Partner Spotlight: Australian Shepherd Health & Genetics Institute
When the Australian Shepherd Health & Genetics Institute (ASHGI) was established, the goals were simple yet challenging: address health concerns in the breed, provide owner education and assist breeders with pedigree and genetic services. Almost 20 years later, ASHGI continues its work, including funding studies at the Foundation that tackle some of the breed’s biggest health challenges.
Your Gifts in Action
For more than 70 years, Morris Animal Foundation has been a global leader in funding studies to advance animal health. With the help of generous donors like you, we are improving the health and well-being of dogs, cats, horses and wildlife worldwide.
Solving the Puzzle of Dogs, Environmental Toxins & Cancer
Could certain dogs be more at risk for developing environmentally associated cancers? Dr. Lauren Trepanier, a Morris Animal Foundation-funded cancer researcher, thinks this may be the case. She’s had boxers all her life and the three she’s owned as an adult all have developed different forms of lymphoma. After her last dog, Tucker, developed the disease in his brain, she was fed up and started asking questions.
Spillovers, Zoonoses and Emerging Diseases in the Time of COVID-19
The recent pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus has shone a spotlight on how infectious organisms can move from one species to another, including from one species of animal to another, animals to people and even people to animals (reverse zoonosis). As barriers between animals and people and countries around the world fall, infectious disease outbreaks will continue to be a global problem.
Your Dog Could Be a Golden Oldie
The Golden Retriever Lifetime Study team is looking for golden retrievers over 12 years of age that have never been diagnosed with cancer to participate as control subjects in a cancer research project. Dr. Erin Hales, postdoctoral fellow with the Study, is studying genetic changes that may contribute to cancer in golden retrievers. Older dogs (older than dogs enrolled in the Study) are needed as controls.
Ambassadors for Cancer Research
For Eric and Renee Chester, cancer is personal. They lost their first two golden retrievers to lymphoma and Renee lost both her parents to cancer. Like so many people touched by this disease, Eric and Renee were looking for a way to make a difference.
Saving Pangolins and Changing Lives
When Dr. Jenn Yu applied for an internship with Smithsonian’s Global Health Program, she never imagined the internship would lead to what she hopes will be her life’s work – saving pangolins. Pangolins are one of the most heavily trafficked mammals in Asia and, increasingly, Africa.