Applications for £100,000 pancytopenia research fund extended

Pets at Home has extended the deadline for applications to its feline pancytopenia research fund until 30 September.

The £100,000 fund was launched in February 2022 by Pets at Home after the company expressed its disappointment that an investigation by the Food Standards Agency was unable to identify the definitive cause of an outbreak that killed more than 350 cats in 2021.

Funding is to provide financial support to academics, institutions and researchers who are seeking to better understand the condition.

Research papers

In two papers published in the Journal of Veterinary Medicine in January this year, RVC researchers concluded that a mycotoxin-induced pancytopenia should be considered as a cause in cats presenting with pancytopenia.

Following these initial findings, Pets at Home hopes researchers will be able to use the ongoing funding to find long-term solutions to feline pancytopenia, helping to improve diagnosis and treatment options to prevent or reduce the impact of any future outbreaks.

The fund will also be available to support research into the development of a system to identify and investigate potential adverse pet food events more quickly, following the absence of a formal process in the UK being highlighted in one of the initial RVC studies.

Karlien Heyrman, head of pets at Pets at Home, said: “We recognise the pain and upset this illness can cause, and our thoughts remain with all the families whose cats suffered during the outbreak in 2021.

“We welcome the conclusions of the recent RVC studies into the specific causes of the outbreak and now, more than ever, we remain committed to continuing to accelerate research into feline pancytopenia to improve wider understanding of the condition.”

Pioneering work

The small animal internal medicine team at Langford Vets, University of Bristol is already pioneering a new diagnostic technique for feline pancytopenia thanks to a grant from the Pets at Home fund.

Research, which is being conducted in partnership with the University of Cambridge, is exploring the clinical utility of flow cytometry to identify cases of pancytopenia.

Flow cytometry is a laser-based technique used to detect and analyse the chemical and physical characteristics of cells or particles, which would be significantly less invasive than taking a bone marrow sample.

The study aims to develop reliable peripheral blood markers that discriminate between immune-mediated and other causes of anaemia or pancytopenia, which would allow clinicians to achieve a diagnosis in this population of cats without the requirement for a bone marrow biopsy.

For more information on the pancytopenia research fund, email [email protected]