Guardians' perceptions of caring for a dog with canine cognitive dysfunction.

BACKGROUND: Canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is difficult to diagnose, as its clinical signs are similar to those of other age-related conditions. The experience of caring for a senior dog with or without CCD is not well described. METHODS: Data were collected via an online survey. Using a mixed methods design, the level of CCD and burden of care were measured using validated tools, and open-ended questions gathered qualitative data. A general linear model showed the factors associated with guardian burden of care. RESULTS: Sixteen percent of guardians experienced a clinically significant burden of care. Factors associated with burden of care included severity of CCD, sleep location, guardian employment, household size, dog age, guardian age and the dog taking medication. Few dogs with CCD were prescribed CCD medications to ameliorate clinical signs. Euthanasia, strong attachment mitigating burden and the complexities of caregiving were themes presented by guardians. LIMITATIONS: Measures are based on self-reports and as such the usual limitations apply. CONCLUSIONS: The burden of caring for an older dog is greater if they have CCD. More attention to the treatment of senior dogs, including medications to reduce clinical signs of CCD, could improve the welfare of older dogs and decrease the clinical burden experienced by guardians.

Developing and Planning a Protocol for Implementing Health Promoting Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI) in a Tertiary Health Setting.

The Ottawa Charter identifies that multiple levels of government, non-government, community, and other organizations should work together to facilitate health promotion, including in acute settings such as hospitals. We outline a method and protocol to achieve this, namely an Action Research (AR) framework for an Animal Assisted Intervention (AAI) in a tertiary health setting. Dogs Offering Support after Stroke (DOgSS) is an AR study at a major tertiary referral hospital. AAI has been reported to improve mood and quality of life for patients in hospitals. Our project objectives included applying for funding, developing a hospital dog visiting Action Research project, and, subsequent to ethics and governance approvals and finance, undertaking and reporting on the Action Research findings. The Action Research project aimed to investigate whether AAI (dog-visiting) makes a difference to the expressed mood of stroke patients and their informal supports (visiting carers/family/friends), and also the impact these visits have on hospital staff and volunteers, as well as the dog handler and dog involved. We provide our protocol for project management and operations, setting out how the project is conducted from conception to assess human and animal wellbeing and assist subsequent decision-making about introducing dog-visiting to the Stroke Unit. The protocol can be used or adapted by other organizations to try to avoid pitfalls and support health promotion in one of the five important action areas of the Ottawa Charter, namely that of reorienting health services.

The moral deliberation pathway in veterinary practice: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Veterinarians may face various ethical decisions and potential moral conflicts in clinical practice. The ethical decision-making process often leads to a satisfying resolution. However, when such a process is accompanied by a perceived inability to act according to a person's values, it can lead to psychological distress that characterises moral distress. Theoretical models in professions such as nursing attempt to explain the evolution of moral conflict into moral distress. In veterinary professionals, a model has been proposed to explain this pathway (the moral deliberation pathway). However, empirical data are still lacking on whether veterinary clinicians experience a moral deliberation pathway as hypothesised. METHODS: Using thematic analysis, this qualitative study investigates veterinary clinicians' experiences with moral distress and aims to explain the moral deliberation pathway in these veterinarians. RESULTS: The results suggest that veterinarians' experiences with moral distress follow a deliberation process that can be explained by the proposed moral deliberation pathway. Experiencing a moral conflict leads to moral stress, then either to moral distress or resolution into moral comfort. LIMITATIONS: Self-selection of participants and possible recollection bias may have biased the findings. CONCLUSIONS: The empirical data provided by this study can inform future research and intervention strategies to identify, measure and manage moral distress in the veterinary context.

Understanding the Role of Therapy Dogs in Human Health Promotion.

