Summary: Companion Animal II Symposium

By: Anne Zinn

On Wednesday, July 19, the Companion Animal Symposium featured an awards talk by Dr. Erin Perry. At the beginning of the session, Perry, a professor at Southern Illinois University, was presented with the Corbin Award in Companion Animal Biology. She then shared her current research regarding canine health and hygiene  within the One Health lens. The One Health Initiative is a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals, and the environment with the goal of improving healthcare for all. Using the example of FEMA working dogs, Perry emphasized the importance of caring for animal health as a critical way of caring for human health; she urged animal scientists to get involved with the One Health initiative.

The remainder of the sessions featured presentations by graduate students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, sharing research on various topics, including the effect of hydrolyzed protein on fecal microbiota in adult dogs (Clare Hsu), the effects of daily supplementation of selected probiotic and postbiotic on the microbiome of adult cats (Sergio Miranda de Souza Junior), and the functional properties of ganoderma lucidum supplementation in canine nutrition (Emanuela Kayser).