Theriogenology

The Small Animal Theriogenology (animal reproduction) service offers clinical service for dogs and cats within the Veterinary Medical Center; provides training opportunities for veterinary students, veterinarians, and lay people; performs clinical research; and actively creates materials for education of clients and veterinarians. Dr. Peggy Root is a licensed specialist in theriogenology (http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rootk001). She provides:

Teaching

Dr. Root has twice received teaching awards within the veterinary college and is a regular speaker at veterinary conferences and breed clubs throughout the United States and abroad. Dr. Root also is active in promoting the scholarship of teaching by systematic evaluation of teaching methods used to enhance veterinary and lay training. Examples of recently published articles include: Root Kustritz MV, Tibary A, Chenoweth PJ:

Availability of theriogenology training at North American and Caribbean veterinary colleges. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education 33:140-144,

2006 and Root Kustritz MV, Chenoweth PJ, Tibary A: Determination of efficacy of training in theriogenology by survey of practitioners. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 229:514-521, 2006. She also is the author or editor of several texts in this discipline, including Canine and Feline Theriogenology (WB Saunders, 2001), The Practical

Veterinarian: Small Animal Theriogenology (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003) and The Dog Breeder's Guide to Successful Breeding and Health Management (Elsevier, 2005).

Service 

The Small Animal Theriogenology service handles about 200 cases yearly at the Veterinary Medical Center. Cases seen include breeding management, pregnancy diagnosis, semen evaluation, artificial insemination, and diseases of the reproductive tract including vaginitis and prostate disease.

Research

Clinical research, to answer basic questions pertaining to case management, is the primary research focus of the Small Animal Theriogenology service.

Recent studies included evaluation of alternative methods for semen evaluation in dogs (Root Kustritz MV, Kilty C, Vollmer M: Spermatocrit as a measure of concentration of spermatozoa in the canine ejaculate, 2005); use of medications to increase number of spermatozoa in the canine ejaculate (Root Kustritz MV, Hess M: Effect of administration of prostaglandin F2alpha or presence of an estrous teaser bitch on characteristics of the canine ejaculate, 2006); and alternative methods for measurement of progesterone for breeding management in female dogs (Root Kustritz MV, Davies R, Robins L, Root TK: Correlation between canine progesterone concentrations in saliva and serum measured by chemiluminescent immunoassay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, 2006).

Margaret Root Kustritz, DVM, PhD Dipl. ACT