Safer sport for animals

Press, 29 September 1988, Page 20

Safer sport for animals

THE loss of expensive horses and dogs from injuries received in sporting events could be reduced as a result of the establishment of a chair in comparative biomedical sciences at Bristol University’s veterinary sciences school in south-west England. Believed to be the first of its kind in Britain, a research unit created by the chair will be headed by Professor Allen Goodship, who has pioneered a number of new techniques that included the implant of carbon fibres in horses with tendon injuries. A SNZ2.7 million gift by the British Marlborough Leisure Park Company endowed the chair and allows Professor Goodship to expand his

interest in skeletal tissues, bones, tendons and joints, and the way that they respond to their mechanical and biological envir o n - ment. Information obtained during the research programme will be used to investigate injuries to animals used for sporting events in terms of understanding and treating the injuries and preventing them from occurring, by concentrating on the way in which animals are trained and the way in which courses are designed on which they run. "Eventually we will build up the unit at the University’s clinical centre,” said Professor Goodship. “We will also extend the laboratories in the anatomy department and direct some of the

research on exercise physiology at a new racetrack and training centre to be built nearby by the sponsors.” Eventually at the clinical centre there will be swimming pools and all-weather surfaced exercise areas to check the effects of rehabilitation and training on injured animals plus laboratories and specially equipped surgical and radiological departments to complement the existing facilities. Professor Goodship continued: “In human medicine there is a specific interest in sports medicine and we hope to bring this to the veterinary field to advance equine knowledge in particular and athletic knowledge in general.” London Press Service