MVB student Annie Lin represents UCD at the WVC

Annie Lin, a Stage 3 MVB (Graduate Entry) student from the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine represented UCD at the 33rd World Veterinary Congress (WVC) in Korea in August.  Annie was the only representative from UCD to present at the WVC.  Her poster was featured in the Internal Medicine Section and was entitled:

Evaluation of Iris-pupillary Ratio as a Non-Invasive Biomarker of Higher Sympathetic Activity in Hypertensive Canines and Felines

This project was based on the hypothesis that measuring pupil diameter (pupillometry) could be used as a stress marker in animals. It is a well established practice in medicine but there has been little work done in the veterinary field. The images of canine and feline eyes were collected by two students, Annie Lin and Colleen Bourque (who graduated this summer) and the data analysis was done by Dr Arun Kumar from the Veterinary Biosciences section. 

This work is part of a larger project being undertaken by Dr’s Arun Kumar and David Kilroy which aims to determine the effectiveness of pupillometry as a non-invasive bio-marker of stress in a variety of species, both domestic and wild.  Data obtained on poultry are currently being analysed and another large scale study of dairy cows stress is underway.

Well done and congratulations to Annie and everyone involved in the project!