{"id":62607,"date":"2012-01-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-animal-doc-named-veterinarian-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2012-01-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T00:00:00","slug":"uri-animal-doc-named-veterinarian-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/01\/uri-animal-doc-named-veterinarian-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 animal doc named Veterinarian of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tRichmond resident says he was \u2018born a veterinarian\u2019<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 3, 2012 \u2013 David Serra maintains a veterinary practice in Richmond where he enjoys caring for the dogs and cats and other pets of local residents. But his passion is looking out for the welfare of the animals at the 溏心vlog免费B站, from rats and mice used in research labs to the fish in tanks at the Narragansett Bay Campus and livestock at Peckham Farm.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI never remember wanting to be anything but a veterinarian,\u201d said Serra, who grew up in Westerly and now lives in Richmond. \u201cI was born a veterinarian.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tSerra\u2019s commitment to caring for the University\u2019s animals was recognized last month when the Southern New England chapter of the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science named him its Veterinarian of the Year.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 溏心vlog免费B站 attending veterinarian works closely with individual researchers and the University\u2019s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to ensure that all animals are cared for and treated appropriately. In this work, he is guided by the federal Animal Welfare Act and the animal welfare policies of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, which fund most of the research involving animals.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMost of what I do is preventive medicine,\u201d Serra explains. \u201cA big part of what I do is to ensure that the diseases inherent to these species don\u2019t gain entrance to the animal colonies on campus. Screening for diseases and vigilance with surveillance are key.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tSerra said that while he looks out for the health of individual animals, the care of laboratory animals is more often described as \u201cherd health.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThere are very few things that happen to one animal in a cage,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever is going to happen usually happens to all the animals.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWhile advances in technology have led Serra to face new challenges \u2013 like the unique issues faced by mice used in transgenic studies \u2013 he is proud to note that technology has also resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of laboratory animals used in research.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cUsing new technologies, we can study a great deal about nature before we have to use an animal,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve refined our approach to how we are going to use animals, and in doing so we\u2019re saving a lot of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAs a result of the strict regulations of the Animal Welfare Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducts unannounced inspections of animal care facilities once or twice a year to ensure that the University is in full compliance.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe use of animals in research is a highly charged issue, but I don\u2019t think that there will be a time when animals are no longer used,\u201d Serra said. \u201cWe should continue to refine and reduce the number of animals used and find alternative methods, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019re ever going to go away entirely.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cNor should it go away,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt should just be done better and better all the time. And if I can help make it better with better oversight of pain and distress, better oversight of nutritional adequacy and environmental enrichment for these animals, and make their lives happier while they\u2019re giving their lives for us, then I\u2019m very happy doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richmond resident says he was \u2018born a veterinarian\u2019 KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 3, 2012 \u2013 David Serra maintains a veterinary practice in Richmond where he enjoys caring for the dogs and cats and other pets of local residents. But his passion is looking out for the welfare of the animals at the University of Rhode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}