Dogs may provide humans with a range of physical, mental and social benefits. Whilst there is growing scientific evidence of benefits to humans, there has been less focus on the impact to canine health, welfare and ethical considerations for the dogs. The importance of animal welfare is increasingly acknowledged, indicating that the Ottawa Charter should be extended to include the welfare of non-human animals supporting the promotion of human health. Therapy dog programmes are delivered across a variety of settings including hospitals, aged care facilities and mental health services, highlighting the important role they play in human health outcomes. Research has shown that that there are biomarkers for stress in humans and other animals engaged in human-animal interactions. This review aims to assess the impact of human-animal interactions on therapy dogs engaged in providing support to human health. While challenging, it is paramount to ensure that, within the framework of One Welfare, the welfare of therapy dogs is included, as it is a key factor for future sustainability. We identified a range of concerns due to the lack of guidelines and standards to protect the wellbeing of the dogs engaged in these programmes. Extension of the Ottawa Charter to include the welfare of non-human animals with leveraging through a One Welfare approach would promote animal and human health beyond current boundaries.

The Impact of the Social Determinants of Human Health on Companion Animal Welfare.

The social determinants of health (SDH) focus on the social, physical and economic factors that impact human health. Studies have revealed that animal guardians face a range of challenges in attaining positive welfare outcomes for their companion animals, which can be influenced by socioeconomic and environmental factors. Despite this, there is a lack of research specifically exploring the relationship between SDH and animal welfare outcomes. Given that the SDH impact on humans, which in turn directly impacts on their companion animal, it is important to adapt an SDH framework for companion animal welfare by characterising the impact of the SDH on companion animal guardians in their attempts to care for their animals and, by extension, the associated welfare outcomes. This paper explores how these human health determinants may impact animal welfare and the possible challenges that may arise for the guardian when attempting to meet their companion animal's welfare needs. By integrating the SDH with other key frameworks, including the five domains model of animal welfare, through multidisciplinary collaboration, this framework can be used to inform future programs aiming to improve animal welfare.

Why do veterinarians leave clinical practice? A qualitative study using thematic analysis.

BACKGROUND: Veterinarians have an important role in society and having an adequate veterinary workforce is important not only for their communities but also nationwide. Lately, there have been anecdotal reports regarding veterinary practices struggling to find clinicians as well as evidence of mental ill-health in veterinarians. Furthermore, the Australian Veterinary Association annual workforce survey shows an increased percentage of veterinarians intending to leave practice from 2017 to 2019. Although many factors for attrition have been described in other professions, reasons for veterinarians to leave practice are not well understood. METHODS: This study investigated why veterinary clinicians leave clinical practice by using Thematic Analysis to analyse 26 semi-structured interviews of former veterinary clinicians in relation to their work experiences and reasons for leaving. Interviews were done from February-April 2018 either face to face, via teleconferencing, or telephone. Participants were recruited from each Australian state except for New South Wales. RESULTS: The results showed that a combination of personal and work-related factors influenced the participants to leave clinical practice. In Personal Factors, participants described the internal and external circumstances that impacted on their personal lives such as personal relationships, experiencing negative thoughts and emotions, physical and mental health, core motivations and beliefs, alternative professional and personal interests. On the other hand, Work Experiences described situations, experiences, and statements directly related to the participant's veterinary clinical work such as workplace relationships, employment conditions including remuneration and working hours and clinical experiences such as negative clinical outcomes. Furthermore, interlinkages between these two themes were revealed in participants' responses. CONCLUSION: This study highlights factors that contribute to attrition from veterinary clinical practice. The narrative indicates that the interlinking of such factors influenced the decision-making process to leave clinical practice in this cohort of former veterinary clinicians. Further research is required to understand the full implications for veterinary clinical practice and inform intervention strategies for retention.

