EveryCat Health Foundation
(Formerly Winn Feline Health Foundation)
www.everycat.org
2016 Winn Speckles Abdominal Cancer Campaign 
1 Grants Funded for a Total of $23,450

Winn Feline Foundation is pleased to announce the awarding of a  research grant to evaluate differences in cats diagnosed with chronic gastrointestinal disease caused by chronic inflammation (IBD) or cancer (lymphoma). The grant award was made possible through the generous gift by anonymous donors in memory of their cat, Speckles, a companion lost due to abdominal cancer. This gift established Winn’s Speckles Abdominal Cancer Campaign where numerous additional donors have made a supporting contribution. It is through such dedicated efforts that Winn Feline Foundation can make a difference to “benefit every cat, every day”.

Winn Board President, Glenn Olah, DVM, PhD, DABVP (Feline) says, “Speckle’s family has entrusted Winn Feline Foundation to help identify high-quality research proposals that may provide answers to major abdominal cancers in cats related to the liver, pancreas, and/or gastrointestinal tract. Winn’s review advisors have selected a proposal submitted by Dr. Jan Suchodolski from Texas A&M University. Distinguishing between inflammatory bowel disease and low-grade alimentary lymphoma often requires surgery in order to obtain intestinal biopsies and even with biopsies in hand, diagnosis may still be difficult to make. This project plans to look at the fecal bacterial and metabolite composition in healthy cats and cats with inflammatory bowel disease and low-grade alimentary lymphoma, and possibly identify fecal biomarkers which may provide a better non-invasive diagnostic tool as well as possibly provide therapeutic targets.”

Fecal microbiome and metabolome in cats with IBD and low-grade alimentary lymphoma $23,450 (MTW16-018)  
Principal Investigator: Jan Suchdolski, DVM, PhD, AGAF, DACVM; Texas A&M Gastrointestinal Laboratory

This study evaluates the composition of the stool of normal cats as well as cats with two common intestinal diseases, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and intestinal cancer (low-grade alimentary lymphoma). Currently, these two diseases can only be diagnosed by biopsy. If a significant difference is found, as is the case in other species, this may lead to a simpler and more accurate diagnostic test for these diseases.