BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Of cats and men: Studying feline biliary tract disease’ - Dr Pe nny Watson\, Department of Veterinary Medicine\, University of Cambridge DTSTART:20200520T150000Z DTEND:20200520T160000Z UID:TALK141754@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Fiona Roby DESCRIPTION:Chronic biliary tract disease is common in cats. It was first reported in 1982\, since when a number of case series have described histo logical and clinical features\, including disease associations in some cas es with inflammatory bowel disease\, pancreatitis\, nephritis\, hepatic li pidosis and other diseases. However\, much remains a mystery: the cause or causes are unknown\, no effective treatment has been identified and even the prognosis and long term sequelae are unclear. The disease waxes and wa nes in most cats and is a significant cause of reduced quality of life. Ev idence suggests that chronic biliary tract disease in cats is not one\, bu t several\, diseases and that a subset of cases look remarkably similar hi stologically and chronically to primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) in hu mans. PSC is a disease of young men which often associates with inflammato ry bowel disease\, has no good animal model and no effective treatment. Ca ts might offer a helpful natural model to increase disease understanding f or the benefit of both cats and humans. Any feline study on epidemiology\, treatment and prognosis of biliary tract disease will be severely hampere d by studying several diseases at once. Separating affected cats in to dis tinct disease categories is essential to facilitate effective future studi es on the causes and treatment of these conditions and yet no significant advances have been made in the last 30 years. Improvements in diagnostic i maging and molecular and cell science mean the time is now right to advanc e our understanding of feline cholangitis\, for the benefit of both cats a nd men. LOCATION:Online END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR