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RESEARCH NEWS
Sharing the latest brachycephalic research
The RVC has created a Brachycephalic Research Team to bring together expertise that will lead to further world-leading research and also to create an online resource to share information with vets and the wider world.
The interdisciplinary team is made up of clinicians and researchers from across the College, including epidemiology, ophthalmology, neurology, orthopaedics, emergency and critical care, soft tissue surgery, dermatology, anaesthesiology, genetics and ethics.
The team co-ordinates research expertise on brachycephalic companion animals and works together to enhance dissemination of the RVC’s key findings to share insights externally and help to direct decision-making in relation to brachycephalic issues.
The RVC has established itself as a world-leader in brachycephalic research, releasing many peer-reviewed papers
in quality journals. The Brachycephalic Research Team, which is thought to
be the broadest such university-based group in the world, can support vets by
generating, distilling and disseminating research findings across the spectrum
of conditions affecting brachycephalic animals. These findings can then be used to aid client education and guidance on purchase decisions.
Explaining the development and focus of the team, Tas Gohir, Head of Knowledge Transfer and Impact at the RVC, said: “The team offers an opportunity for better external sharing of information by bringing the work together and helping promote it to the outside world. We have a dedicated area on the RVC website where we inform about the totality of the brachycephalic research that the RVC
is doing. We don’t know of any other comparable group in the world that has the same focus on the full spectrum
of brachycephalic research across a spectrum of species.”
“There are many drivers for the current popularity boom of some brachycephalic breeds in dogs, but people may not realise the limited lives that many of these brachycephalic dogs endure
or the associated health risks. These breeds are heavily used in advertising, which further fuels demand for them by
a public that may not see beyond the 'cutesy' images portrayed in the media. The wider vet community can support what we are doing by working with us to make the dog-owning community more aware of health risks. An objective of the new team is to reduce the unprecedented public demand for certain brachycephalic breeds.”
Dr Dan O’Neill, who leads the VetCompass Programme (www.rvc.ac.uk/vetcompass) and is Senior Lecturer in Companion Animal Epidemiology, said: “The immediate goals of the new RVC Brachycephalic Research Team are to collate all the excellent work that has taken place at the RVC over recent decades and then to develop a strategic collaborative plan to increase and enhance the quantity and quality
of this work going forward. We are at a pivotal time for the future direction of brachycephalic research at the RVC.”
To find out more about the RVC’s work on brachycephalic dogs please visit: www.rvc.ac.uk/research/focus/ brachycephaly
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