VCRS SYMPOSIUM, September 28-30 (Tuesday - Thursday)

28th Annual Veterinary Comparative Respiratory Society Meeting

Symposium Theme
"Respiratory Response to Insult - Adaptive or Maladaptive?"

Day 1: Tuesday, Sept 28
Role of Increased Mucus Secretion

Day 2 - Equine Focus Day: Wednesday, Sept 29
Role of Airway Inflammation and Lung Remodeling

Day 3: Thursday, Sept 30
Role of Altered Lung Surfactant

In fitting with the comparative respiratory theme of this society, we hope that this year’s symposium will be of broad interest to clinicians, practitioners, and respiratory researchers alike.

Despite the fact that differences exist in the various respiratory syndromes that occur in humans and across companion, food animal, and lab animal species, common alterations in basic lung responses arise that seemingly contribute directly to the development of chronic respiratory disease states.

Moreover, animals and humans may be similarly exposed to environmental contaminants (e.g., ambient and indoor air pollutants, dusts, particles, aeroallergens, endotoxin, etc). As such, chronic exposure may serve to further perpetuate these non-specific lung responses.

It is critical to better understand how or why an acute (likely beneficial) short-term response, can in some cases persist, in essence becoming a significant component of ongoing disease symptomatology, if not continued lung insult.

In this symposium, we will emphasize how improved understanding of the pathophysiologic changes occurring, with cross species comparisons, may allow for more effective restoration of lung health.

Day 1: Tuesday, Sept 28
Role of Increased Mucus Secretion

9:00-9:45 AM "Inflammation, mucus, and cough: lessons from the dogs." Speaker, Dr. Eleanor C. Hawkins, Professor, Internal Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, College Veterinary Medicine, at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.

10:00-10:45 AM "Regulation and control of mucus in the airways ¾ relevance to hypersecretion in disease states" Speaker, Dr. Kenneth B. Adler, Professor, Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences, College Veterinary Medicine, at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

11:00-11:45 AM "Nasal airway injury induced by toxicant or air pollutant exposure ¾ implications on lower airway function." Speaker, Dr. Stephen A. Carey, Assistant Professor, Small Animal Internal Medicine, within the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, at Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI.

Lunch – included with registration.

Afternoon – Respiratory abstract presentations.

Day 2 - Equine Focus Day: Wednesday, Sept 29
Role of Airway Inflammation and Lung Remodeling

9:00-9:45 AM "Airway disease symptoms in horses and barn personnel: linkage to environmental insult" Speaker, Dr. Melissa R. Mazan, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Sciences and Director of Equine Sports Medicine Program, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, MA.

10:00-10:45 AM "Equine chronic airway disease and the role of airway insult" Speaker, Dr. Scott Pirie, Senior Lecturer in Equine Internal Medicine,The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh.

11:00-11:45 AM "Neutrophil elastase and airway mucous cell remodeling" Speaker, Dr. Judy Voynow, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.

Lunch – included with registration.

Afternoon – Equine respiratory abstract presentations.

7:00 PM - VCRS Banquet and Awards Dinner - including presentation of the Joan O'Brien Research Award, given to outstanding resident or graduate student research presentation.

Day 3: Thursday, Sept 30
Role of Altered Lung Surfactant

9:00-9:45 AM "Understanding drug discovery and development steps for respiratory and inhalation therapies" Speaker, Dr. Ward Peterson, Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC.

10:00-10:45 AM "Role of lung surfactant in respiratory disease: current knowledge in large animal medicine” Speaker, Dr. Undine Christmann, CIRALE - Equine Sports Medicine, Goustranville, France.

11:00-11:45 AM "Surfactant function and dysfunction ¾ relevance to airway disease syndromes in humans" Speaker, Dr. Robert Duncan Hite, Professor and Chief, Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Immunologic Medicine, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC.

11:45 AM – 12:30 PM Meeting wrap up.