Resilience of veterinarians at different career stages: The role of self-efficacy, coping strategies and personal resources for resilience in veterinary practice.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of demographic and psychological factors on resilience in new graduate-, mid- and late-career veterinarians working in Australia. METHOD: An online cross-sectional survey of 800 veterinarians collected demographic and descriptive data in two stages from late 2015 to 2017, such as gender, average hours worked per week, type and region of practice and intention to leave veterinary medicine. Psychological factors were measured utilising the Brief Resilience Scale, the Veterinary Resilience Scale-Personal Resources, the Brief COPE and General Self-Efficacy measures. RESULTS: Using a full-factorial univariate General Linear Model, no significant difference in general resilience was evident between the three career-stage groups (p > 0.05). However, higher self-efficacy, higher personal resources for resilience in veterinary practice, and lower problem-focused, higher emotion-focused and lower dysfunctional coping strategies were related to higher resilience. In the model for mid- and late-career veterinarians, a weak positive relationship existed between higher average hours worked per week and higher resilience, while intention to leave veterinary practice was also related to lower resilience in mid- and late-career veterinarians. CONCLUSION: This study supports the value of personal resources, rather than career stage, gender or region of work, as influential in developing veterinarian resilience.

Review of the Online One Welfare Portal: Shared Curriculum Resources for Veterinary Undergraduate Learning and Teaching in Animal Welfare and Ethics.

This article introduces the online One Welfare learning and teaching portal (OWP) and describes its development, use, importance and relevance to animal welfare and ethics (AWE) stakeholders. As animal welfare issues increase in importance, veterinarians must be trained to lead the science that underpins AWE discourses. The OWP is a collection of resources designed to engage and challenge veterinary science students as they become advocates for animals. It was developed collaboratively by all eight veterinary schools in Australia and New Zealand, and funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. Surveys to investigate the attitudes of students and educators to AWE issues in six context-specific themes based on the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy (AAWS) (companion animals; animals used in research and teaching; livestock/production animals; animals used for sport, recreation or display; animals in the wild and aquatic animals) were administered through all participating schools. Students assigned more importance to Day One competence in knowledge of welfare concepts than did educators for the following groups: production animals, companion animals, animals in the wild, aquatic animals, animals used in research and teaching, and animals used for sport, recreation or display (all p < 0.01). Agreement between educators and students was closer regarding the importance of Day One competence for euthanasia for all six context-specific themes (p < 0.01 - 0.03). Students assigned more importance than educators to social, economic and cultural drivers of welfare outcomes in production animals (p < 0.01); slaughter and preslaughter inspections in production animals (p < 0.01); animal abuse and hoarding in companion animals (p < 0.01); shelter medicine in companion animals (p < 0.01); disaster preparedness in wildlife animals (p < 0.01); pain and distress caused by fishing in aquatic animals (p < 0.01); conscientious objection related to animals held for research and teaching (p < 0.01); behaviour, selection and training of animals used for sport, recreation and display (p = 0.046) and educating the public around sporting animal welfare (p < 0.01). Agreement between educators and students was closer for strategies to address painful husbandry procedures in production animals (p = 0.03); behaviour and training of companion animals (p = 0.03); veterinarians' duties to wild animals in wildlife (p = 0.02); the 3Rs in animals held for research and teaching (p = 0.03) and ownership responsibility in sporting animals (p = 0.01). This report discusses the reasons for differences among students and educators as they approach these issues. The portal is expected to gather more content as veterinary schools in other countries use its resources and users submit scenarios and discussion topics that reflect local needs.

Restraint of dogs in vehicles in the US, UK and Australia.

Although dogs routinely travel in motor vehicles, there is a lack of evidence on if, how, and why people choose to restrain their dogs when travelling. A lack of restraint is likely to be associated with an increased risk of serious injury or death in the case of an accident, and in some cases may even precipitate an accident. The aim of the present study was to determine the frequency in which dog restraints are used in the US, UK and Australia in a convenience sample, and the factors associated with whether or not a dog is restrained. Online surveys using SurveyMonkey® were distributed in the US, UK and Australia during 2017-2018. The survey consisted of questions related to owning a dog, owner and dog demographics, use of restraint when driving with the dog, reasons for restraining/not restraining the dog, and attitudes to restraint of dogs in vehicles. A logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with the use of restraint. There were 706, 692 and 637 completed surveys from the US, UK and Australia, respectively. A little over half of respondents restrained their dog in the US (55%) compared to 67% in Australia and 72% in the UK. The most common method of restraint in the US and UK was a cage/crate in the cargo area in the back of the vehicle; in Australia it was a harness and tether attached to a seat buckle. In the generalised linear model, country, dog size, owner age, dog age and vehicle type were all significant factors associated with the use of restraint for dogs in cars. Younger dog owners from the US who drove a pickup truck or utility van, had a large dog, and drove with their dogs less frequently were least likely to restrain their dogs. This research highlights the need for improved education and information regarding the use of restraints for dogs traveling in vehicles, although the limitations in the convenience sample used mean further research is needed, including use of a more representative sample.

