Veterinary Vertex
Veterinary Vertex is a weekly podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the clinical and research discoveries published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) and the American Journal of Veterinary Research (AJVR). Tune in to learn about cutting-edge veterinary research and gain in-depth insights you won’t find anywhere else. Come away with knowledge you can put to use in your own practice – along with a healthy dose of inspiration to remind you what you love about veterinary medicine.
Veterinary Vertex
Journal Award Winner Minisode: Misoprostol and The Equine Microbiome
The gastrointestinal microbiome represents the new frontier in veterinary medicine, with implications reaching far beyond digestive health. Dr. Rachel Pfeifle joins us to discuss her 2024 AJVR Resident Award-winning research examining how misoprostol affects the equine fecal microbiome—a study that elegantly bridges pharmacology with microbial ecology.
Rachel's research journey reflects the perfect blend of personal interest and mentor guidance, as she explains how her desire for clinically applicable research merged with her advisors' ongoing pharmacokinetic studies. The collaboration that followed involved specialists from multiple institutions, demonstrating how contemporary veterinary research increasingly requires diverse expertise to tackle complex questions.
What stands out most in our conversation is Rachel's emphasis on persistence through research challenges. Now a faculty member at the University of Georgia, she offers valuable advice to veterinary residents hoping to publish: develop the grit to weather inevitable setbacks and see projects through to completion. Her journey from resident to award winner to faculty researcher illustrates how recognition can fuel continued scientific curiosity and commitment.
We're proud to showcase exceptional early-career researchers like Rachel through our AVMA Journal Awards program, which recognizes outstanding student, intern, and resident authors. Want to support the next generation of veterinary researchers? Consider nominating a promising author for next year's awards by March 15th, 2025. You can read Rachel's groundbreaking manuscript in AJVR today and discover how microbiome research is transforming equine medicine.
2024 Journal Awards Nominee Research: 2024 Journal Awards Collection
Journal Award nomination instructions: Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association | AVMA
AJVR Article: https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.22.09.0161
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Speaker 2:You're listening to Veterinary Vertex, a podcast of the AVMA Journals. In this episode we chat with AJVR Resident Award winner, rachel Feifley.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Veterinary Vertex. I'm Editor-in-Chief Lisa Fortier, and I'm joined by Associate Editor Sarah Wright. Today we have Rachel joining us. Rachel, thank you so much for taking time out of your new faculty position to be with us here today.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:All right, let's dive right in. Rachel, you are a resident award winner for your AJVR article Multidose Mesoprostol Pharmacokinetics and its effect on the fecal microbiome in healthy adult horses. What was your reaction when you found out that you were nominated? And then when you found out you had won?
Speaker 4:So the fun story here is really that my advisors and my mentors during my residency nominated me unbeknownst to me, so I actually didn't know that I was nominated for the award until I later found out that I had won the award. So I guess I don't really have a reaction to being nominated alone because I didn't know. But I was extremely honored to be awarded this journal award. I think you know it speaks to recognition of my work and it feels good to always be recognized and it feels good to always be recognized.
Speaker 3:Yeah, fantastic, your manuscript's in a very contemporary topic of microbiome and especially fecal microbiome. I'm sure you've seen the recent article about in foals. Fecal microbiome is related to their athletic ability, so yours is a little bit different, but still very interesting. What sparked your research interest in the microbiome?
Speaker 4:Yeah, just as you said, I think this is a really hot topic in veterinary research and in human medicine research right now.
Speaker 4:I think that the gastrointestinal microbiome as well as other microbiomes so we now know that there's a microbiome that exists in the respiratory tract and that sort of thing and all of those areas of research are really being expanded upon pretty quickly right now. And so I knew, coming into my research project, when it came time for me to pick a research project, I already knew that I wanted to pick a topic that was very clinically applicable while I was in vet school and that sort of thing, and knew that I was really drawn to those more clinical types of studies as opposed to more benchtop type studies. And so the more I read about the microbiome, the more interested I was in the topic, and my residency advisors and research advisor had already done some previous research on pharmacokinetics of mesoprostol Um and we're planning to do this multi-dose mesoprostol pharmacokinetic study, and so we sort of decided at the same time, if we're already giving this medication, to look at its pharmacokinetics in horses, why don't we also look at its effect on the microbiome?
Speaker 3:in horses, so that's sort of how we ended up there. Excellent Sounds like mentorship is alive and well, Rachel, which is great to hear. Give you an opportunity now to give a shout out to any of your mentors that you'd like to. Yes absolutely.
