This seminar will review the immunomodulatory drugs we commonly use for immunomodulation in small animal practice. A review of the literature will provide the evidence for support of efficacy and use practices. A special emphasis on mycophenolate mofetil and upcoming studies will be included.
This presentation will consider pathomechanisms, diagnostic approaches, and treatment options for immune-mediated hemolytic anemia in dogs and cats, following guidelines for best practice published in our two Consensus Statements on this topic as well as more recent data emerging in the field. It will be suitable for general practitioners, residents, and all clinicians with an interest in clinical immunology. The presentation will adopt a practical, evidence-based approach.
This presentation will describe the clinical signs associated with a potential underlying immunodeficiency indications for immunologic testing, interpretation of results for the young and adult horses, and limitations in diagnostics and diagnosis of immunodeficiencies.
This presentation will describe certain diseases of B cells in dogs, including small cell B cell neoplasms and polyclonal B cell lymphocytosis of English bulldogs, and the utility of flow cytometry and clonality testing in diagnosing lymphoid malignancies.
Some infections and immune mediated diseases can share similar clinical signs and laboratory abnormalities. This seminar will explore the use immunosuppressive therapies in dogs and cats when the underlying disease process has not been established as either infectious or immune-mediated. In addition, immunosuppressive medications can lead to adverse effects including secondary infections. The seminar will discuss management of a patient that has received immunosuppressive and developed a secondary infection.
This seminar will provide a historical perspective of passive immunization of foals to prevent R. equi pneumonia, discuss some recent studies, and finish with discussing the concept of using mRNA-encoded monoclonal antibodies for passive immunization.
Immune-mediated brain disease, often referred to by the umbrella term ‘meningoencephalomyelitis of unknown origin [MUO]’, is common in dogs but its etiology remains unclear. MUO bears some similarity with multiple sclerosis in people, which in turn has been modelled by the artificially induced disease ‘experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis [EAE]’ in rats and mice. During the early 2010s, work in mice established that the severity of EAE could be altered depending on the microbial components of the gastrointestinal tract. Specific bacterial species have since been associated with adjustments in balance between pro- and anti- inflammatory activity in the immune system. In a case-control study we found that gastrointestinal Prevotella spp were reduced in abundance in dogs that had MUO, suggesting that manipulation of the gut microbiome might be a means to ameliorate disease severity. We are now carrying out a second study to investigate this hypothesis.