animal vaccines that these recommendations remained unaltered for so long. Undoubtedly the incidence of canine distemper, infectious canine hepatitis and feline panleucopenia have declined dramatically since the 1950s and, more recently, vaccination has played an important role in protecting dogs from parvoviral enteritis. In July 1997 the first International Veterinary Vaccines and Diagnostics Conference was held in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. About 500 veterinarians and other scientists attended. Afterwards, several American veterinary schools promptly switched to a triennial schedule of revaccination for both dogs and cats against core viruses (infectious canine hepatitis, distemper and parvovirus for dogs; panleucopenia, herpesvirus and calicivirus for cats). About three years later, Massey University in New Zealand followed suit and the New Zealand Veterinary Association published guidelines for its members in line with the new Massey University position. In 1998, 2000 and again in 2006 the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) issued guidelines suggesting that adult cats should be vaccinated triennially, rather than annually, against feline panleucopenia, feline herpesvirus and feline calicivirus (Richards et al 2006). They did so knowing their advice ran contrary to most vaccine manufacturers label recommendations. These guidelines were based on a careful examination of limited available data on duration of immunity induced by modern feline vaccines. In November 2002, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) published a report from its Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents concerning cat and dog vaccines (Klingborg et al 2002). In this report it was stated: There is increasing evidence that some vaccines provide immunity beyond 1 year. Unnecessary stimulation of the immune system does not result in enhanced disease resistance and may expose animals to unnecessary risks. The report also mentioned under individual disease monographs that revaccination intervals for adult dogs and cats can be extended beyond one year for vaccines against canine distemper, canine parvovirus, canine infectious hepatitis and feline panleucopenia. There is an updated set of vaccination principles (an AVMA policy) on the AVMA website ( policy/vaccination_principles.asp). In 2003, and again in 2006, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) published reports encapsulating canine vaccine guidelines. These reports confronted the matter of revaccination intervals head-on and stated that revaccination every 3 years against canine distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus with modified live vaccines is considered protective, despite some manufacturers recommendations for annual revaccination (Paul et al 2006). In April 1998 the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) published an article entitled Vaccine protocol change deemed premature. In this article they stated their intention to abide by manufacturers revaccination recommendations for the moment. This article spawned a critical commentary, describing the CVMA position statement as ill considered. Subsequently CVMA announced its desire to harmonise its future revaccination recommendations with those of the AVMA. Most recently, in 2008, the CVMA adopted a new position statement very much in line with the AAHA and AAFP guidelines (Vallee 2008). In 2007 (in Sydney), and again in 2010, the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) launched and published guidelines very much in line with those of the

8 AAHA and AAFP, but with greater consideration for the needs and concerns of veterinarians practicing in less developed countries (Day et al 2007, 2010). Finally, in June 2009, the Board of the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) ratified a new policy on canine and feline vaccination that is very much in line with the WSAVA guidelines. Overall, my interpretation of these recommendations and position statements is that there is a clear and strengthening trend for large professional veterinary organisations to recommend or support less frequent revaccination of adult dogs and cats against some important diseases. Vaccine manufacturers have been taking careful note of these recommendations and many have already altered their label recommendations as a consequence. Why do some veterinarians frequently re vaccinate adult dogs and cats against everything? At first glance, the answer to this question seems perfectly obvious: we do it because we believe it is the best way to provide and maintain strong protection against important infectious diseases to the animals under our care. Perhaps so, but what about the almost universal recommendation for annual revaccination against all sorts of infections? Given that immune responses to naturallyoccurring infections vary a lot, it seems highly improbable that protection provided by chalk-and-cheese vaccines should, in so many cases, conveniently last for just over a year. In fact it s not just highly improbable, it s simply not the case. Regardless of their labelling, we know that many companion animal vaccines protect for far longer than a year while others, directed against more difficult diseases, struggle to protect for a full year. A discrepancy between label revaccination recommendations and actual duration of induced immunity is possible because manufacturers have not been required to supply ultimate duration of immunity data in order to get their products licensed. A vaccine that protects for longer than what is claimed on its label has, in the past, been viewed as a good thing. Indeed it is a good thing, but even better would be vaccines that have been proved to protect for considerably longer than a year and are accurately labelled with the actual duration of immunity they can be expected to provide in a large majority of recipients. So the real reasons why some veterinarians revaccinate companion animals frequently (usually annually) against everything are that: 1. It is still a label recommendation of many of the suppliers of vaccines. To deviate from their recommendations would constitute off label use of vaccine and might lay the veterinary practice open to criticism (or litigation) if a vaccine used off label failed to protect an individual animal. The practice s professional indemnity insurance might even be jeopardised by such off label use of vaccine. 2. It has become an accepted norm for conscientious owners. Many owners enjoy visiting their veterinarian for an annual revaccination and feel they are behaving as good pet-owning citizens by doing so. 3. It provides a convenient opportunity for the veterinarian to check carefully for any developing health problems that may be entirely unrelated to vaccination; for exam- ple, periodontal and heart diseases. It also provides a ready opportunity for the client to ask any questions they may have about the general health status of their animal, and to purchase various health related products, for example, wormers and flea treatments; and 4. Kennel and cattery proprietors are, as yet, relatively uninformed about the duration of immunity induced by modern vaccines. Consequently, these proprietors have formulated their own rules and regulations, in some cases without much input from veterinary professionals. Since many clients need to board their animals each year, they must get their animals vaccinated to abide by the rules of their preferred cattery or kennel. To my mind, the second and third points above would be excellent reasons for continuing indefinitely the practice of regular revaccination of adult dogs and cats, regardless of DOI considerations, if a). the vaccines were completely safe, and b). they were provided at no cost to the client. Since the vaccines we administer are neither completely safe nor provided for free, I think we need to be convinced that each vaccine we administer can be expected to do something directly beneficial for the recipient and, by extension, for the client who is paying for it. Unfortunately, there is strong and mounting evidence that most vaccines administered to adult dogs and cats serve no beneficial immunological purpose whatsoever. It is this evidence that has led the AVMA, AAHA, CVMA, AAFP, NZVA and AVA to issue significantly revised guidelines in the recent past. Core and non core vaccines Core vaccines are defined as those that should be administered to every puppy or kitten, and should be used in adults in a manner that maintains robust protection for life (Levy et al 2008; Day et al 2010). Generally, to be designated as core, a vaccine must provide strong protection against a life threatening disease that is thought to pose a substantial risk to the population being vaccinated. A list of core vaccines identified by AVMA, AAHA, AAFP, CVMA and NZVA that is relevant to Australia comprises canine distemper, canine infectious hepatitis and canine parvovirus type 2 for dogs; and feline panleucopenia, feline herpesvirus 1 and feline calicivirus for cats. In some parts of Australia, it would be appropriate to add to this list of core vaccines. For example, in some wet regions, Leptospira vaccines for dogs can be considered core. Non-core vaccines are those that need not be administered to every animal because of one or more of the following: the diseases against which they protect are relatively mild; the animal has very little chance of exposure to the relevant infectious agent(s); the vaccine can cause serious adverse effects, making the risk-benefit ratio unattractive; and/or there is insufficient scientific information to allow an informed decision about the need, efficacy or safety of the vaccine. Examples of non-core vaccines are those against feline chlamydophilosis, feline dermatophytes, canine and feline bordetellosis, canine and feline giardiasis, canine and feline coronaviruses and canine Lyme borreliosis. Many of these vaccines are not currently available in Australia. In addition, the commercially-available vaccine against feline

