July 24, 2008

A $1.7 million grant will be used by University of Florida to improve the lives of animals in shelters by researching infectious diseases. (Pet Pulse Design by Mike Lloyd)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -– A new $1.7 million grant awarded to the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine is aimed at improving the lives of animals in shelters by helping to fight infectious diseases, prevalent in such facilities.

The three-year grant came from the non profit Maddie’s Fund, a pet rescue foundation, and is going toward a shelter medicine program that began July 1. The program will train veterinary students, offer continuing education for vets and technicians, and provide consulting services to shelters.

Research will focus on the diseases and problems common to shelters.

Linda Miles, executive director of Jefferson County SPCA in Watertown, NY, told Pet Pulse that the potential spread of disease is one of the paramount challenges shelters face.

“Particularly cats, when you crowd them into a small area, they pass a lot of different diseases,” Miles said. “Upper respiratory, things like that, that they might not get if they were in a wider space, and if they were allowed to come into an isolation ward first, and then into a holding area, and then up for adoption.”

Lack of space and overcrowding are common shelter issues due to lack of funding, Miles says. A private facility, the Jefferson County SPCA limits the number of animals it takes in.

“Because we want to make sure that we don’t get the disease problems,” Miles said. “Because I’d rather have 100 healthy animals than 150 animals that are going to die because I made them sick.”

Aside from infectious diseases, animal shelters must also respond to more veterinary emergencies than typical vet offices.

“Sometimes we’ll get animals in that are nothing but skin and bone,” Miles said. “Or they’ll have serious upper respiratory, or they’ll have serious wounds, or they haven’t been treated.

“So that makes an expense that’s really not in your budget, so it creates a problem.”

Another obstacle unique to shelters is that most animals they take in have little or no medical history. The Jefferson County SPCA is fortunate to have a vet on its premises to help with diagnoses.

“We have access to him but we still have to pay for him,” Miles said, laughing. “So it can get expensive.”

The University of Florida’s grant, Miles says, could have been used for an even better cause than researching shelter medicine.

“I almost wish the money had gone into making shelters bigger to prevent the diseases, rather than the study of them, she said.

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