Investigating risk factors that predict a dog's fear during veterinary consultations.

Attending the veterinary clinic is an integral part of the physical welfare of every companion dog. However, some dogs experience their veterinary visits negatively, which poses a risk of injury to the veterinary staff, their guardian (owner) and themselves. It may also influence the regularity of non-urgent veterinary appointments. To date there have been conflicting reports relating to the proportion of dogs that show fear during their veterinary visits. In this study, we explored the risk factors associated with fear during veterinary examination and in novel situations (including first time at the veterinary clinic) from 26,555 responses in the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire database. According to their guardians, 41% of companion dogs displayed mild to moderate fearful behaviour when examined by a veterinarian, and 14% exhibited severe or extreme fear. A similar trend was observed with dogs responding fearfully when in unfamiliar situations, including the dog's first time at the veterinary clinic. Chi-squared tests showed every bivariate relationship between fear and the environmental and demographic factors measured was significant (p < 0.05). The most important predictors of fear in a veterinary examination were, in order: the dog's breed group (27.1%), their history of roles or activities (16.7%), where they were sourced (15.2%), their weight (12%), the age of other dogs in the household (9.5%) and dog owner experience (6.3%). However, combined these risk factors only explain a total of 7% of variance of fear observed during veterinary examination. This suggests that fear exhibited during veterinary visits is common in dogs, but that the environment or human-animal interactions are likely to contribute more to prevalence and severity of this problem than the demographic factors measured here. We conclude by highlighting opportunities for future research aimed at facilitating less stressful veterinary visits for dogs and their guardians.

Endangered Exotic Pets on Social Media in the Middle East: Presence and Impact.

The popularization of exotic pets on celebrity social media in the Middle East has led to questionable impacts on exotic pet demand and threats to species conservation. The objective of this study was to identify exotic animal species featured on Middle Eastern celebrity social media account posts, the public perception of those posts, and their potential impacts on exotic pet demand and conservation (for global-scale extrapolation). Public social media accounts of highly influential persons from oil-rich Middle Eastern regions were manually investigated to evaluate subject demographics, species features, and post information (likes, comments) between January 2017 and August 2018. Twenty-five subjects possessed active social media accounts, from which 418 social media posts were extracted based on their inclusion of a privately owned exotic animal. SPSS Version 25 was used for frequency and descriptive analyses of these posts, in addition to comment analyses to evaluate quantitative (emojis) and qualitative (text) audience perceptions from a total of 10 social media posts of CITES Appendix I- or II-listed species. A greater frequency of positive than negative comments was observed (n = 8017), demonstrating the higher likelihood of social media promotion rather than negation of the exotic pet trade. Public education on wildlife conservation and exotic animal trade risks is imperative for successful conservation and welfare protection.

Importance of Welfare and Ethics Competence Regarding Animals Kept for Scientific Purposes to Veterinary Students in Australia and New Zealand.