9 immunodeficiency virus has been designated noncore in most of the published reports and guidelines. This designation is based upon uncertainties about efficacy and concerns about the challenge of distinguishing cats vaccinated with this vaccine from those naturally infected by FIV (Hosie and Beatty 2007). The vaccine is not being sold in Europe and is not selling particularly well in North America. In experiments conducted by the vaccine s inventor, it protected American cats against two strains of FIV. The vaccine failed to protect Scottish cats against a highly pathogenic Scottish strain of FIV (Dunham et al 2006). Further intensive study of this vaccine, including field trials, is warranted. Long lasting and short lasting vaccines Modified live versions of some of the core vaccines mentioned above (canine distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus for dogs; panleucopenia for cats) are almost universally accepted to provide very long lasting protection, for well over 3 years, and possibly for life. This assumes that vaccine has been properly transported, stored and administered to a healthy animal and that, in puppies and kittens, interfering maternal antibodies have waned sufficiently so that the animal can be successfully immunized by the vaccine. Vaccines against the feline respiratory viruses (herpesvirus and calicivirus) provide relatively poor protection, but one expertly-conducted study has shown that substantial levels of protection can persist for at least 7.5 years (Scott and Geissinger 1997, 1999). It is not necessarily the case that a poor vaccine can be improved by administering it more frequently. For example, a major problem with feline calicivirus vaccines is that the strain in the vaccine (usually it is just one) may not cross-protect against the prevalent strains in a particular recipient s home neighbourhood (Pedersen et al 2000). More frequent vaccination against the wrong strain will provide little or no benefit. It is generally held that available vaccines against leptospirosis, bordetellosis and feline chlamydophilosis induce relatively short-lived immunity, in some cases for less than a full year. The duration of immunity provided by canine parainfluenza virus vaccines has proved more difficult to determine precisely but may be shorter than 3 years. If protection against these infections is considered necessary for a particular patient, then revaccination every 6-12 months, or shortly before periods of high risk, is recommended. Many Australian dogs and cats receive only long-lasting core vaccines. If, in the future, all manufacturers label recommendations change to recommend much longer revaccination intervals, there is the potential that some animals will not be examined at practices every year because their owners will not be triggered to bring them in by the need for revaccination. Annual visits to the veterinarian are easy to remember. Biennial, triennial or even less frequent revaccination recommendations may be confusing and difficult for clients to remember. Clients may be more easily lost to follow-up by practices. Understandably, some veterinarians find these prospects very worrying and are concerned that there will be a consequent overall decline in the quality of health enjoyed by pets and working dogs. To combat these potential adverse effects, practices should vigorously market the professional skills of their veterinary staff and if they are persuaded it provides a tangible health benefit to their patients promote to their clients the advantages of frequent (for example, annual) health checks of each animal. Underplaying the importance of vaccination and emphasising the potential benefits of a thorough, expert clinical examination and professional consultation would seem sensible, even if changes to revaccination practices are not contemplated by practice staff in the immediate future. Recommendations offered to veterinary practices 1. Develop a practice policy dealing with all relevant aspects of companion animal vaccination. For example, decide what you think are your core and non-core vaccines. If the policy is sufficiently complicated, write it down clearly and keep it with your other written operating procedures. Make sure everyone in the practice knows and buys into the policy. Clients should then receive consistent advice from any practice staff member they may consult. 2. Make sure front line staff members understand and are ready to explain why the practice has adopted its particular policy. All should be ready to answer questions from clients about alternative approaches, which other local practices may have adopted. Know some of the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative approaches. 3. If you decide to use vaccines off-label (e.g., more or less often than the manufacturer recommends) make sure you obtain informed consent from clients before doing so. 4. Follow closely guidelines on the storage and use of companion animal vaccines. Check all batches of vaccines as they arrive with the courier. Return to sender any vaccines (especially modified live ones) that do not arrive at the required temperature (usually 2-8 C). Do not be embarrassed about this, it is essential that vaccines be handled properly to maintain their efficacy. Ensure you keep vaccines in a serviceable refrigerator that maintains your vaccines within the required temperature range. Only reconstitute vaccines immediately prior to use. 5. Vets in the practice should no longer inject vaccines into the interscapular furrow of cats. It is one of the worst possible places in which to detect and from which to resect a sarcoma. Commonly-used modified live vaccines against feline herpesvirus, calicivirus and panleucopenia are better administered subcutaneously over one or other of the scapulae; i.e., a few centimetres lateral to the dorsal mid-line. It is easier to see and deal with any postvaccinal lump that may arise in this location. This advice is offered even though the risk of a non-adjuvanted modified live vaccine causing a sarcoma is considered to be much lower than with use of adjuvanted vaccines. 6. Adjuvanted feline vaccines (killed or subunit) have the potential to cause injection site reactions and, in rare cases, sarcomas. The risk of sarcoma formation is fairly low (~1-3 per 10,000 vaccinates in countries where it has been studied). This is considered high enough to justify special precautions when using adjuvanted vaccines. Adjuvanted vaccines should be injected subcutaneously, as distally as possible, in one of the hind legs. In practice, this usually means just proxi-

