The Research Coming Out of Vet Residencies Right Now Is Worth Paying Attention To

Every year at UC Davis, the residents and fellows who make up the largest house officer program in the country spend a day presenting their research to each other, to faculty, and to anyone paying close enough attention to notice what is coming down the pipeline in veterinary medicine.

The 47th annual Gerald V. Ling Veterinary Intern and Resident Research Symposium or VIRRS, for those who know it, took place on March 20, 2026. Forty-four studies were presented across a day of short presentations spanning small animal, large animal, exotic, avian, and laboratory animal medicine. UC Davis currently trains 144 house officers across approximately 40 programs, and this event is one of the clearest windows available into what the next generation of veterinary specialists is actually working on.

The range of topics this year made a strong case for why events like this deserve more attention than they typically get outside the academic veterinary world.

The award winners — and what their research means

The Gerald V. Ling Award for Outstanding Research Study and Abstract, the top honor of the symposium, went to Dr. Alba Planas Vintro, a fellow in feline pediatrics, for her work on validating blood typing in kittens using heparinized microhematocrit tubes. Blood typing in neonatal and pediatric feline patients is notoriously challenging, sample volumes are small, patient tolerance is limited, and errors carry serious consequences in transfusion medicine. Work that validates a reliable method for this population has direct clinical utility for anyone managing sick kittens.

In small animal medicine, two studies stood out for recognition. Dr. Glynn Woods, a fellow in small animal infectious disease, was recognized for research examining the sensitivity and specificity of a serum 1,3-β-D-Glucan assay for diagnosing invasive fungal infections in dogs. Fungal diagnostics in dogs remain a real clinical challenge — invasive fungal infections carry high morbidity and mortality, and timely diagnosis changes outcomes. Research that helps clarify how well available assays actually perform in clinical populations matters for every practitioner deciding whether to pursue or trust a fungal workup.

The second small animal award went to Dr. Alli Harju, a neurology and neurosurgery resident, for her work on neurofilament light as a diagnostic biomarker for canine degenerative myelopathy. Neurofilament light has been gaining significant traction in human neurology as a biomarker for neurodegeneration, and its potential applications in veterinary neurology are actively being explored. If neurofilament light can reliably support the antemortem diagnosis of degenerative myelopathy — a disease that is currently diagnosed definitively only on postmortem histopathology, that represents a meaningful clinical advance for affected dogs and their owners.

On the large animal side, the outstanding research award went to Dr. Thadeu De Castro, an equine reproduction resident, for work on optimizing follicular aspiration in mares and its effects on intracytoplasmic sperm injection embryo production. ICSI has become an increasingly important tool in equine reproductive medicine, particularly for mares who are poor embryo transfer candidates, and research that improves the efficiency of oocyte collection from follicles at different developmental stages has practical relevance for the field.

The exotic and laboratory animal award recognized research that was, frankly, unlike anything else on the program. Dr. Jessica Kwan, a laboratory animal medicine resident, presented on a scuticociliatosis outbreak that caused complete colony mortality in captive lined seahorses. Scuticociliatosis is a parasitic ciliate infection that is well described in marine fish, but documented outbreaks in seahorse colonies, with complete colony loss, are not common in the literature. The case has implications for aquatic animal medicine and zoological collection management, and it is exactly the kind of unusual presentation that tends to disappear from institutional memory unless it is written up and shared.

The Chris Smith Award for outstanding equine research went to Dr. Shane Mart, an anesthesiology resident, for investigating the effect of surface cryoanalgesia on equine patient compliance during infraorbital nerve block placement. Regional anesthesia in horses is essential and often technically demanding, and anything that reduces patient movement and stress during block placement has direct safety implications for both the patient and the person performing the procedure.

Why this event matters beyond UC Davis

Residency research does not always make it into journals quickly. The gap between a study being presented at an internal symposium and that work appearing in a peer-reviewed publication can be significant. Events like VIRRS function as an early signal, a look at what questions specialists in training are asking and what they are finding before the findings are widely available.

For veterinarians in practice, following the research output of large academic residency programs is one of the more practical ways to stay ahead of diagnostic and treatment developments that will eventually reach clinical guidelines and CE content. For students considering specialization, the breadth of work presented at a single institution in a single day is a useful illustration of the range of research opportunities available within an academic residency.

UC Davis is one of a small number of programs large enough to offer this kind of cross-disciplinary internal symposium. With 144 house officers across 40 programs, the research output is substantial and the topics span the full breadth of veterinary medicine in a way that most specialty conferences do not.

The 47th iteration of this event is a reminder that the work of training the next generation of veterinary specialists is also, quietly, the work of advancing the field.

The 2026 VIRRS was supported by the Center for Companion Animal Health, the Center for Equine Health, the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, MedVet, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition. The event was organized by the House Officer Affairs Board at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.