Here’s an interesting quote from the upcoming (March 1) edition of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA).

“Barbaro has given veterinary medicine an update on how important it is to know how much you don’t,” said Dr. T. Douglas Byars, an independent equine medical consultant for Byars Equine Advisory LLC. “Barbaro has had the largest impact for research by any animal of any species. That is his legacy.”

Readers of The Jurga Report may remember Dr. Byars as the Lexington, Kentucky-based infectious disease expert who was brought in to independently assess the quarantine situation in Wellington, Florida last month following an outbreak of EHV-1.

Dr. Rustin Moore, chair of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, commented on the need for much more laminitis research.

“My hope is that the events over the last few months, and in particular Barbaro’s unfortunate passing, have raised the public’s awareness of the frustrating and devastating effects of laminitis and will catapult efforts to raise substantial research funding that can be used to advance our knowledge and understanding of this horrible disease through unified, collaborative research efforts,” Dr. Moore saidin the JAVMA article.

Dr. Moore is the program chair of the 4th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot, to be held in West Palm Beach, Florida November 2-4, 2007.

Click here to read a detailed memo from Dr. Moore on the need for more research on laminitis in the wake of hte Barbaro tragedy.