10 mal to the stifle. If both FeLV and adjuvanted FHCP and or FIV vaccines are used in the practice, the FeLV vaccine should be injected into the left hind leg and the adjuvanted FHCP or FIV vaccine into the right hind leg. If FeLV and modified live FHCP vaccines are used, the FeLV vaccination site should be alternated between the left and right hind legs from year to year, to avoid repeatedly depositing adjuvant in the same anatomical location. 7. Owners should be instructed to watch and feel for development of lumps >1cm diameter at injection sites. Lumps form rather commonly after vaccination, the vast majority are of little or no concern, decreasing in size with the passage of time. However, a postvaccinal lump >1cm diameter that persists for more than 3 months is of serious concern and should be biopsied. Incisional or needle (i.e., Trucut ) biopsy, rather than an attempt at complete excision is recommended. These tumours can be very difficult to excise completely and if the first surgery is unsuccessful, the overall prognosis for the cat is worsened. Recommendations offered to kennels / cat teries 1. In collaboration with your chosen veterinary advisor (s), develop a well-reasoned, science-based policy concerning your revaccination requirements. Take your time and do it properly. For example, make time to discuss your draft policy document with local veterinary practitioners. Once it has been formulated, make sure that all kennel / cattery employees understand and apply the policy consistently. 2. When examining a vaccination certificate, check that the animal has been vaccinated against the necessary diseases. Then check to see how far into the future the veterinarian says the animal should be protected against these diseases. In a world of changing revaccination recommendations, this is the most important information on the vaccination certificate. Nowadays, vaccine manufacturers do not all make the same duration of immunity claims. This situation is likely to become even more complicated in future. Trust what the veterinarian writes on the certificate about protection into the future. 3. Avoid setting your own hard-and-fast rules about when the animal must have received its last injection (s). Your rules might contradict vaccine manufacturers' instructions or local veterinary practice sciencebased policies. Such rules might also require your clients' animals to receive unnecessary extra vaccinations, which are not entirely without risk. References Akita GY, Ianconescu M, MacLachlan NJ, Osburn BI. Bluetongue disease in dogs associated with contaminated vaccine. Veterinary Record 134, 283-4, 1994 Appel MJ. Forty years of canine vaccination. Advances in Veterinary Medicine 41, , 1999 Day MJ, Horzinek MC, Schultz RD. Guidelines for the vaccination of dogs and cats. Compiled by the Vaccination Guidelines Group (VGG) of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA). Journal of Small Animal Practice 48, , 2007 Day MJ, Horzinek MC, Schultz RD. WSAVA Guidelines for the Vaccination of Dogs and Cats. Journal of Small Animal Practice 51, , 2010 Dunham SP, Bruce J, MacKay S, Golder M, Jarrett O, Neil JC. Limited efficacy of an inactivated feline immunodeficiency virus vaccine. Veterinary Record 158, 561-2, 2006 Duval D, Giger U. Vaccine-associated immune-mediated hemolytic anemia in the dog. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 10, 290-5, 1996 Evermann JF. Accidental introduction of viruses into companion animals by commercial vaccines. Veterinary Clinics of North America. Small Animal Practice 38, , x, 2008 Harrus S, Waner T, Aizenberg I, Safra N, Mosenco A, Radoshitsky M, Bark H. Development of hypertrophic osteodystrophy and antibody response in a litter of vaccinated Weimaraner puppies. Journal of Small Animal Practice 43, 27-31, 2002 Hendrick MJ, Goldschmidt MH. Do injection site reactions induce fibrosarcomas in cats? Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 199, 968, 1991 Hendrick MJ, Goldschmidt MH, Shofer FS, Wang YY, Somlyo AP. Postvaccinal sarcomas in the cat: epidemiology and electron probe microanalytical identification of aluminum. Cancer Research 52, , 1992 Hendrick MJ. Historical review and current knowledge of risk factors involved in feline vaccine-associated sarcomas. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 213, , 1998 Hosie MJ, Beatty JA. Vaccine protection against feline immunodeficiency virus: setting the challenge. Australian Veterinary Journal 85, 5-12; quiz 85, 2007 Jelinek F. Postinflammatory sarcoma in cats. Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology 55, , 2003 Kass PH, Barnes WG, Jr., Spangler WL, Chomel BB, Culbertson MR. Epidemiologic evidence for a causal relation between vaccination and fibrosarcoma tumorigenesis in cats. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 203, , 1993 Kass PH, Spangler WL, Hendrick MJ, McGill LD, Esplin DG, Lester S, Slater M, Meyer EK, Boucher F, Peters EM, Gobar GG, Htoo T, Decile K. Multicenter casecontrol study of risk factors associated with development of vaccine-associated sarcomas in cats. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 223, , 2003 Kass PH. Methodological issues in the design and analysis of epidemiological studies of feline vaccineassociated sarcomas. Animal Health Research Reviews 5, 291-3, 2004 Kirpensteijn J. Feline injection site-associated sarcoma: Is it a reason to critically evaluate our vaccination policies? Veterinary Microbiology 117, 59-65, 2006 Klingborg DJ, Hustead DR, Curry-Galvin EA, Gumley NR, Henry SC, Bain FT, Paul MA, Boothe DM, Blood KS, Huxsoll DL, Reynolds DL, Riddell MG, Jr., Reid JS, Short CR. AVMA Council on Biologic and Therapeutic Agents' report on cat and dog vaccines. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 221, , 2002 Lester S, Clemett T, Burt A. Vaccine site-associated sarcomas in cats: clinical experience and a laboratory review ( ). Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association 32, 91-5, 1996 Levings RL, Wilbur LA, Evermann JF, Stoll IR, Starling DE, Spillers CA, Gustafson GA, McKeiman AJ,

11 Rhyan JC, Halverson DH, Rosenbusch RF. Abortion and death in pregnant bitches associated with a canine vaccine contaminated with bluetongue virus. Developments in Biological Standardization 88, , 1996 Levy J, Crawford C, Hartmann K, Hofmann-Lehmann R, Little S, Sundahl E, Thayer V American Association of Feline Practitioners' feline retrovirus management guidelines. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 10, , 2008 Paul MA, Carmichael LE, Childers H, Cotter S, Davidson A, Ford R, Hurley KF, Roth JA, Schultz RD, Thacker E, Welborn L AAHA canine vaccine guidelines. Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association 42, 80-9, 2006 Pedersen NC, Elliott JB, Glasgow A, Poland A, Keel K. An isolated epizootic of hemorrhagic-like fever in cats caused by a novel and highly virulent strain of feline calicivirus. Veterinary Microbiology 73, , 2000 Pollock RV, Carmichael L. Canine viral enteritis. Recent developments. Modern Veterinary Practice 60, , 1979 Richards JR, Elston TH, Ford RB, Gaskell RM, Hartmann K, Hurley KF, Lappin MR, Levy JK, Rodan I, Scherk M, Schultz RD, Sparkes AH. The 2006 American Association of Feline Practitioners Feline Vaccine Advisory Panel report. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 229, , 2006 Scott FW, Geissinger CM. Duration of immunity in cats vaccinated with an inactivated feline panleukopenia, herpesvirus and calicivirus vaccine. Feline Practice 25, 12-9, 1997 Scott FW, Geissinger CM. Long-term immunity in cats vaccinated with an inactivated trivalent vaccine. American Journal of Veterinary Research 60, 652-8, 1999 Sharp NJ, Davis BJ, Guy JS, Cullen JM, Steingold SF, Kornegay JN. Hydranencephaly and cerebellar hypoplasia in two kittens attributed to intrauterine parvovirus infection. Journal of Comparative Pathology 121, 39-53, 1999 Shoenfeld Y, Aron-Maor A. Vaccination and autoimmunity-'vaccinosis': a dangerous liaison? Journal of Autoimmunity 14, 1-10, 2000 Vallee B. Canadian Veterinary Medical Association adopts a new position statement on vaccination protocols for dogs and cats. Canadian Veterinary Journal 49, 362-5; quiz 5, 2008 American Staffordshire Terriers In May 2010, Queensland News carried a press release by Dogs Queensland (the Canine Control Council of Queensland) which was concerned that, under the Animal Management (Cats and Dogs) Act 2008, the Supreme Court of Queensland had ruled that American Staffordshire Terriers were the restricted American Pit Bull Terriers Local Government Minister Desley Boyle has moved to put the matter right: on 15 September 2010 she explained that the Act has been amended to clarify that Amstaffs are not "restricted dogs". Ms Boyle said while it was never the State's intention for Amstaffs to be classified as restricted dogs, the Court's determination meant the amendment was necessary. There are an estimated 4000 Amstaffs in Queensland and some 230 on the Gold Coast. The legislative amendment expands the provisions relating to identification so that vets may issue certification as evidence of any breed of dog, not just restricted dogs which they could only do previously. As well, pedigree certificates issued by the Australian National Kennel Council and any of its member bodies such as Dogs Queensland will also be accepted as evidence of a dog's breed. Ms Boyle said the amendment was modelled on the Commonwealth Government's veterinary certification system used in enforcing importation prohibitions on certain breeds. "The amendment, it is important to spell out, will not compromise community safety as owners of all dogs, including Amstaff owners, will still be