Speaker 4:I have so many to thank. So. Kara Leskola at Auburn was my research advisor for this project and really helped me a lot throughout the entire sample collection process, as well as the data analysis and manuscript preparation. And then all of my other mentors at Auburn as well Erin Groover, ann Boldridge and Mariana Mora. I could not have made it through my residency without them. They really supported me throughout clinics and my research project and everything else that is going on in the midst of crazy residency times. And then, finally, dr Aaron Erickson at the University of Missouri also played a huge role in helping me with this project, especially the microbiome portion of the study.
Speaker 3:Yeah, great, we're so excited to have these awards. You might know that we gave out twice as many this year because we had an unbelievable nomination pool. So this year, for each of the journals Javman, ajvr that we gave out twice as many this year because we had an unbelievable nomination pool, so this year, for each of the journals Javma and AJVR, we gave out four student, four intern and four resident awards. It was really very cool. The AVMA and the journals are just really excited to be able to support intern residents and students in this manner. How has winning this award changed your outlook on a career path?
Speaker 4:matter. How has winning this award changed your outlook on a career path? I think this award is really encouraging for one thing, and so you know, it makes you want to go on and move forward and do other clinical research projects, and I think, as a newly boarded internist, I think that's what we really need at this point in our career is that encouragement and recognition, and I think it helps us continue to move forward. So I'm now a new faculty member at the University of Georgia, and so I have plans, you know, to continue on a clinical research track and continue to look at projects that can hopefully easily be applied to our cases that we see in the hospital day to day.
Speaker 2:Actually shout out to Karen Laskola. She was my respiratory physiology professor when I was in vet school at Illinois University of Auburn.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Small world for sure. Always, and now that you're a new faculty too, if you ever have a student or house officer that you're working with on a project, definitely consider submitting their work to the journal awards if it's published in JAVMAR or AJBR.
Speaker 4:Absolutely yes, definitely will.
Speaker 2:So you touched already a bit on your advanced training. So how did your training prepare you?
Speaker 4:So in my residency at Auburn we do all of the residents go through a master's degree program as well, and so we had training and research through our master's degree program, also went through an experimental design course that included both kind of the aspects of designing a study but also went over statistics and that sort of thing as well. So all of those courses certainly helped me prepare for the project and allowed me to be able to help assess the data and everything like that. And then I think, of course, coming back to the mentors again, so Dr Laskola helped a lot with the pharmacokinetics side of the study. Dr Don Booth at Auburn also helped a lot with our pharmacokinetics, lot with our pharmacokinetics, and they provided, you know, more study, specific training for the pharmacokinetic aspect of the project Sounds like there's great collaboration for this project.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah, absolutely, it was definitely a lot of people coming together.
Speaker 2:Also, I see that you have that didactic training and creating a research project and having the biostatistics background too. That's always very helpful, yeah, so what advice would you share with veterinary residents that are hoping to publish manuscripts?
Speaker 4:so I was thinking about this question a little bit ahead of time and, um, I think the biggest piece of advice I would have is to just remain persistent, if you will, throughout the project. You know it's all good and well to plan ahead as much as you can while you're collecting samples and while you're working through the data analysis and manuscript preparation process, but there's always going to be challenges with research, especially with clinical research, and so I think it's really it comes down to being persistent and kind of having that grit to continue on. So if something doesn't quite go right during sample collection and you have to start over or something like that, just kind of having that persistence and patience to really keep up with the project and follow through.
Speaker 3:Yeah, got to be a finisher. Yes, yeah, gotta be a finisher. Yes, uh, rachel, you already have some superpowers, but if you could actually have a crazy superpower, what would it be and why?
Speaker 4:so I think this is probably an easy answer for a lot of veterinarians. I would want to talk with animals. I think it would help both in the job, of course, because you could actually talk to your patient and get some more information on how they're feeling and that sort of thing. But I also just think that it would be really fun to talk to my own personal pets and animals and you know the horses that I ride and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:You've had that answer before and definitely be careful what you wish for. I think Lisa heard my very vocal cat several times yesterday. She went to her internist appointment in the morning and was very upset for the rest of the day. Oh no, yeah, not sure I want to know what she's thinking after that, but which is cute and cuddly? I definitely would want to hear it. Yeah, I'm sure I want to know what she's thinking after that, but which is cute and cuddly? I definitely would want to hear it. Yeah, thank you so much again, rachel. I really appreciate you being here and submitting your manuscript to AJVR, and congratulations again on winning the Resident Journal Award.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much. It's an honor.
Speaker 2:Congratulations again to all of our Journal Award winners. Do you have a student, intern or resident author that you'd like to nominate? Nominate them today. Please see our website for further instructions. You can read Rachel's manuscript in AJVR. I'm Sarah Wright, joined by Lisa Fortier. We want to thank each of you for joining us on this episode of the Veterinary Vertex podcast. We love sharing cutting edge veterinary research with you and we want to hear from you. Be sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you listen to.
