RVC Supervisors: Professor David Brodbelt, Dr Dan O'Neill

Non-RVC Supervisor: Dr. Kendy Tzu-yun Teng (Department of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan)

Department: Pathobiology and Population Sciences

Background, aims and objectives:

Quantifying the overall disease burden within breed can identify the most impactful disorders affecting canine health, explore changing canine  health over time, and simulate the consequences of major changes in breed distributions on overall canine population health. Much work has been done on human disease burdens and more recently in production animals, but little work has been undertaken in dogs. Collecting data on health from 30% of UK veterinary practices, VetCompass has reported on the frequency of diseases seen overall in dogs and has reported on duration and severity for some common disorders. However, the next important step is to build on this background to now establish the overall disease burden within key breeds, to understand the impacts of common disorders on their quality and duration of life and use this information to explore the broader canine welfare impact of changing ownership of these key breeds over time.  

This PhD studentship will establish the disease burden in common breeds within VetCompass. The frequency, severity, time spent with illness and years lost through early mortality for common conditions will be established from VetCompass electronic patient records within these dog breeds. Using measures developed previously and adapting work from the human health, the student will develop measures of years of life lost due to these diseases as well as estimates of time spent with impaired health, to contribute to summary indicators of adverse health impacts due to common diseases that are comparable across common breeds. The student will develop statistical models to simulate the impact of changing ownership patterns in the key breeds on the overall burden of disease for dogs in the UK. This novel approach will generate models of the cost to overall canine health from a range of different potential ownership combinations for key breeds that can support an evidence based approach for ongoing human behaviour change work on breed acquisition in the UK and worldwide.

References

1.  Summers JF, O’Neill DG, Church D, Collins L, Sargan D, Brodbelt DC. Health related welfare prioritisation of canine disorders using electronic health records in primary care practice in the UK. BMC Vet Res. 2019;15(1):163.
2. Teng KT, Devleesschauwer B, Maertens De Noordhout C, Bennett P, McGreevy PD, Chiu P-Y, et al. (2018) Welfare-Adjusted Life Years (WALY): A novel metric of animal welfare that combines the impacts of impaired welfare and abbreviated lifespan. PLoS ONE 13(9):
3. Teng KT, Brodbelt DC, Pegram C, Church DB, O'Neill DG. Life tables of annual life expectancy and mortality for companion dogs in the United Kingdom. Sci Rep. 2022 Apr 28;12(1):6415. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-10341-6. PMID: 35484374; PMCID: PMC9050668

Requirements

Essential:

• Have epidemiological and research experience
• Ability to work with large datasets
• A degree in the biological sciences or veterinary medicine / nursing
• Must meet our standard PhD entry requirements including English language 

Desirable:

• A primary degree in veterinary medicine
• Experience of primary-care companion animal veterinary practice
• Masters in epidemiology or related subject
• Good publication track record
• Prior experience of working with electronic health records
• Evidence of prior work in canine health and welfare

Fees and Funding

This is a 3-year fully-funded studentship, funded by the Dogs Trust. This funding covers 'Home' rate tuition fees and a stipend. The studentship will commence on Tuesday 1st October 2024 at the RVC's Hawkshead campus.

This studentship is open to applicants eligible for "Home" fees. International applicants are welcome to apply but must be able to fund the difference between "Home" and "Overseas" tuition fees. 

EU/EEA and Swiss national students starting studies in the 2021/22 academic year or later academic years may no longer be eligible to pay the “home” rate of tuition fees nor claim any financial support for their studies dependent on your personal circumstances (including immigration status and residence history in the UK). To help determine whether you would be eligible for home fees please see the UKCISA's 'Who pays 'home' fees for higher education in England?' guide found here.

If you are interested in applying for this PhD project, please follow the link below. Please use your personal statement to demonstrate any previous skills or experience you have in using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

How to Apply

For more information on the application process and English Language requirements see How to Apply.

Interviews will take place in person at our Camden campus on the morning of the 16th May.