held accountable for the behaviour of their dogs and face the full weight of the law if their dogs behave badly," Ms Boyle said. In Queensland (the owners of) any dog who bites a person can face fines of up to $30,000 under the Animal Management (Cats and Dogs) Act 2008 and the offending dog can be seized by a Council and declared as dangerous. Ms Boyle said dogs who caused fear were also not immune, with owners liable to fines of up to $2,000 and Councils able to declare these offending animal as menacing. Special provisions apply to animals that are declared by Councils as dangerous or menacing, such as muzzling in public, fencing and kennel requirements. Vet 2011 Celebrating 250 Years of the Veterinary Profession The world s first veterinary school was founded in Lyon, France, in 1761, followed by the Alfort veterinary school, near Paris, in 1764, both at the initiative of French veterinarian Claude Bourgelat. Therefore, 2011 will mark the 250th world anniversary of veterinary education. By setting up the world s first veterinary training institutions, Bourgelat created the veterinary profession itself. Thus, 2011 will also mark the 250th world anniversary of the veterinary profession. As a result of Bourgelat s fruitful collaboration with surgeons in Lyon, he was also the first scientist who dared to suggest that studying animal biology and pathology would help to improve our understanding of human biology and pathology will also mark the 250th anniversary of the concept of comparative pathobiology, without which modern medicine would never have emerged. The entire world should join with us in celebrating our veterinary profession, which has been working to improve both animal and human health for the past 250 years. For further information, please visit

12 Editor s Note: The Precautionary Principle Deformities and mortalities of fish at the Sunland Fish Hatchery on the Noosa River have recently been the subject of television documentaries on 60 Minutes and the 7.30 Report (twice), not to mention much other media coverage and comment. Readers may not be aware that several members of the Association have been in the thick of the debate. About 27 years ago the Sunland Fish Hatchery (SFH) began to breed silver perch, bass, Mary river cod and yellow belly to restock dams for recreational fishermen to catch because the barriers to natural fish movement have prevented spawning. Within the Noosa River commercial fishermen have observed the natural population of golden eye mullet and bass decline dramatically for unknown reasons. This situation exists despite the fact that the Noosa River is judged the cleanest in SE Queensland, largely thanks to the efforts of volunteers and a multitude of stakeholders. In about 2005, macadamia farms (MF) were established near SFH and a year later there was a total fish kill at SFH thought to be due to spray drift. MF paid compensation in this first instance without admitting liability. MF changed ownership, and mutation and mortality events continued at the fish hatchery however the new owners denied responsibility. SFH had lodged multiple reports through the QDPI spray drift hotline to nil effect. SFH pleaded for help through a hatchery journal. Dr Matt Landos, Director of Future Fisheries Veterinary Services (FFVS) visited in October 2008 and undertook a full investigation. He noted correlation between spray drift and fish abnormalities/mortalities. Over time he identified three spray chemicals as possible causes: the fungicide carbendazim, known to have potential to disrupt fish hormones and considered by Dr Landos to be the most likely cause of the two headed bass; the insecticides betacyfluthrin and endosulfan which is an organochlorine known to have disastrous effects on aquatic life; and two organophosphates, methidathione and trichlorfon. Each of the chemicals was mixed with a wetting agent, which is also implicated as an endocrine disrupting alkylphenol compound. Endosulfan is an effective crop protector and is 50 percent cheaper than alternatives. It is reported to be removed from regulatory approval in 60 countries and endosulfan and the organophosphates have been voluntarily withdrawn from some markets by some manufacturers, such as Bayer. The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) does have carbendazim under review but noted that MF spraying has been carried out to best practice standards. APVMA therefore saw no need to review its position on endosulfan. Crop Life, the peak body representing the plant science solutions industry protested Dr Landos opinion intemperately. The Greens accused government agencies of being in denial about endosulfan and referred to parallel losses in nearby ocean fisheries. The Queensland government established the Noosa Fish Health Investigation Task Force (TF) and a supporting technical sub-committee in January At least three veterinarians were appointed, including Dr Landos. To date the TF and subcommittee have met 16 times. They have investigated 9 incidents of fish deformities/ mortalities. The TF interim report in May 2010 was that there is such disagreement in the subcommittee that it is unlikely that a consensus can be reached in the final report. The disagreement is about whether deformities/mortalities are linked to the spraying by MF or are due to some aspect of the river system. Some members call for emphatic action against endosulfan, others see the problem as an opportunity for a full investigation. That is, there are those wishing the prompt withdrawal of suspect chemicals, preferring to err on the side of caution, and those advocating the collection of further information, preferring to err on the side of caution. SFH decided to sue MF for $2 million damages for fish losses, loss of domestic animals and human health problems. MF filed a counter-suit against SFH and 60 Minutes for defamation. On 13 October 2010 the AVPMA announced on the basis of new evidence that the use of endosulfan would be phased out over 2 years. The issue is symptomatic of the global dilemma. For example, in India the fishing state of Kerala has banned endosulfan after loss of fish and human life, and is frustrated by the national government s reluctance to sign a global ban under the Stockholm Convention. The national government is no doubt desperately conscious that its billion people need affordable food and clothing. Small wonder that the definition of precautionary principle has received so much weighty legal and scientific attention that there are at least fifteen versions. Comment The precautionary principle should be applied to protect human and environmental health from dangerous agrichemical exposure. Removing the chemical toxins which are generating the demonstrated changes in gene regulation from waterways are likely to result in improved aquatic animal health, improved organism reproductive function (from zooplankton to oysters and fish) and healthier, more productive ecosystems. A win for tourists, a win for commercial fishermen, a win for conservationists, a win for recreational fishermen. With oysters dying on Stradbroke Island, Pomona River, Richmond River, Limeburners Creek, after rainfall, there is evermore cause for concern. There is a sound science driven, safety-based reasoning as to why the European Union has removed alkylphenols from use, and removed atrazine, and removed endosulfan. We are in a mess. The data supports every premise I have put forward. Inadvertant off-site movement of pesticides is widespread, and harmful, with the impotent regulator simply watching from the sidelines, as my clients go out of business. Dr Matt Landos Director, Future Fisheries Veterinary Services Pty Ltd