Veterinarians are in a strong position of social influence on animal-related issues. Hence, veterinary schools have an opportunity to raise animal health and welfare standards by improving veterinary students' animal welfare and ethics (AWE) education, including that related to animals used for scientific purposes. A survey of 851 students in the early, mid, and senior stages of their courses at all eight veterinary schools across Australia and New Zealand was undertaken on their first day of practice (or Day One Competences) to explore how veterinary students viewed the importance of their competence in the management of welfare and ethical decision-making relating to animals kept for scientific purposes. From highest to lowest, the rankings they assigned were: Animal Ethics Committee (AEC) Procedures or Requirements; 3Rs (Replacement, Refinement and Reduction); Humane Endpoints; Euthanasia; "What Is a Research Animal?"; and Conscientious Objections. Female students rated Conscientious Objections, Humane Endpoints, and Euthanasia significantly higher than male students did across the three stages of study. The score patterns for these three variates showed a trend for the male students to be more likely to score these topics as extremely important as they advanced through the course, but female students' scores tended to decline slightly or stay relatively stable. No gender differences emerged for the three variates: 3Rs (Replacement, Refinement and Reduction); AEC Procedures or Requirements; and "What Is a Research Animal?". This study demonstrates that understandings of the regulatory and normative frameworks are considered most important in animal welfare and ethics competence in veterinary students. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to investigate what importance veterinary students place on their competence regarding animals kept for scientific purposes.

Ranking of Production Animal Welfare and Ethics Issues in Australia and New Zealand by Veterinary Students.

The importance of animal welfare and ethics (AWE) within the veterinary education should reflect community concerns and expectations about AWE, and the professional demands of veterinary accreditation on the first day of practice (or 'Day One' competences). Currently, much interest and debate surrounds the treatment of production animals, particularly around live export. To explore the attitudes to AWE of veterinary students in Australia and New Zealand, a survey was undertaken to (i) understand what students consider important AWE topics for initial production animal competence; and (ii) ascertain how these priorities correlated with gender, area of intended practice and stage-of-study. The results from 575 veterinary students showed that all students ranked strategies to address painful husbandry procedures as the most important issues on their first day in production animal practice. Additionally, it was found that the importance students assigned to an understanding of human⁻animal interactions declined as they progressed through the veterinary course. In contrast, the importance of an understanding of euthanasia issues for production animals increased for male students as they progressed through the course, and remained consistently high in females. Females also gave higher ranking to the importance of understanding production animal stress associated with transport, and ranked strategies to address painful husbandry procedures more important than did males. These findings should help the development of AWE teaching resources that address students' attitudes and competence and that can be delivered when students are most receptive.

Online Relinquishments of Dogs and Cats in Australia.

While traditionally people relinquish their pets to an animal shelter or pound, the internet provides a newer method to re-home. We analyzed advertisements (ads) on the largest website in Australia for trading dogs and cats: Gumtree. Data was collected in 2016. Dogs were sampled on 7, 16 and 24 February 2016 and cats on 9, 19 and 26 February 2016, with 2640 ads for relinquished dogs, and 2093 ads for relinquished cats. It was estimated >31,000 puppies/dogs and >24,000 kittens/cats are relinquished on Gumtree per year. The median age of dogs was 1.42 and cats 0.9 years of age. There were 23% of dog ads and 62% of cat ads for free animals. Compared to the human population, there were proportionately more ads in Queensland and fewer ads in Victoria. A total of 15 people were surveyed who had relinquished a dog or cat using Gumtree. The dog owners used Gumtree for two reasons: because they believed the shelters were full (n = 4); and they wanted to see/interview the new owner (n = 2). For cat owners: they had originally got the cat on Gumtree (n = 2); they use Gumtree for other things, and it works (n = 2), and; they wanted to see/interview the new owner (n = 2). The data collected will be valuable for implementation of policy and interventions to protect the welfare of unwanted dogs and cats.

Sampling maternal care behaviour in domestic dogs: What's the best approach?

