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Companion Animal Brain Bank |
Introduction to the Companion Animal Brain Bank (CABB)
Neurological diseases are those that affect the brain, spinal cord or nerves. They can cause severe and debilitating symptoms in humans and companion animals such as dogs, resulting in significant 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 the UK Brain Bank Network in human medicine and with the establishment of the Companion Animal Brain Bank (CABB) at The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies (University of Edinburgh) in veterinary medicine. Brain Banks are a secure store where samples of brain tissue are kept after a patient has died or been euthanised. Researchers in human and veterinary medicine can gain access to this tissue to help them in their research
Companion animals which are euthanised at The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) due to brain diseases are often cremated without post-mortem examinations to determine a diagnosis. This means that these brains are never available for research.
The Royal Veterinary College is setting up a Companion Animal Brain Bank with the goals of:
· Routinely collecting brain tissue from dogs that are euthanised because of brain disease.
· Allowing veterinarians and owners to obtain a more accurate diagnosis of their pet’s brain disease.
· Providing dog brain tissue to human and veterinary researchers across the UK.
· Allowing researchers to gain a better understanding of brain diseases at a cellular and molecular level.
· Providing 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.
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 the UK Brain Bank Network in human medicine and with the establishment of the Companion Animal Brain Bank (CABB) at The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies (University of Edinburgh) in veterinary medicine. Brain Banks are a secure store where samples of brain tissue are kept after a patient has died or been euthanised. Researchers in human and veterinary medicine can gain access to this tissue to help them in their research
Companion animals which are euthanised at The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) due to brain diseases are often cremated without post-mortem examinations to determine a diagnosis. This means that these brains are never available for research.
The Royal Veterinary College is setting up a Companion Animal Brain Bank with the goals of:
· Routinely collecting brain tissue from dogs that are euthanised because of brain disease.
· Allowing veterinarians and owners to obtain a more accurate diagnosis of their pet’s brain disease.
· Providing dog brain tissue to human and veterinary researchers across the UK.
· Allowing researchers to gain a better understanding of brain diseases at a cellular and molecular level.
· Providing 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.
This survey will explore your opinions on setting up a Companion Animal Brain Bank at the RVC.
Ethical information
Ethical information
This project has been reviewed and approved by the Royal Veterinary College Research & Ethics Board (Number : URN SR2017-1327). Taking part in this survey is entirely voluntary and we greatly appreciate your time and interest in participating. You are under no obligation to answer all the questions. The data obtained from your answers will solely be used for research purposes and shall remain confidential, with access restricted to the research team (Mr Daniel Jewth-Ahuja, Dr Tom Cardy, Dr Rowena Packer). This information has the potential to be used in scientific publications whereby the identity of you and your pet will continue to remain anonymous in all published and written data. Anonymised research data will be securely archived at the Royal Veterinary College.
If you have any queries relating to this project as a whole or this survey please contact me (Mr Daniel Jewth-Ahuja) via email on djewth2@rvc.ac.uk .