13 Flystrike Management: the Australian Wool Innovation strategy Mr Geoff Lindon, Australian Wool Innovation, 580 George Street, Sydney. Australian Wool Innovation s (AWI) flystrike prevention policy supports an evidence-based approach to flystrike prevention, to ensure the optimal health, welfare and productivity of Australian sheep. AWI is committed to a fast-tracked research and development program designed to support the safe and successful phase out of the flystrike prevention procedure of mulesing over time as breeding strategies and research and development programs progress. Since 2005, AWI has invested $A20 million on this breech flystrike prevention research and development program. This focuses on removing the need for mulesing through genetic research, breeding options and the development of alternative strategies and technologies. AWI is also focusing on enhancing analgesic options to ensure humane animal care where-ever the procedure is required in the interim, including delivery of practical and affordable preoperative analgesic medications. Australian Wool Innovation encourages all farmers to adopt enhanced welfare practices and to declare their practices in the marketplace. Through the AWEX National Wool Declaration Form wool growers can declare their wool as either Non-Mulesed (NM), Ceased Mulesed (CM, wool from farms where wool growers no longer practice mulesing) or pain relief treated (PR). This provides transparency and choice in the marketplace and allows for the development of market feedback signals. Australian Wool Innovation works to provide education and extension of breeding strategies and alternative options, and to keep the marketplace and other stakeholders informed of industry programs and progress. Key components of AWI Breech Flystrike Prevention Strategy: Innovation: breeding, clips, intradermals, blowfly ecology, pain management; Knowledge: National Mulesing Accreditation Program, integrated pest management, economic analysis, wool residue monitoring, Australian Veterinary Association audit, liaison with welfare groups; Marketing: National Wool Declaration, marketing research and development outcomes, global flystrike communications. Outcomes to date include: Breeding research has shown that low breech wrinkle, dag, breech cover and wool colour are associated with reduced incidence of breech flystrike. A Visual Score guide has been released for industry use and data from these breeding trials, Australian Merino Sire Evaluation, Sheep Cooperative Research Centre and several industry flocks, has allowed Sheep Genetics to release an Australian Sheep Breeding Value for breech wrinkle; Nearly $6M has been spent developing clips and they have now been commercialised by Leader Products Pty Ltd; Intradermals based on Cetrimide, Collagenase, Sodium Alginate and Cyanoacrylate have been investigated and shown not to be effective nor offer welfare advantages. Research continues with Sodium Lauryl Sulphate and shows encouraging efficacy and improved welfare advantages; Research has been conducted on the blowfly genome but it is blue sky work requiring considerable further investment over a long period and is lower priority work at this stage; AWI has investigated analgesic options and worked with the private sector to improve the commercial viability of analgesic sheep veterinary products for Australia; There have been repeated meetings with welfare groups, world retailer organisations, individual retailers, embassies and trade delegations and Industry groups. In the near future we and our partners plan to: Release dag, breech cover and wool colour Australian Sheep Breeding Values; Release a biodegradable clip; Continue research and development into the Sodium Lauryl Sulphate alternative and its registration through the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority; Continue investigations into analgesic options; Increase adoption of the National Wool Declaration Form that will inform the supply chain of the progress occurring on farm; Continue communications with welfare groups, retailers, growers and the public; Sell the natural attributes of wool in a broader environmental and welfare friendly context. Readers are invited to visit the Grow_Animal-Health_Flystrike-prevention_Technical- RnD-update.htm website to view update-to-date results of research and photographs of breech clips etc. This paper is reprinted from Proceedings of the 3 rd AVA/ NZVA Pan Pacific Veterinary Conference, Brisbane 2010, ISBN

14 Leptospirosis in Queensland Dr Jean Elder* and Dr Bryan Woolcock**, formerly Queensland Department of Primary Industries *733 Bald Knob Road, Maleny, Q 4552 **T7/356 Blunder Road, Durack Q 4077 Introduction Leptospirosis is an important public health and animal health issue. In Queensland the leptospirosis story began in the 1880s in the recently settled humid north tropical coastal regions following many episodes of undiagnosed fevers. A considerable number of Europeans, employed in clearing the dense scrub near the rivers, died or were invalided in consequence (Derrick, 1957). As the ground became cleared the fevers became milder and less prevalent. The so-called "Coastal fever" syndrome exercised inquiring minds for fifty years. We now know the main problems were malaria, scrub typhus, typhoid fever, dengue and leptospirosis. In 1918 Anton Breinl (Director of the Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine in Townsville (AITM)) made a very significant observation that there were two unclassified disease syndromes. In 1923 RW Cilento, a later Director of the AITM, commented on the close resemblance of Breinl s syndromes to two syndromes found in Japan. The first resembled a mite-borne Japanese river fever (now known as scrub typhus), and the second resembled one shown to be a mild form of leptospirosis (Derrick, 1957). Leptospirosis is caused by very thin spiral-shaped bacteria of the single genus Leptospira. They thrive in the tropical and subtropical climate in Queensland and it is thought that the higher humidity, rainfall and temperature promote the survival of the organism in the environment. Over a 70 year period 57.6% of human leptospirosis notifications in Australia were in Queensland, predominately in north Queensland. By 2008 this figure was 79.7%. About half the reported cases needed to be hospitalised for three or more days. In Queensland the first isolates were detected at the Queensland Health Department, Laboratory of Microbiology and Pathology in Brisbane. Eventually the WHO/ FAO/OIE Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Leptospirosis was established in 1958 as part of the laboratory. This Centre has been of great importance in supporting identification of leptospira to both the medical and veterinary fields and in collaborative and independent research. The Animal Research Institute and its field stations (Queensland Department of Primary Industries) first isolated leptospiral serovars from cattle and pigs and have continued to investigate leptospirosis up to the present. Both the University of Queensland and James Cook University have done important research on leptospirosis. Live leptospira are best observed by darkfield microscopy (DFM). However this method is not reliable as the organisms are only detectable during the leptospiraemic phase of the disease (approximately 10 days in humans). Culture methods have improved progressively but, in early times, it was difficult to get specimens to the laboratories quickly and without contamination. Culture is not a practice commonly used as a diagnostic tool. Rapid serological tests, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and nucleic acid based tests, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), are becoming ideal diagnostic tests especially as they can be automated. Real-time PCR can distinguish between pathogenic and non pathogenic serovars. The genus Leptospira is divided into 20 species based on DNA hybridisation. In addition to the DNA techniques, a serologically based taxonomy system is used to divide the species into serovars of which there are over 200. Serovars are also grouped into 23 serogroups according to their antigenic relatedness. Five pathogenic species have been found in Australia and three of these occur in Queensland. We focus on eight serovars belonging to these three species which are important in human health and animal production in this state. Survival of individual serovars is dependent on the establishment of a suitable relationship with the host species and an environment that will facilitate survival of leptospires outside the host. Individual serovars seem to become more adapted to and depend for their survival on certain species of animals called maintenance hosts. Successful maintenance hosts have high susceptibility to leptospiral infection and develop long term kidney colonisation often without clinical signs of infection. Leptospires can be shed into the urine for more than 12 months, consequently releasing more bacteria into the environment. Other species (accidental hosts) will become infected where there is sufficient, direct or indirect, contact with maintenance hosts. Accidental hosts may not be as susceptible to infection as maintenance hosts, but when affected often experience more severe clinical signs. Leptospiral serovars of importance in Queensland (*Original strains) Species Serovar First isol. Qld Maint. host Industry assoc. human cases Domestic animals infect. L. interrogans Australis 1933* Rats Cane cutters, banana ind. Cattle, pigs, dogs Zanoni 1933* Rats Cane cutters, banana Cattle, pigs, dogs ind., dogs Pomona 1937* Pigs, feral pigs Farmers, abattoir wks., vets Cattle, most farm animals Copenhageni 1937 Urban rat Cane cutters Dogs, pigs L. Tarassovi 1942 Pigs, feral pigs Meat workers Most farm animals borgpetersenii Hardjo 1969 Cattle Dairy ind. Most farm animals Arborea 1998 Introd. rodents Hortic., grain ind. L. weilii Topaz 1991/4* Banana farmers, dairy ind., tourism Cattle

