Bob Doneley

An ongoing theme in my research is to develop evidence-based knowledge on many of the clinical conditions seen (and assumptions made) in avian and exotic practice, with a view to providing clinicians with a factual information to assist in their decision making and clinical reasoning.

Avian Medicine:

1. Weight loss syndrome seen in free-living juvenile galahs. I have now demonstrated this is multifactorial, and now seek to better characterise the disease, its transmission and pathogenesis, and investigate treatment. This is been done in collaboration with the Veterinary Laboratory Services at UQ Gatton. A lot of interest in this work has been expressed by the Wildlife Disease Association and the Australian Wildlife Health Association. In 2017-2019 I collaborated with Dr Helen Owen to supervise a Masters student investigating this further
2. I also have worked with the School’s clinical pathologist, Dr Karen Jackson, in supervising three Masters students in developing reference intervals for haematology and biochemistry in backyard poultry – work that had not been revisited since 1969.
3. My resident (Dr Alexandr Mastakov) and I have been conducting research into the use of the anaesthetic drug alfaxalone in chickens as an induction agent and as constant rate infusion to maintain anaesthesia.
4. I am involved in research projects with international groups including:
5. A research group at the University of Giessen, looking at DNA fragmentation in stored avian semen. This research is been coordinated between Dr Michael Lierz (Giessen) and Dr Stephen Johnston (SAFS)
6. The Jurong Bird Park veterinarians and research department, looking at growth rates of hand-reared birds. We hope to align with the University of Giessen to perform semen collection and storage of endangered Asian species.

Reptile Medicine:

1. The pathogenesis and diagnosis of two viral diseases, Sunshine virus (a novel Paramyxovirus affecting Australian pythons) and Adenovirus in Bearded dragons. Future work in this area will focus on investigating the incidence and prevalence of these diseases in Australia, a better understanding of pathogenesis and transmission, improved diagnostics, and means of control. This is been done in collaboration with the Veterinary Laboratory Services laboratory at UQ Gatton and Murdoch University.

2. A multicentric investigation into the prevalence and incidence of Agamid Adenovirus in wild Bearded dragons. The initial work on this project was published in Veterinary Microbiology in 2019

3. Another viral infection in pythons, Reptile Bornavirus, has recently been discovered and I am involved in a multicentric research group looking at treatment options.

4. A comparison of ionised calcium levels between wild and captive carpet pythons to determine if captive carpet pythons have lower calcium levels than their wild counterparts