2005 Annual Meeting
& President's Report
The annual meeting of Saluki Health Research, Inc. was held at the Michigan State University Livestock Pavilion, E. Lansing Michigan at 11:30 AM on November 27, 2005.
The corporate records and treasurer's report for the corporate year end of June 1, 2005 were approved. The current officers (MaryDee Sist President, Nancy Badra Secretary and James Steckley Treasurer) and board member (William Schall, DVM) agreed to extend their terms of office.
Secretary's report: The SHR website has been updated monthly as needed. The SCOA website has included a link to the SHR site. The arrangement of the site allows easy access to information, with the most current information available first. SHR has paid a nominal fee to make the site much more professional by no longer allowing pops ups and advertisements. As well as posting memorial donations on the site, sympathy and/or thank you cards and donor acknowledgement letters have been sent. So far this month there have been 807 hits on the site. This tremendous interest has been generated by internet list announcements about the auction to benefit SHR held at the SCOA Western Regional Specialty. Many donations were made in memory of departed Salukis. We will see if this could be included on the website. Auction item donor and bidder letters have been mailed.
President's report: I continue to get approximately 4 phone calls and 10 email inquiries concerning Saluki health issues per month. There have been more foreign inquiries lately. Recently, most correspondence has concerning heart conditions where previously cancer was the major concern. I continue to mail reprints of the studies when requested.
Update of fund raising auction: The SCOA sponsored auction held at the Western Regional Specialty in Pleasanton, California on October 21, 2005 was an outstanding success. Thank to Suzanne Forsyth who made a proposal to hold this fundraiser and to the SCOA board for granting permission. It would not have been possible without the willingness of Susan Schroder to organize the auction and collect and artfully display and ship the items. Thanks also go to Sharon Walls and Vicky Clarke who, through their considerable computer and internet expertise, allowed participation in the auction via the internet.
The success was due to the generosity of the Saluki community who donated items (many donated in memory of dear departed Salukis) for the auction and bid on items. Over 150 items were donated which raised nearly $3700 ($1300 was from internet bids) to fund hemangiosarcoma research. The concern for the health and welfare of our ancient breed was clearly apparent.
Update of current projects: Saluki Cancer Registry - 57 additional suspected cancer samples have been received in the last 2 years. All have been examined histologically at DCPAH and paraffin imbedded tissue samples have been banked for future DNA analysis. Again, the incidence of hemangiosarcoma has been high (11) - 6 were located in the heart, 3 were first located in the spleen and 2 were in the skin. 8 cancerous mammary tumors were submitted. This incidence would be expected since the Salukis were intact. 10 skin tumors were submitted and most were benign.
Proposed projects: There were a number of malignancies of either the spleen or soft tissues that were undifferentiated sarcomas that could not be classified as HSA. Immunohistochemical studies can help determine if these were early HSA and it would be prudent to invest is this project. I have also been involved in discussions with MSU's oncology section about a pilot project involving immunohistochemical correlation with various HSA treatments.
I have been investigating the possibility of a Saluki specific hemangiosarcoma study with Dr. Modiano, who is one of the leading onchology investigators. He would prefer to see an AKC/CHF sponsored grant, but is open to a project.
Approved proposals:
- Approve funding (up to a maximum of $5000) for each of the 3 Hemangiosarcoma studies under consideration by the AKC/CHF.
- Approve continued histological examination and banking of suspected cancer samples at DCPAH.
- Approve to continue epidemiological and pedigree analysis of HSA Salukis.
- Approve funding (up to $2000) of immunohistochemical analysis of undifferentiated sarcoma samples at DCPAH.
- Approve continuing to collect and bank Saluki blood DNA samples.
- Approve contacting Dr. Chieko Azuma at the Harrington Oncology Program about including banked Saluki DNA samples in his study.