Animal Infection and Immunity
Research in Infection and Immunity is wide ranging and involves bacterial pathogens, including Salmonella (Barrow, Jones, Foster, Tötemeyer), Campylobacter (Jones, Barrow) and Lawsonia (McOrist), viruses including Equine Herpes Virus (Kydd, Hannant) and Equine Arteritis Virus (Hannant), and Sarcocystis and Besnoitia parasites (El-Sheikha). Hosts studied range from pigs and poultry, through mice, to horses and dogs.
Particular emphasis is placed on interactions between pathogen and host and how this can be exploited via stimulation of either the adaptive or innate immune response. The new technologies of genome sequencing and post-genomic gene expression analysis, including microarrays, are exploited as are novel approaches to infection control.
The School plays an important part in the collaborative BBSRC / SEERAD-funded programme "The Immunological Toolbox", which is developing reagents and assays that are making significant contributions to research progress in many areas of veterinary immunology, both nationally and internationally.
Animal Population Health and Welfare
The aim of the Population Health group is to develop outstanding health and welfare in domestic animals with a current emphasis on endemic diseases of dairy cattle. The group’s activities include fundamental and applied research, undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, clinical disease investigations and knowledge transfer to the veterinary profession and farming industry.
Current research interests include epidemiological approaches to controlling mastitis using Bayesian approaches to modelling and prediction (Green), investigation and control of lameness (Huxley, Green), the use of biotechnology such as pedometers and global positioning (Green, Huxley) and the effects of nutrition on health and production (Kendall, Green, Huxley).
Comparative Medicine
There are significant advantages to using spontaneous disease in domesticated animals as models of human disease and, within the School, the impact of a number of genetic and environmental variables upon the domestic species are being investigated in an effort to enhance our understanding of the pathological processes that lead to morbidity and mortality in both animals and humans.
The impact of the prenatal environment on long term postnatal development, physiology and pathology are linked to dietary and exercise regimes in the postnatal animal (Gardner). The effects of age, genetic background and exercise regime upon the cardiovascular system are being assessed in both horses and dogs (Bowen, Cobb). The impact of changes in the prenatal and postnatal environment on skeletal muscle growth, wasting and insulin sensitivity is being assessed (Loughna, Gardner, Rauch, Mobasheri) as is the role of environmental and nutritional factors in the development of vascular and orthopaedic diseases in the horse (Mobasheri).
To further understand the similarities and differences in disease processes between species, the role of the cell membrane and specific intracellular signalling pathways in response to mechanical and cytokine signalling is being examined in a range of species (Mobasheri, Loughna, Rauch, Bowen).
In addition, there are collaborations with academic staff in the Medical School and the School of Biosciences who are united by broad interests in regulation, integration, and homeostasis in health and in disease. Specific areas of research include volume homeostasis, obesity, inflammation, cytokines and nutritional phytochemistry.
Reproductive Biology
Reproductive biology research in the vet school encompasses a range of complimentary projects designed to investigate: fertility in dairy cows (Robinson, Lea, Kendall), environmental and nutritional influences on reproductive function across species (e.g., sheep, dogs, humans) (Lea, England, Kendall) and intra-uterine influences on postnatal wellbeing (Gardner, Lea, England, Robinson).
Ongoing mechanistic studies are focused on ovarian biology and function (Robinson, Lea, Kendall), sperm physiology and fertilisation (England Lea), embryo-uterine interactions during early pregnancy (Robinson, Lea, England), effects of environmental chemicals on gonadal development and function (Lea, Kendall, England, Gardner), fetal programming of adult disease and dysfunction (Gardner, Lea, England, Robinson).
Technologies include post-genomic gene expression analysis including epigenetics, localisation of genes and gene products, explant and primary cell culture, cellular and whole animal imaging and whole animal in-vivo physiology.
Veterinary Educational Development
The School has evolved a number of educational development research projects which capitalise on the opportunities offered by developing a new curriculum. These projects assess the impact of the curriculum and its delivery on behaviours and skills at the point of graduation, and will inform the process of development, improvement, evaluation and dissemination of innovations within veterinary education internationally.
Areas of particular focus currently include the tracking of traditional subjects like microbiology which are “hidden” within the integrated curriculum (Hammond, Jones), an assessment of effectiveness of the unique admissions process in identifying the most appropriate students of the course (Braithwaite, Kydd, Tötemeyer), the effectiveness of the delivery and integration of personal and professional skills (Mossop), evaluating student learning within the new curriculum (Freeman, K Cobb, Mossop), practical teaching which integrates basic and clinical science (Freeman, Roshier) and the impact of the use of a dispersed model for delivery of clinical experience in facilities not owned by the school (M Cobb, Green).
The School has established links with the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (IRLTHE), the School of Education, within the University of Nottingham, and is developing collaborative links with educational research units at other UK Veterinary Schools.