[Provided courtesy of the Kennel Club Charitable Trust]

Yasuko Rikihisa, PhD, University Distinguished Professor, The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, won the coveted International Award category at the International Canine Health Awards, where she was awarded £40,000 (approximately $53,000) towards her future work. Rikihisa was recognized for her ground breaking work into a number of tick-borne diseases that infect dogs, other companion animals and humans. The international award is part of one of the largest and most distinguished veterinary awards in the world, the International Canine Health Awards.

The awards, which are run by the Kennel Club Charitable Trust and underwritten by a major gift from Vernon and Shirley Hill of Metro Bank, highlight those individuals who go one step further to promote the health and wellbeing of dogs through their work in the world of veterinary science.

This year’s awards were presented to winners by Dr Andrew Higgins, Honorary Editor-in-Chief at the Veterinary Journal and judge for the awards, on Tuesday 22nd May at the Kennel Club in London, on behalf of the Vernon and Shirley Hill Foundation.

Rikihisa has been a pioneer and prolific contributor to our understanding of Rickettsial diseases, which affects dogs, other companion and wild animals and humans, transmitted by ticks. Ticks have been long known to be a source of infectious diseases in both animals and humans, and the results of Rikihisa’s decades of research into this area have directly lead to the development of the diagnostic tests used in veterinary practices around the world to identify dogs infected with one particular Rickettsial disease called Ehrlichiosis (also known as canine typhus). This is a debilitating and often fatal condition caused by a parasite that infects and survives within the white blood cells of its host.

For full story, originally posted at Ohio State Advance, please click here.