Our collaborations

Carmichael Torrance Diagnostic Services (CTDS)

Along with its sister laboratory TDDS, CTDS offer a unique Toxicology Service that provides affordable, informed and practical sampling for toxicological investigations in practice, as well as screens for general toxicology, for:

  • cases of accidental or malicious poisoning
  • toxicological testing on feedstuffs and
  • testing for the pre-purchase of performance horses.

VPIS will refer veterinary professionals to CTDS where appropriate.

A General Toxicology Screen is available for over 30,000 drugs and poisons and can be done on the same day for an extra free.

For more information, see http://ctdslab.co.uk/

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

VPIS has a longstanding relationship with Kew Gardens and we have informal links with scientists in their Centre for Economic Botany and Mycology.
We have investigated the identification of fungi involved in companion animal poisoning (Bates, N. et al. (2014) Fungal ingestion in companion animals. Veterinary Record, 175(7): 179 -180) which gave us information on the species of most concern, Clitocybe species, responsible for a number of clinically significant cases of poisoning.

For more information on Kew Gardens, see http://www.kew.org/

International poisons centres

Although VPIS is the only formal veterinary poisons centre in Europe, we have good working relationships with other centres in Europe and are regular contributors to the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists (EAPCCT) Congress.

We have recently published with colleagues from Norway on European adder (Vipera berus berus) bites in dogs (Bates, N. et al. (2014) Vipera berus berus envenomation in dogs J Vet Emerg Crit Care (San Antonio), 24 (2), 133) and hope to expand this collaboration.

We are also currently working with the Dutch poisons centre collecting case data on adverse reactions in cats.

The Horticultural Trades Association

We have worked with the Horticultural Trades Association, have reviewed the toxicity of plants and have recommended labelling which now include the toxicity to pets

https://hta.org.uk/poisonousplants