15 Outbreaks of leptospirosis are usually caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected animals and subsequent ingestion or entry via mucosal surfaces or broken skin. Workplace infections may also occur through exposure to contaminated body fluids and tissues of animals being slaughtered or handled. In humans the majority of leptospirosis cases are seasonally distributed throughout the year with 50.6% of cases being detected during the autumn months and the lowest number in the spring period. The disease is more prevalent (12:1) in males than in females. Variations in prevalence of serovars in different regions of Queensland and over time have occurred particularly in recent times. Pomona and Hardjo have dropped and Arborea has increased in prevalence. Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Ralph Doherty, Neill Sullivan, Lee Smythe, Christine McClintock and Bruce Corney. They all contributed up to date information and made useful comments on draft versions of the paper. References Derrick EH (1957) 'The challenge of north Queensland fevers'. Australasian Ann. Med. Vol 6 (3): Miller RI, Ross SP, Sullivan ND and Perkins NR (2007) 'Clinical and epidemiological features of canine leptospirosis in north Queensland'. Aust. Vet. J. Vol. 85: Slack AT, Symonds ML, Dohnt MF, Corney BG and Smythe LD (2007) 'Epidemiology of Leptospira weilii serovar Topaz infections in Australia'. Commun. Dis. Intell. Vol. 31: Slack AT, Symonds ML, Dohnt MF and Smythe LD (2006) 'The epidemiology of leptospirosis and the emergence of Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Arborea in Queensland, Australia, '. Epidem Infect. Vol. 134: Smythe LD (2006) 'Leptospirosis - a review of laboratory diagnostic methods'. Aust. J. Med. Sci. Vol. 27: Sullivan ND (1974) 'Leptospirosis in animals and man'. Aust. Vet. J. Vol. 50: Sutherland AK, Simmons GC and Kenny GC (1949) 'Bovine leptospirosis; Three outbreaks in calves in Queensland'. Aust. Vet. J. Vol. 25: This paper is reprinted from Proceedings of the 3 rd AVA/NZVA Pan Pacific Veterinary Conference, Brisbane ISBN Hello from the EO s desk Amanda Pollard In September representatives from the AVA Queensland Division and Branch Executive Committees attended AVA Queensland s planning weekend. We were also joined by AVA National Strategy and Services Manager, Debbie Neutze. A very successful weekend was held during which we developed a Strategic/Action Plan for 2011 and beyond. Five key focus areas for our Division were identified as: Branch Engagement, Membership, Education/ Events, Advocacy and Sponsorship. These form the basis of our plan, which is now in place. AVA Qld has been involved in a great amount of Advocacy work during In recent months this has included meetings with the Departments of Infrastructure and Planning (DIP), Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) and Education and Training (DET) to discuss the issues of Puppy Farms, Community Education and in particular AVA PetPEP and training of Veterinary Nurses. AVA Qld has also continued its involvement in the HeV Interagency Technical Working Group and the Horse Biosecurity and Markets Access Liaison Group (HBMALG). The AVA Executive Committee was recently involved in a presentation from Trish Coward from WH&S to present the Hendra virus (HeV) audit program findings. AVA Qld has met with a number of our supporters such as Guild, Provet, Medfin and Elite to discuss 2011 partnerships. AVA vets in Queensland involved in the AVA Cenvet Graduate Support Scheme are currently undergoing Mentor Training to assist them in their role as mentors as part of this scheme. We have approximately fifty students signed up to take part in this program and are fortunate to have thirty vets who have taken on the role of mentors. Once the training sessions are completed, Mentors and Mentee matches will be announced and the Scheme will be underway. The aim of this Graduate Support Scheme is to facilitate smoother transition to practice for veterinary graduates and provide a framework to foster the sense of community that exists within the veterinary industry. As this edition of the Queensland News goes to print, the Brisbane Veterinary Practitioners will be holding their Annual Conference at Tangalooma. It is shaping up to be a great event! Planning for the 2011 AVA Qld Division Conference is also well underway. This Conference will be held in conjunction with the North Queensland Branch of the AVA in Townsville next year (25-27 March). The theme of this conference is You Are What You Eat and will have cattle, small animal and vet nurse streams. It too will be a great conference so make sure you save the date! I would like to take this opportunity to thank AVA Qld Division Executive Committee, staff and AVA Qld members for your support throughout this year being my first as Executive Officer for Queensland Division. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to another great year ahead for AVA in Qld in 2011.

16 The history of some commonly used alternative medicines: Aloe Vera, and Flaxseed Dr Charissa Francies Smith BVSc Dip Ac Acacia Animal Care Aloe Vera (Aloe barbadensis, Aloe chinensis): Aloe vera is a plant commonly used as a treatment for skin disease, and is a component of skin treatment formulas such as the shampoos released by Ken Mason in his Dermacare range in the late 1980s. Since then there have been a plethora of veterinary shampoos and gels using Aloe vera. The commonly accepted first record of use was in a Sumerian clay tablet, found in the city of Nippur, inscribed around BC The first detailed discussion of Aloe's medicinal value is probably in an Egyptian document written BC This document gives twelve formulas for mixing Aloe with other agents to treat both internal and external human disorders. Copra's Indigenous Drugs of India, 400 BC, showed it had widespread use "for external application to inflamed painful parts of the body and for causing purgation [internal cleansing]. Dioscorides (41 AD - 68 AD), master of Roman pharmacology, attributed to its juices "the power of binding, of inducing sleep." He noted as well that it "loosens the belly, cleansing the stomach." He further added that this "bitter" Aloe (the sap) was a treatment for boils; that it eased haemorrhoids; that it aided in healing bruises; that it was good for the tonsils, the gums, and all general mouth irritations; and that it worked as a medicine for the eyes. Dioscorides further observed that the whole leaf, when pulverized, could stop the bleeding of many wounds. This was the first comprehensive examination of its many uses to reach the western world. aloe_vera_history.html, Arabian physicians picked up the works of Dioscorides which were overlooked in medieval Europe apart from the work of the great feminist nun, Hildegard von Bingen AD. Its use was not common in Europe until the crusades ( AD) when it is thought people returning brought back the knowledge. In the middle ages Arabic herbalists were the forefront to western medicine especially in Iraq where some of the greatest practitioners existed, such as the Persian-born physician Avicenna ( AD).He is considered the inventor of distillation. Uses of Aloes in Arabia were recorded in texts reported to be now in the British Museum. At around the same time in China, Aloe vera was traditionally used as part of herbal formulas as a bitter cold preparation for heated abdominal upsets and the dried juice of the leaf was the part used. This use was unlike the full leaf pulverising and laxative usage in our century. The text in which its use first appeared was, Materia Medica of the Jia You Era by Zhang Yu-xi and Su Song in There was Arab migration to China at this time, so it is possible the use of Aloes travelled to China from Arabia In the 1800s in Australia, (family history by me) Aloe vera was planted near houses, and at the farm gate, and under the old gum tree as a treatment for parasites, a funny tummy, and the hot sweats, where the inside surface was cleaned from the leaf, a tea made from this and drunk. It was not commonly used for skin problems, as people only mashed up the whole leaf and in my opinion people were commonly overdosed, and too much of the inside of the leaf near the skin was used. My great grandmother Francies (DOB 1860) used it as a threat to small children following the consumption of sweets. The 1905 British Veterinary Codex, from which students at University of Sydney were taught in 1968, describes several different types of aloe, credits it only with purgative properties, and defines its action as being only in the large intestine; it ignores all the soothing properties, and the differences between the inner and outer part of the plant. In the post World War One era, herbalists increased in numbers and new authors espoused the use of Aloe vera, such as Mrs M Grieve in A Modern Herbal in 1931 where multiple uses and different species are described. In her book, The Complete herbal handbook for Farm and Stable, Juliette de Bairacli Levi, 1952, used Aloe communis not vera, and refers to Arabic sources and multiple uses. Herbalist and alternative vets started to use Aloe barbadensis commonly as a gut immune system modifier, a skin treatment and cooling laxative and antiparasitic in the treatment of animals at this time. The next great step in the Australian veterinary use of Aloe vera comes in Wynn and Fougere s book Veterinary Herbal Medicine p 464 published in 2007 (and subsequently reviewed by me in The Veterinarian ). Here the multiple uses of Aloe vera were described in a format which made them easily available to all veterinarians, with scientific references. W and F describe the skin healing, the purgative action, immune modulating actions and actions of acemannan, a gut immune modulator commonly manufactured from Aloe vera. Its use as an anticancer and antiviral treatment is also described and is common among vets of the AHV. The side effects such as reduction in T3 and T4 levels (p 323), and interactions with other medicines are also described. We are now more knowledgeable in the ways of plants, and know that an Aloe grown in China will have different properties to one grown in Gatton near the cow shed, and that plant will vary according to the season, and the soil. Judging from the texts, the Chinese variety is more cooling. We are aware that the juice has different properties from the heavy gel lining the leaf which is where the purgative and wound stimulating properties come. I keep a small leafed Aloe vera for making soothing gel for burns and allergic reactions, and a larger one for slow healing wounds and gut immunity. They both classify as Aloe vera, but are somewhat different in action! Hurray for the humble Aloe! Linum usitatissimum (Flax or Linseed) The oil from the linseed or flax plant seeds has become a common supplement for small animals. It is used to provide antioxidants, and is part of some commercial dry foods. The seed itself is also espoused as a common supplement for pets, and the phytoestrogenic properties (detailed in Mills and Bone, The Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy: modern herbal medicine 2000, p54 ISBN ) are commonly overlooked. It is inexpensive, and if kept cool is long lasting. It came

17 into vogue in the 1990s when according to a lecture at UQ given by Isobel Johnson, the balance of Omega 3, 6 and 9 was recommended to be ideal for dogs as an antioxidant reducing allergic skin irritation. Since then there have been many erudite articles describing its use e.g. Wynn and Chalmers Alternative therapies for pruritic skin disorders, Clinical Techniques in Small Animal Practice, Vol 17 :1 p Wynn and Fougere have alerted us to the use of Flaxseed, not the oil as a cancer therapy p 301 Veterinary Herbal Medicine (2007, ISBN: ). Up until the 1980s flaxseed oil was commonly known as raw linseed oil, and was used mainly for large animals as a laxative and to put a shine on the coat. When using it as a laxative in the 1970s for treating horse sand colic, it was mixed as one large beer bottle of beer to 1 large beer bottle of linseed oil, emulsified and used as a drench by stomach tube. This mixture could also be emulsified with warm saline (4 litres) and given rectally. In Mrs M Grieve s book, A Modern Herbal (1931), she gives details of the multiple uses of the plant in human medicine over the centuries, but relegates it to a purgative in veterinary medicine. The seeds were used extensively for poulticing, and it is likely this was extended to race horse medicine in earlier centuries. Bill Smith (my grandfather), repeated winner of Trotting races at Barraba and Tamworth in the 1930s used a combination of sulphur powder, molasses and linseed oil as a regular supplement to his horses to keep them in trim ; 1 dessertspoon sulphur powder, 1/2 cup linseed oil and ½ cup molasses per horse per day. At this level, it was not laxative. He also swore that if he gave a dessertspoon per day of this mix over summer to his working dogs, he had no trouble with ticks. The British Veterinary Codex of 1905 describes linseed oil as the fixed oil expressed from the ripe seeds of Linum usitatissimum. It also describes the acrid taste which comes with the oxidation of the oil which can occur rapidly when exposed to high temperatures such as commonly occur in the Queensland summer (this is a drawback to its use. The oxidised oils form trans fatty acids which may be carcinogenic when eaten). The Codex describes the occasional use in dogs for coat improvement, with the development of nausea: this may be due to oxidisation of the oil, to overdose, or to the palmitic and stearic acids whose quantity can vary with the plant source. Good quality oil is pale in colour, has a bland smell, and has been kept refrigerated The Linseed plant has been in use since recorded history. Cloth made from it was found in Egyptian tombs, and Joseph s coat of many colours in the Old Testament, and the shroud of Jesus Christ were made from it. Interestingly, there is little reference to it in Chinese herbal texts or in Culpepper s book, The Complete Herbal (1653), even though he has a whole section on the making of oils (Viper oil is most interesting). Aruvedic medicine made use of it following the spread of the plant in the s, a large export trade in Linseed had developed by the end of the 19 th century (Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society of America Vol 8, Aug 1929). In India it is called Alsi oil, and there is a fascinating article about traditional use in animals where its immune modulating, antiparasitic and skin healing properties are described: column_poudhia/106_alsi.html. Ethno botanical history shows us we are only just beginning to understand the use of plant species on a broad scale and there is much to be learned. Many properties known to herbalists for centuries are now being proved correct.

18 Drowning in Detail: Choose what information you receive from the AVA Marcia Balzar Getting too many s? Can t find the time to read newsletters? Worried about the forests? You can now choose the information you want to receive from the AVA by logging on to the new website. Click on Manage profile just underneath your name, and select the communications tab on the left. The choices are to opt in or out of different types of information from the different parts of the AVA you might receive communication from. For example, if you currently receive branch information but can t attend events, you can untick the Conference and event info box in the Branch column. If you never get time to read conference proceedings, you can untick those boxes. You can even opt out of receiving a printed copy of the AVJ if you choose! You can still access the journal online, but you ll be doing your bit for the planet by reducing your paper consumption. When you opt out, it will be for those types of communications for whatever groups you re a member of. If you re a member of more than one SIG it will apply to all your SIGs. Conversely, opting in to SIG or branch communications will only have an effect if you re already a member of a SIG or branch. But I forgot my password! If you know your AVA username, you can ask for a new password instantly from the website. Just go to and click on Request new password in the top right hand corner. If you don t know your username either, you can contact the AVA national office to find out. Just call or members@ava.com.au. What else is new? Some other great features of the new site include: Find-a-vet directory for members of the public to find practising members in their neighbourhood (contact AVA national office if you re not listed and would like to be) You can upload your Vet Ed points or download your Vet Ed statement via Manage profile Add an event to the AVA calendar by clicking the Add an event button on the home page Why be a member? shows member benefits by category as well as by type of veterinarian (click on the quick link on the right side of the home page). Got more questions? Our biggest and most useful tip about the website is don t bother looking for something, use the search box instead! The search box is on every page, and delivers useful results that you can filter by different content types whether it s a policy, media release, event, forum topic, news item or general page content. You can also filter results by date. If you have any questions, call the AVA national office during office hours on or members@ava.com.au at any time.