We welcome informal enquiries - these should be directed to Prof Dave Brodbelt dbrodbelt@rvc.ac.uk or Dr Dan O’Neill doneill@rvc.ac.uk  

Deadline: 14/04/2024

Supervisors: Dr Collette Taylor, Prof Dave Brodbelt, Dr Dan O’Neill and Dr Sandra Guillen 

Department: Pathobiology and Population Sciences and Clinical Science and Services 

Project Details

Background: 

Mast cell tumours (MCT) are a common cancer in dogs (Shoop et al., 2015). Some studies have reported that factors such as MCT location and number and dog breed could affect the aggressiveness of the cancer and survival time with a MCT diagnosis (Kiupel et al., 2005; Smiech et al., 2018).  

This project will explore the frequency of MCT in dogs and factors associated with survival using two populations: the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study (GRLS) and VetCompass. Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) has established a lifetime cohort of Golden Retrievers (GRLS) in the US, which is now nearing the end of its life (Guy et al. 2015). VetCompass collects anonymised electronic patient records (EPRs) from a large number of clinics across the UK. Using lifetime data in VetCompass and the GRLS cohort, the survival time of dogs diagnosed with MCTs of different histological grades and locations will be explored. Associations between survival and signalment, lifestyle and animal factors will be evaluated. 

Objectives: 

1. To estimate an updated frequency of MCTs across all types of dogs in the UK within VetCompass and determine the frequency of MCTs in the GRLS cohort  
2. Report MCT survival times in both the GRLS cohort and dogs in the UK within VetCompass  
3. Explore lifestyle, animal and tumour factors associated with survival time in both populations  

Method: 

Using the GRLS cohort of approximately 3,000 Golden Retrievers with a complete life history, MCT cases will be identified. Factors associated with MCT survival will be derived from data from the yearly owner and veterinarian questionnaires and will focus on tumour/s location, animal signalment and lifestyle (diet, activity, home environment, location).  In the VetCompass study, cases of MCT will be identified from the electronic health records of dogs under veterinary care within VetCompass during 2016. Survival time and factors associated with this will be explored.

References

1. Guy, M. K., R. L. Page, W. A. Jensen, P. N. Olson, J. D. Haworth, E. E. Searfoss and D. E. Brown (2015). "The Golden Retriever Lifetime Study: establishing an observational cohort study with translational relevance for human health." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 370(1673).  

2. Kiupel M, Webster JD, Miller RA, Kaneene JB. Impact of tumour depth, tumour location and multiple synchronous masses on the prognosis of canine cutaneous mast cell tumours. J Vet Med A Physiol Pathol Clin Med. 2005 Aug;52(6):280-6. Doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0442.2005.00726.x. PMID: 16050909.  

3. Shoop, S., S. Marlow, D. Church, K. English, P. McGreevy, A. Stell, P. Thomson, D. O'Neill and D. Brodbelt (2015). "Prevalence and risk factors for mast cell tumours in dogs in England." Canine Genetics and Epidemiology 2(1): 1.   

4. Śmiech, A., Ślaska, B., Łopuszyński, W. et al. Epidemiological assessment of the risk of canine mast cell tumours based on the Kiupel two-grade malignancy classification. Acta Vet Scand 60, 70 (2018).   

Requirements

Essential:

• Must meet our standard MRes entry requirements.
• Do not need to be a vet or have an epidemiological background but must have a background in animal science. 

Desirable:

• Experience of primary-care veterinary practice.
• A primary degree in veterinary medicine.
• Clinical experience and interest in oncology.
• Experience of epidemiology.

This can be taken full-time or part-time (12months FTE), project commencing in October 2024, based at RVC's Hawkshead campus. 

Funding

Fully Funded: The project costs and “Home” tuition fees are covered by funding from Morris Animal Foundation. The student will receive a stipend. 

International applicants are welcome to apply but must be able to fund the difference between "Home" and "Overseas" tuition fees. Please note that EU/EEA and Swiss national students may no longer be eligible for the “Home” rate of tuition fees, dependent on personal circumstances (including immigration status and residence history in the UK) and UK government rules which are currently being developed. For up-to-date information on fees for EU/EEA and Swiss national students following Brexit please see our fees and funding page. 

How to Apply

For more information on the application process and English Language requirements see How to Apply.

Deadline: 1pm UK time, Friday 5th April

We welcome informal enquiries - these should be directed to Dr Collette Taylor (ctaylor18@rvc.ac.uk)

Interview date and location: TBC