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Are you a horse breeder and interested in listening to an update on our work? You can now watch Mandi's seminar on 'Update on Pregnancy Loss' and other talks from the ISER Breeders Day July 2018 by following this link. 

July 2018

Mandi, Jessica and undergraduate research student Hatti Smart along with our collaborator Dr Madeleine Campbell have spent a week in Cambridge attending and presenting at ISERXII, an international gathering of 300 scientists and veterinary surgeons working in the field of equine reproduction. David Dugdale, the chairman of the local organising committee along with Barry Ball, chairman of the International committee put together an exciting programme of science and networking events. Fantastic to see all four abstracts from the Equine Pregnancy Laboratory presented as oral presentations. Congratulations to all members of the group including both those attending and those back at the lab who kept things ticking along in our absence. If you are interested in reading about the work presented by the equine pregnancy lab, our abstracts can be found on page 100, 178, 229 and 233 in the Journal of Equine Science supplement below. 

In mid-September, Mandi travelled to Liverpool to present work from the laboratory on stud farm management and risk factors for pregnancy loss at the Annual BEVA Congress. It turned out to be a most enjoyable meeting, providing a great opportunity to discuss our work with clinicians in the field. Congratulations to the organisers and the excellent RVC Vet Students (You did us proud!) who supported them.

In September, Mandi and Belinda headed up to Manchester to attend the International Federation of Placenta Associations Annual Meeting. Over 400 scientists and clinicians who are experts in clinical and basic science aspects of the placenta and pregnancy gathered from around the world to present and discuss the latest research in Placental Biology and Pregnancy. Belinda presented work from her PhD on ‘Profiling of structural genomic variants in placentae from mares that suffer early pregnancy loss’ for which she was a recipient of a Y.W. (Charlie) Loke Award for Early Career Researchers received in a ceremony on the first night of the conference. Congratulations Belinda!

Mandi has been up in Newmarket and Cambridge this week in her capacity as a member of the International Symposium of Equine Reproduction local organising committee which is hosting ISER XII. With exactly one year to go, the committee has been finalising the accommodation and conference rooms. Lots of highlights at our visit to Churchill College including modern architecture, beautiful grounds and viewing of a mature oak tree planted by Sir Winston Churchill.

This is a 3-year project funded by the HBLB and the Racing Foundation lead by Professor Kristien Verheyen in collaboration with Dr Mandi de Mestre, Professor Renate Weller, Dr Shebl Salem and PhD student Rebecca Mouncey. In this new collaboration, the equine pregnancy laboratory has extended our interests to better understand how exposures in early fetal life can impact on long term adult musculoskeletal health.   Lead Investigator, Professor Kristien Verheyen, has a particular interest in early life exercise (foal, weanling, yearling) and how that relates to productivity of the industry, injuries and performance. Therefore, there seemed to be an excellent opportunity to align our interests and perform a longitudinal cohort study to look at exposures throughout a horses life from in utero and beyond and then relate these exposures to injuries and performance and as well as industry productivity. We are currently recruiting stud farms to work with us on the project. If you are interested in understanding new ways to maximise your productivity and minimise injuries, please see our current projects pages for more details or contact Prof Kristien Verheyen kverheyen@rvc.ac.uk or Dr Mandi de Mestre ademestre@rvc.ac.uk. 

Undergraduate veterinary student, Hatti Smart, presented her research from the lab at the conference ‘Little embryos do make big decisions’ in Southampton on Friday 7th July. Well done Hatti!

On July 3^rd the Equine Pregnancy Lab held a Research Update evening at Rossdales Equine Hospital for the breeders and vets in Newmarket and the surrounding area. Belinda started the evening by presenting the findings of her work on early pregnancy loss (EPL) and introducing the aims of her next project, exploring the genetics of placental development and EPL, funded by the Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Jess followed up by providing a review of late term pregnancy losses as well as discussing the impact umbilical cord torsions have as a cause of abortion in the Thoroughbred industry and how we will explore this over the next 4 years. Her project, funded by the Alborada Trust, relies heavily on the involvement of the studs and vets in order to provide materials and data for investigation therefore it was great to see the enthusiasm from everyone to tackle this problem as an industry. There was a great turn out to the evening and it allowed not only for us to provide updates on the research at RVC but also a chance for everyone to catch up and unwind after a busy breeding season. 

Belinda Rose did an excellent job defending her PhD thesis on Friday 9th June when examined by reproductive biologist Professor Tom Stout (Utrecht University) and epidemiologist Dr Tim Parkin (Glasgow University). Aspects of her PhD titled ‘Risk factors and pathologies associated with early pregnancy loss’ have been published in Placenta Journal (Rose et al, 2016) with further publications in preparation. Belinda has received a fellowship to continue her work in the lab for three more years on early pregnancy loss as a postdoctoral fellow. Congratulations Belinda!

Belinda Rose presenting her work at Fertility 2017 in Edinburgh in January.

The 15th June held the centenary Annual Seminar of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association : ‘Solving Breeders’ Problems’.  Industry experts discussed a variety of topics including the effect of Brexit on the racing industry, equine vaccine supplies and concerns regarding African horse sickness. Belinda Rose and Mandi de Mestre were invited to present their work on risk factors relating to early pregnancy loss and factors affecting early embryonic growth. The day proved a great success and provided a superb opportunity to discuss the research findings with industry staff and owner breeders.

Mandi and Belinda presenting at the TBA seminar

Both Belinda and Jess presented work at the annual Post Graduate Research day held by the RVC. Jess presented a poster abstract: “Unravelling genetic and environmental contributions to Equine abortions associated with umbilical pathologies”, detailing her work to date and outline for the next 4 years on how she is going to investigate abortions resulting from umbilical cord pathologies. Belinda presented a 15 minute talk on the Risk factors and pathologies associated with early pregnancy loss. The whole day was a success and it was a great opportunity to see the fantastic work carried out by other research groups at the RVC.

This month we welcomed veterinary surgeon, Jessica Roach to the lab, who will be completing a 4 year PhD with the group. Jess graduated from the ÐÂÔÂÖ±²¥ in 2013, then undertook two internships in the USA, including an ambulatory internship at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Kentucky. She also worked for a short period in Newmarket but returned to Kentucky for the 2016 breeding season to work as an Associate and resident vet at a large stud farm, again for Rood and Riddle. We are looking forward to the outcome of her studies on equine abortion.