19 Horse Health Chart Competition Winner Demelza Kingston,ŽƌƐĞ,ĞĂůƚŚ ŚĞĐŬůŝƐƚ ϭϳ

20 News from UQ Students Danara Blom This past year has seen many changes occurring for UQ Vet Students, the most notable of which has been the change in location of our school. This February, staff and students moved from our suburban St Lucia campus, to our much quieter, rural Gatton campus. Over 50% of our 450+ students have relocated to Gatton Shire, doubling the campus population practically overnight. Whilst not without the usual drama that accompanies such a move, the response from students has been overwhelmingly positive. The official opening of the UQ School of Veterinary Science was held on August 6, however students and staff had been using the majority of the facilities since the commencement of Semester 1. The Small Animal and Equine Clinics opened for business shortly after, and are now beginning to generate a reasonable case-load. Students and staff have definitely adapted well to their new surroundings, and have made locations such as the Lockyer Valley Cultural Centre, Gatton Bowls Club, and the Lawes Club (on campus) their new haunts for the hundreds of social events they have planned. The AVA has been extremely generous with their time and finances this year, for which myself and the student body are extremely grateful. The AVA helped us to kick off O week by loaning us Mark Lawrie. Mark took the time to speak to students at the Veterinary Leadership Experience (VLE) about career choices, the upsides (and guaranteed downsides) of studying vet science, and the freedom to go just about anywhere with this degree. He kept things rather humorous with tales of his time at university, work on charity-aid projects, working in practice, and all the side-trips between. Just a few short months later Mark was back for round 2. He delivered his lecture entitled Get a haircut & get a real job to a phenomenal 100+ students, and was met by a rather captured audience. Drinks and pizza followed, and students had the opportunity to mingle with Mark, and also get some one-on-one face time with Jodie Wilson. The night was a huge success, and students enjoyed networking and picking up tips for after graduation. Native Wildlife of Australia On May 22 nd, the AVA got behind the first-ever UQ Special Interest Groups (SIG) Conference. Guest and student speakers from a variety of educational backgrounds spoke to around 100 students about their chosen interest fields and experiences. After a morning of lectures, with students jumping between the 4 stream options, we then enjoyed the AVA lunch. Afterwards, students were then able to participate in hands-on activities including the extremely popular Bovine Embryo Transfer, as well as Equine Lameness, a mini-vle and a research debate/discussion. On August 2 nd, the Annual UQVSA Trade Fair presented the AVA with the opportunity to host a stall. Amanda Pollard and Ros Giles came along to promote AVA membership, as well as generate interest from the students to join the Pet- PEP ranks. In all honesty, we spent most of the afternoon holding down the tent, to prevent it from flying away in the tornado. The AVA tug-of-war rope, kindly donated by Reverend John Aspley-Davis earlier this year, was on-hand for students to use (it s massive!) but unfortunately poor organisation, a badly-timed reptile talk, and the lecturers unwillingness to cancel classes (we tried...) meant that almost nobody turned up for a game!! We will however, be using this in the future. September 25 th saw Mary-Kate and Lani (Vet II) host an AVA-sponsored lunchtime lecture for Vets Beyond Borders. Visiting veterinarian, Helen Byrnes, kindly donated her precious time to come and speak to interested students about her work in Gangtok, India, where she manages the Sikkim Anti-Rabies and Animal Health Clinic. Her topics included how she came to work for Vets Beyond Borders, what the work in India is like, and how she manages to juggle her work there (6 months of the year), alongside the business which she owns in Brisbane. It was a full-house, with approx 50 students in attendance, and all appreciated the food and drinks which followed! The last AVA sponsored event for 2010 was the Annual Vet Ball, in which the AVA sponsored the shuttle buses to and from the event (promoting responsible drinking). The night was a huge success, and AVA student members appreciated the free transport to the event. The winner of the "Native Wildlife of Australia" category was Sarah Roberts, a second year BVSc student, with her remarkable shot of the Green Tree Snake (Dendrelaphis punctulata) undulating across a Queensland backyard fence. Congratulations Sarah!! Reptiles have been a growing interest amongst the members of the Wildlife Special Interest Group at the University of Queensland, with extensive handling courses run throughout the year in both Brisbane and Gatton. The winner of the "Exotics" category was Michelle Ooi, another second year BVSc student, who entered a dazzling photograph of a European Honey Bee peacefully perched upon a pink flower on a classic spring morning. All proceeds raised from the competition will be donated to the Australian Conservation Foundation. For more information on the role that UQVSA Wildlife SIG plays to involve students and the community in the biology and conservation of wildlife - locally, nationally and internationally, please uqvsa_wildlife@yahoo.com.au.

21 News from JCU Students Callan Solari The AVA student members have enjoyed a year of educational and social events. The most promising feature of the year is the continual development of the Vet School, not only through the curriculum and facilities, but within the community of students as well. The first group of graduates are in their final weeks of university, and it is with great anticipation and excitement that the Vet School sends them out into the real world. The following is a brief wrap up of the events of The highlight of the year for AVA student members was the annual AVA Rural Practitioners Weekend held in September. The main aims of the weekend were to generate interest in rural and regional veterinary practice, and to allow AVA students and to network with practicing veterinarians, as well as gaining the skills required for a successful and rewarding career in rural practice. In light of the current rural veterinarian crisis in Australia, it is important that we as students are exposed to such workshops to gain the skills and tools required to practice in rural areas, and to promote rural veterinary opportunities. The Saturday included separate Horse, Cattle and Small Animal Stations, and focused on topics that are integral to rural and regional practice. The equine station, headed by Dr Frank Condon, involved a practical ophthalmology crash course. Dr Geoffry Fordyce lead a workshop investigating the effects of nutrition on the reproductive function of cattle, with a particular focus on Northern Australia. Students were given the opportunity to utilise ultrasounds to evaluate ovarian structure and condition. A teat laceration workshop was presented by Dr Tom DeRidder, in which students were able to develop their suturing techniques and practice inserting cannulas. Dr Libby Lynch ran the small animal station, which provided students with a thorough trauma and toxicology workshop that highlighted the more common cases seen in rural practice. The Saturday night saw the students and vets trade their overalls for some more appropriate evening wear as they headed to the inaugural Australian Cattle Vets Rural Practitioners Dinner. An enjoyable evening was had by all and students were given the chance to interact with the vets on a social basis. The Sunday involved a short cattle handling school run by Chris Francis. The focus of the school was crush safety and low stress stock handling in the yards. As the major event of the year for the AVA student members, it was great to see a huge response to the weekend. Although only in its second year, the annual weekend is fast becoming one of the most anticipated events of the year. This year has seen the establishment of four special interest groups (SIGs); cattle, equine, small animals, and exotics. Student members who have a particular interest in these species enjoy case-based discussions on interesting local cases. Extra-curricular educational presentations were frequently enjoyed by students throughout the year, particularly those that offered pizza following the presentation. I am proud to report that student membership at JCU is continually increasing, and with several opportunities provided to members to further their skills and knowledge as future veterinarians, I am confident that membership will continue to follow this trend. On a personal note, my time as AVA student representative is complete, with Sarah Tillson stepping in as the newly elected representative. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those at the State office who have supported me during my time as the rep. The obvious highlight of my tenure was attending the annual AVA conference in Brisbane. The opportunity to meet leaders in our profession, and students from the various universities was something for which I am very grateful.