Our understanding of the frequency and duration of maternal care behaviours in the domestic dog during the first two postnatal weeks is limited, largely due to the inconsistencies in the sampling methodologies that have been employed. In order to develop a more concise picture of maternal care behaviour during this period, and to help establish the sampling method that represents these behaviours best, we compared a variety of time sampling methods Six litters were continuously observed for a total of 96h over postnatal days 3, 6, 9 and 12 (24h per day). Frequent (dam presence, nursing duration, contact duration) and infrequent maternal behaviours (anogenital licking duration and frequency) were coded using five different time sampling methods that included: 12-h night (1800-0600h), 12-h day (0600-1800h), one hour period during the night (1800-0600h), one hour period during the day (0600-1800h) and a one hour period anytime. Each of the one hour time sampling method consisted of four randomly chosen 15-min periods. Two random sets of four 15-min period were also analysed to ensure reliability. We then determined which of the time sampling methods averaged over the three 24-h periods best represented the frequency and duration of behaviours. As might be expected, frequently occurring behaviours were adequately represented by short (oneh) sampling periods, however this was not the case with the infrequent behaviour. Thus, we argue that the time sampling methodology employed must match the behaviour of interest. This caution applies to maternal behaviour in altricial species, such as canids, as well as all systematic behavioural observations utilising time sampling methodology.

The Prevalence of Compassion Fatigue among Veterinary Students in Australia and the Associated Psychological Factors.

Compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and other characteristics such as mindfulness and mental health stigma have not been investigated in veterinary students. The aims of this study were twofold: first to determine the prevalence of compassion, satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress among Australian veterinary students and second to investigate the association between these factors and self-stigma, coping, empathy, and mindfulness. A cross-sectional online survey consisting of demographic questions and four validated psychological measures sampled 828 students, with a response rate of 31% (255/828). We obtained a usable sample of completed surveys from 193 of 828 (23%) veterinary students from six of the seven Australian veterinary schools. Bivariate correlations and multiple regression analyses were used to examine associations between the psychological predictors and the outcome variables. Approximately 30% of veterinary students were at high risk of burnout, 24% were at high risk of secondary traumatic stress, and 21% reported low compassion satisfaction. High empathic concern, low personal distress, female gender, and employment history at a veterinary clinic were associated with high compassion satisfaction. High dysfunctional coping, low nonjudgmental and acting-with-awareness mindfulness, and lack of previous employment at a veterinary clinic were associated with high burnout. High dysfunctional coping, low acting-with-awareness mindfulness, high self-stigma, and high personal distress were associated with high secondary traumatic stress. As a result of these findings, certain emotional characteristics can be identified as targets for intervention to minimize the frequency and potentially negative impact of compassion fatigue and burnout in veterinary students.

Effects of induced placental and fetal growth restriction, size at birth and early neonatal growth on behavioural and brain structural lateralization in sheep.

Poor perinatal growth in humans results in asymmetrical grey matter loss in fetuses and infants and increased functional and behavioural asymmetry, but specific contributions of pre- and postnatal growth are unclear. We therefore compared strength and direction of lateralization in obstacle avoidance and maze exit preference tasks in offspring of placentally restricted (PR: 10M, 13F) and control (CON: 23M, 17F) sheep pregnancies at 18 and 40 weeks of age, and examined gross brain structure of the prefrontal cortex at 52 weeks of age (PR: 14M, 18F; CON: 23M, 25F). PR did not affect lateralization direction, but 40-week-old PR females had greater lateralization strength than CON (P = .021). Behavioural lateralization measures were not correlated with perinatal growth. PR did not alter brain morphology. In males, cross-sectional areas of the prefrontal cortex and left hemisphere correlated positively with skull width at birth, and white matter area correlated positively with neonatal growth rate of the skull (all P < .05). These studies reinforce the need to include progeny of both sexes in future studies of neurodevelopmental programming, and suggest that restricting in utero growth has relatively mild effects on gross brain structural or behavioural lateralization in sheep.

Horse Injury during Non-Commercial Transport: Findings from Researcher-Assisted Intercept Surveys at Southeastern Australian Equestrian Events.

