Morris Animal Foundation Fills A Void By Funding Companion Animal Research

Morris Animal Foundation of Englewood, Colo., which since 1948 has spent nearly $9 million to fund studies to improve the diagnosis and treatment of injuries and disease in companion animals; has begun to provide matching grants for training programs in animal behavior, as well. Behavior that is unacceptable to owners is one of the leading reasons that millions of pets are left at animal shelters each year, according to the foundation. This spring the foundation awarded its first matching grant for veterinary residency training programs in companion animal behavioral sciences. Cornell University. College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, N.Y., received $22,000 for a two-year program, which was matched by funds from the school. Behavioral science is one of seven areas of research the foundation funds and is its only grant program requiring a match from the recipient institution. Most Morris grants are for studies in canine, feline, and equine diseases. Other areas funded by Morris are diseases of llamas and zoo and wild animals, plus perioperative analgesia studies, which seek to reduce the pain of animals recovering from surgery. Morris Animal Foundation was founded in 1948 by Mark L. Morris, a veterinarian from Edison, N.J., who developed Prescription Diet canned food for dogs and cats. When the rights to the product were sold to Hill Packing Co., Morris set aside a portion of his royalties to support the foundation. These royalties established the endowment fund for the .; s foundation and continued until 1968, when the company was sold. Morris created the philanthropy to fill what he perceived as a void left by federal granting agencies, which would support only research on farm animals or animal studies that benefited humans. That situation still exists today, says Lawrence T. Glickman, a professor of veterinary epidemiology and head of the department of veterinary pathobiology at Purdue University, who this year received a $40,000, two-year Morris Foundation grant to study the epidemiology of canine gastric dilation-volvulus, or bloat. "The hardest research money to get is for research on conditions in animals that don't have human counterparts. Veterinary researchers wage a constant battle to find support for their work on companion animal diseases," Glickman says. "There is a huge constituency interested in the health of pets, but it has no organized lobbying base." In the past, research supported by the foundation has led to significant progress in combating several devastating animal diseases. According to foundation materials, such studies laid the groundwork for development of a feline leukemia virus vaccine and tested techniques such as monoclonal antibodies, interferon, and bone marrow transplants as possible treatments for cats infected with the virus (Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Immunology, 25:101-3, 1988). Canine studies funded by Morris include development of a diagnostic test for canine parvovirus and a five-year, $750,000 study of genetic diseases. In fiscal year 1991-92, Morris funded 62 studies at a total cost of $945,000. Of these, two focus on ferrets, three on llamas, one on caged birds, two on mountain gorillas, one on African wild dogs, nine on horses, and the rest on dogs and cats. Grants range from $2,000 to $65,000 per year for one- to three-year studies, according to Jan Fowler, grants manager at the foundation. Animal rights organizations vary in their reaction to studies funded by Morris. According to the foundation, none of its grantees has ever been targeted for protest by animal rights activists. Marc Paulhus, vice president for companion animals at the Humane Society of the United States, says that in his 15 years with the Humane Society he has heard good things and has had no complaints about the foundation. Animal research is acceptable to the Humane Society in some cases, according to Paulhus. On the other hand, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is opposed to all forms of animal research and to purposeful breeding; thus PETA objects to Morris Animal Foundation studies, says Steven Simmons, a PETA spokesman. Simmons characterizes investigations into congenital defects bred into specific breeds as "misplaced priorities." Some research funded by Morris deals with congenital defects. Says Robert Hilsenroth, Morris's interim executive director: "The right of animals to better health is the reason—the only reason—for the existence of Morris Animal Foundation. We didn't create the congenital medical defects we see in animals, we just know they're there. As long as animals suffer from the defects, we will continue to fund studies that attempt to identify and prevent them, just as we do with other diseases and conditions. We have never funded studies that were designed to alter physical characteristics for show animals." Each September, the foundation puts out a request for two-page preproposals in specific research interest areas. Preproposals are due on November 1. They are read by the foundation's scientific advisory board by January 1 and are scored on their relevancy to the areas of funding interest and overall scientific merit, according to L. Garry Adams, advisory board chairman and a professor of veterinary pathobiology at Texas A&M University. The eight members of the scientific advisory board are professors and department heads drawn from 28 veterinary schools in North America recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association. The board reviews between 250 and 300 preproposals each year. About I00 preproposals are approved for the next step, a 15-page proposal due on April 1. Each member of the scientific advisory board • reads all the proposals, Adams says. In addition, he says, each "does a complete review of about 15 proposals. It takes about a month to read them. We try to evaluate objectively so that the best science will be funded. After reports are written, each proposal is debated, one by one, in a four-day session in June." Proposals are scored individually by written ballot on their scientific merit and relevancy. Scores are ad-averaged and a prioritized list is given to Fowler to match with funds. Fowler says about 40 to 45 proposals are approved for funding each year, with between 20 and 30 actually funded. Funding is reviewed for renewal each year based on progress reports and a site visit by a member of the scientific advisory board. Part of the funds Morris awards comes from other organizations, such as kennel clubs or equine organizations, as well as from individuals. These may be donated for use at the foundation's discretion or designated for particular types of studies. Being funded depends not only on proposing "the best scientific approach" to a problem, but also on having a constituency such as a kennel club that "wants something done about it" and has donated money, Adams says. Travis C. McGuire, a professor of veterinary microbiology and pathology at Washington State University, says the foundation is one of the few funding sources available for studies "from the horse's point of view," especially those emphasizing prevention or application of the benefits of research to animals themselves. McGuire has a two-year, $18,000 grant to study the use of recombinant vaccinia virus to immunize horses against the equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV). Lentiviruses such as EIAV are associated with various diseases, including HIV associated with AIDS in humans. Horses are able to control the symptoms of EIAV infection within several months, says McGuire, but once infected they remain so for life. Since vaccinated horses may get the disease from a mutated virus, McGuire's long-term goal is to develop a vaccine that will fight any virus variants causing the disease. Purdue University's Glickman says his $40,000 grant, funded by Morris and philanthropists Nathan and Gloria Reese of Los Angeles, is probably the largest in his research area. Glickman attributes his grant, which he says is the first major support for an epidemiologic study of canine bloat, to a Morris advisory panel on bloat that four years ago gave epidemiologic studies a first priority. Similar to colic in horses, canine bloat is "one of the major causes of death in dogs One year of age and older," Glickman says. It has a rather dramatic onset and, even with the best treatment available, in the past 10 years it has continued to have a 30 percent mortality rate. It is more prevalent in purebred dogs and may result from a combination of factors, Glickman says. Glickman says his study wouldn't be possible without the foundation: "I wouldn't know where to go for other funding for it." For more information on the foundation, contact Jan Fowler, grants manager, Morris Animal Foundation, 45 Inverness Dr. East, Englewood, Colo. 80112-5480; (303) 790-2345. Judy Henderson is a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore.

Morris Animal Foundation Fills A Void By Funding Companion Animal Research

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of