RVC Companion Animal Brain Bank project - can you help?
The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) are investigating opinions on setting up a Companion Animal Brain Bank.
Neurological diseases (those affecting the brain, spinal cord or nerves) can cause severe and debilitating symptoms in humans and companion animals, resulting in lifelong challenges for carers and owners.
Many brain diseases currently have no effective treatments and research is restricted by a lack of available brain tissue to carry out research on. This restriction is being overcome by establishing brain banks, secure stores where samples of brain tissue are kept after a patient has died or been euthanised.
The goals of the Royal Veterinary College’s Companion Animal Brain Bank are to:
Routinely collect brain tissue from dogs that are euthanised because of brain disease.
Allow veterinarians and owners to obtain a more accurate diagnosis of their pet’s brain disease.
Provide dog brain tissue to human and veterinary researchers across the UK.
Allow researchers to gain a better understanding of brain diseases at a cellular and molecular level.
Provide comparisons between human and dog brain diseases to better understand how brain diseases work. In turn this could lead to novel or improved treatments for pets and humans.
RVC would like owners to complete their survey and share their views on brain banks:
Companion Animal Brain Bank Survey
If you would like more information, please email final year vet student Daniel, who is coordinating this study on djewth2@rvc.ac.uk
This project has been reviewed and approved by the Royal Veterinary College Research & Ethics Board (Number : URN SR2017-1327).