Equine transportation research has largely focused on the commercial land movement of horses. Data on the incidence and factors associated with horse injuries during non-commercial transportation (privately owned horse trucks and trailers) is scant. This study surveyed 223 drivers transporting horses to 12 equestrian events in southeastern Australia. Data collected encompassed driver demographics, travel practice, vehicle characteristics, and incidents involving horse injury. Approximately 25% (55/223) of participants reported that their horses were injured during transportation. Of these 72% were owner classified as horse associated (scrambling, slipping and horse-horse interaction), 11% due to mechanical failure, and 6% due to driver error. Horse injury was not significantly associated with driver age, gender, or experience. Participants that answer the telephone whilst driving were more likely to have previously had a horse injured ( p = 0.04). There was a trend for participants with <8 hours sleep prior to the survey to have experienced a previous transportation-related injury ( p = 0.056). Increased trailer age was associated with a greater number of injury reports (r² = 0.20; p < 0.04). The diversity in trailer models prevented identification of the importance of individual design features. This study highlights the potential for horses to sustain transportation injuries in privately owned vehicles and warrants further study to address this risk to their welfare.

Influence of the Environment on Body Temperature of Racing Greyhounds.

Heat strain is a potential risk factor for racing greyhounds in hot climates. However, there have been limited studies into the incidence of heat strain (when excess heat causes physiological or pathological effects) in racing greyhounds. The aim of this study was to determine if heat strain occurs in racing greyhounds, and, if so, whether environmental factors (e.g., ambient temperature and relative humidity) or dog-related factors (e.g., sex, bodyweight, color) are associated with the risk of heat strain. A total of 229 greyhounds were included in over 46 race meetings and seven different race venues in South Australia, Australia. Rectal temperatures of dogs were measured pre- and postrace and urine samples collected for analysis of myoglobinuria. Ambient temperature at race times ranged between 11.0 and 40.8°C and relative humidity ranged from 17 to 92%. There was a mean increase in greyhound rectal temperature of 2.1°C (range 1.1-3.1°C). A small but significant association was present between ambient temperature and increase in rectal temperature (r (2) = 0.033, P = 0.007). The mean ambient temperature at race time, of dogs with postrace rectal temperature of or exceeding 41.5°C, was significantly greater than at race time of dogs with a postrace rectal temperature ≤41.5°C (31.2 vs. 27.3°C, respectively, P = 0.004). When the ambient temperature reached 38(o)C, over one-third (39%) of dogs had a rectal temperature >41.5°C. Over half of postrace urine samples were positive by Dipstick reading for hemoglobin/myoglobin, and of 77 urine samples positive for Dipstick readings, 95% were positive for myoglobin. However, urinary myoglobin levels were not associated with ambient temperature or postrace rectal temperatures. The mean increase in rectal temperature was greater in dark (black, blue, brindle) than light (fawn and white) colored greyhounds. The results suggest heat strain occurs in racing greyhounds, evidenced by postrace rectal temperatures over 41.5°C and postrace myoglobinuria. Risk of heat strain may be increased in higher ambient temperatures and in darker colored greyhounds. Further research into the incidence of heat strain in racing greyhounds, and longer term physiological responses to heat strain, are warranted.

Programming the brain: Common outcomes and gaps in knowledge from animal studies of IUGR.

IUGR in humans is associated with impaired pre- and postnatal neurodevelopment, and subsequent postnatal cognition, resulting in lower IQ, poorer memory, visuomotor and executive function skills, as well as behavioural and attentional problems. Experimental models of IUGR are needed to allow direct testing of causality and interventions, and have benefits in reducing both confounding by comorbidities such as prematurity, and variation due to environment and genetics. This review describes and discusses experimental models of IUGR in which neurodevelopmental and cognitive outcomes of IUGR have been reported. We consider the timing of neurodevelopment relative to birth and to the period of restriction, as well as the effects of each experimental perturbation on the fetal environment and development, before discussing neurodevelopmental and cognitive outcomes for progeny as fetuses, neonates and into adolescent and adult life. Experimental IUGR induces broadly similar outcomes to human IUGR, with altered brain morphology, in particular grey matter loss and discordant trajectory of white matter development, and poorer cognition and memory reported in various studies. Nevertheless, there remain gaps in knowledge of neurodevelopment in experimental models. We end the review with recommendations for the design of future studies to further investigate the mechanisms underlying adverse neurodevelopmental consequences of IUGR, and to evaluate interventions that may subsequently improve outcomes of IUGR in humans.