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A lifetime passion for zoology, which started with single-celled pond organisms and progressed up the evolutionary tree to mammals - including camels - shifted into a different gear last September, when University of Queensland’s Professor Gordon Grigg retired.

Thirty-five per cent of all the great apes kept in zoos worldwide display abnormal behaviours as a result of inappropriate housing or husbandry approaches. But this should change for the better with the introduction of an index to measure their quality of life.

Australia leads the world in breeding detector dogs for Customs, quarantine and police services, thanks to a selective breeding program developed by the Australian Customs Service in Melbourne.

Now the organisation is taking the lead in establishing a global gene bank, in order to keep the gene pool for these specialised working dogs as diverse as possible, and has assisted in setting up other selective breeding programs in the US and China.

Don’t write the single rural practice off yet, says Walwa vet David Hall. In fact, he warns, “if we keep talking like it’s dying, we will cause its demise.”

Last month a pair of racehorses demonstrated the success of stem cell therapy for treating tendon and ligament injuries, racing away with the $100,000 Benalla Gold Cup and third place in the Group 2 Gilgai Stakes at Flemington.

A novel approach to treating herniated disc problems in dogs has been developed in a major US veterinary hospital, and its developers say the procedure could be carried out at teaching hospitals and large private clinics anywhere. Yet, although the percutaneous laser disc ablation (PLDA) procedure has been carried out successfully at the veterinary hospital at Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Science since late 1993, it is apparently not being performed anywhere else in the world.

Squirrel gliders on the edges of the busy Hume highway north of Melbourne have been given their own overpass to reduce the number of deaths and to enable populations separated by the freeway to meet, mix and mate.

What is the future for vet practitioners in the country areas of Australia? Will small practices survive? How can graduates be attracted to rural work, and do they have the skills needed to be successful? I asked three well-known and active rural vets to tell me how their practices have changed over recent years, and what they see as the way forward for young vets looking to a rural practice.

For years humans have reported emotional bonds with animals, horses and dogs in particular. Horses are often used therapeutically with emotionally and mentally ill and handicapped children and adults. Now an American researcher has discovered that a horse’s heart rhythms reflect the animal’s emotional state and can be measured responding to the emotional state of a nearby human.

The rehabilitative benefits of working with companion animals are being trialled in a Queensland prison, where eight long-term offenders are training four labrador/ retriever/golden retriever-cross pups to become assistance dogs.

Prize winning research by a South Australian doctoral student into the genes controlling wool follicle development in merinos may incidentally assist with reducing the need for mulesing.

Busy vets in the US are able to offer pet owners a quick and simple answer to the most common problems of caring for their cat – such as cleaning their teeth, clipping claws, or giving a diabetic cat insulin - by directing them to a new website where they can download explanatory videos.

The rehabilitation of young orangutans captured in Indonesia after the death of their mothers was a major topic at this year’s Australasian Primate Society’s conference, held at the University of Queensland in March.

The best housing and enrichment programs for captive primates, and optimum conditions for releasing orphaned orangutans back into the jungle were two major topics of last month’s 25th annual conference of the Australasian Primate Society.

Australia’s longest river, the Murray, gained international prominence last month through a report from the World Wildlife Fund International, but it’s not a good report card.

Rural vets share their communities’ pain

The problems of feral horses damaging grazing land, creeks, dams amd waterholes, as well as eating endangered native plants in wildlife habitats are being addressed by research into methods of repelling them.

Questions about the suitability of the site of Australia’s newest zoo – Sydney Wildlife World – have been comprehensively answered by the zoo’s Life Sciences manager, Craig Sowden.

Research into sequencing the bovine genome has identified genetic markers that will make it easier for beef cattle breeders to identify beasts with the best capabilities for efficient feed conversion, and for tenderness and marbling in the resulting meat.

Queensland wildlife vets have worked alongside a team from Queensland University School of Animal Sciences to develop a sperm bank for koalas. The fruits of their work were shown to the world towards the end of the year – eight koala joeys conceived by artificial insemination.