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RTarlinton.bsky.social

@rtarlinton.bsky.social
282 followers 261 following 981 posts

Veterinarian, Virologist, Australian/British (with side-forays into the German speaking world)

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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Been there and done that, it really hammers any savings you might accumulate. International moves cost so much, no way we will do it now with an entire household ( kids, pets) plus we are too old for visas for most places now. You pretty much have to be under 35 to even consider this stuff
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Grieving owners are unfortunately very vulnerable to people trying to convince them their pet can be resurrected…
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Oh yeah … that is just the sort of thing you and I both love …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is why if you clone a cat you might end up with one that looks very different to to the original , even if it’s base chromosomal genetics are the same it is not in fact the same cat . One of the very many reasons vets in general are not very keen on cloning pets …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
And then you add in “ dilute” a totally different recessive gene causing uneven pigment along the hair shaft and hence your lighter coloured cat ..
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Hence why torties are always female ( unless they have some weird chromosome abnormality) . You then add the white spotting ( piebald) gene on top (not sex chromosome linked) which produces patches of white .. this also tends to make the other colour patches bigger … this is your calico cat
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Ah well you’ve given me permission now… first up the “ orange/not orange” gene is in the X chromosome and cats like many other mammals display a fairly random x inactivation so if you are female and have one orange and one not orange gene you end up with patches of both ( tortoiseshell )
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
To be fair they usually rent the machines and buy the kits from a big pathology lab company ( idexx care a lot about their reputation and there is a LOT of chatter if something isnt working properly) we also use a lot of lateral flow type diagnostics and run our own haematology and biochemistry ..
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Usually qpcr… we are a lot more relaxed in the vet world ( as our diagnostics are largely not regulated) and it’s always up to the clinician who ordered the test to decide what to do in the end!
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Has to seriously restrain myself from launching into a complete description of the genetics of cat coat colour…
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Some of the vet hospitals are using point of care lamp type set ups ( usually places big enough to have a clin path lab tech). It has its advantages for making clinical decisions where you need to do so quickly but then most vets are used to doing their own cytology etc
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Probably botulism .. which is its own concern …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Fair enough I think … there is no way I could produce more than that output per month and I’d be deeply suspicious of anyone claiming they could do that on a regular basis ..
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Falling in a wombat or badger hole is also another one that will make the horse fall over … ( or putting a foot in a rabbit hole)
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Mud puddle no … but swampy “ quiksand” type bog .. the horse will go straight in and all 4 legs will get stuck to the hocks and the horse will fall over and the rider will then be lying in the mud , half covered in mud (trust me on that one ,done it many, many times).
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We have had so many problems with illegal movements of horses with faked ID / movement records …. Time to get micochipping like every other species …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is a mess… an inevitable consequence of dismantling your veterinary public health infrastructure but still a mess… you don’t need a lab to make the next pandemic just a dead bird being eaten by a small carnivore
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
More retroviruses to find …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I still remember a feeling of panic when I realised the students were literally writing down everything I said… I remember thinking “ but what if what I’ve said is wrong? “
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I liked that … it’s a large part of why I like my students to step away from something that s not working and take some time to think about it before the next attempt
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
That’s genuinely cool (even for a virologist)
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Sometimes you just have to get out see your research being used - lovely afternoon at the Melton Mowbray ram sales admiring ram butts and sooo many lots being advertised with their bluetongue vaccination status and Maedi Visna Free status advertised proudly (and we tried the beer festival too)
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Reposted by RTarlinton.bsky.social
Dutchscientist (the real one) @dutchscientist.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
LOL. The finishing touch is perfect.
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Well yeah… this is what we’ve encouraged our own teens to do … why start working life with that huge debt if you don’t have to?
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Form of eating disorder? …. I mean eating disorders are about feeling in control of something ( and not really anything to do with body image) …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Me too … probably why I like talking to journalists … someone who actually looks even remotely interested in “thing”
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Many anti vaccers are indeed convinced that just “ eating correctly” will fix everything …. It’s a very distinctly paranoid mindset , women just about kill each other fighting over what toddlers should and shouldn’t eat
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
There are still plenty of brain implant experiments done … usually in mice but still done
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Oh man that’s just so bad….I’ve seen dozens of that style of grant fail at finding panels ( for good reason) that’s an obscene amount of money to throw at trying to commercialise a problem that doesn’t exist
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It will be fun!
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Commercial fisherman are finding dead terns floating off the coast in large numbers … these are the places I grew up in and I do t know whether to swear or cry
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
AI could make a mess out of our banking system (or our transport system or our power grid or indeed anything else that relies on the internet and has wobbly security) even a days shut down in those things is a serious enough problem with all the terminator/skynet/matrix fantasies
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Those ball pythons with the white markings are pretty much all predisposed to neurological problems “ wobbler syndrome” . I’ve wanted to sequence them to work it out but well money …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
In the vet world this hasn’t stopped since Covid. In the uk alone we have had H5N1, BTV… now a new bunyavirus … we are tired and the line we hold between animals and people has holes in it
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The river soar at hathern lock, parts of it are diverted for shipping canals or mill races (as here) and in the 1800s it was apparently so polluted with factory waste from Leicester it was bright pink. Nature does recover given a tiny chance…
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
These are the guys who will need to be in post to fend off the next pandemic … we so badly need them
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Fantastic week at the European Veterinary Microbiology conference last week, very exciting having a record 7 new specialists pass their exams and join us. When I joined 7 years ago there were only 20 of us .. 100 specialists and 40 residents in training now
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Or maybe they all just grew up watching the terminator …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Had this conversation at a conference last week , the computers can help sift the body of knowledge but they can’t add to it ( at least not in biology) if none makes the data set there is nothing for a computer to work with
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Yeah that’s a milk snake ( we have those and corn snakes for teaching the vet students snake handling)
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I think Germany definitely needs him if he doesn’t exist already
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Yeah but I mean it’s kind of like a German Clacton-on-sea , anyone under 60 moves out …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
www.bbc.co.uk/videos/c4gr9... a classic of ecological disasters …
bbc.co.uk
The 24 rabbits that invaded Australia
How one of the greatest environmental disasters in history was unleashed by the unintentional actions of one man - Thomas Austin.
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I mean they never bother to getvtgeir own quotes ( just lift them from somewhere else) but a whole article is a new level of laziness
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
But I’ll bet my 23 year old knows all of them
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
True this … I mean I come from a country that has actually tried to eradicate a species ( rabbits) twice with two different viruses ( myxomatosis and RHDV)… the rabbits won.
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I’ve been getting emails from poor PhD students looking for “ unpublished data sets” ( antibody affinity and the like) . They have no idea how expensive it is to produce that sort of thing or how commercially valuable / sensitive that stuff is … we don’t just have it sitting around unused.
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
On top of multiple serotypes bluetongue and schmallemberg this is going to an awful spring lambing / calving in Europe … and in case anyone wants to go on an anti farming rant this one also affects horses and deer too !
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Depressing and predictable … ok the disease itself can’t be stopped in wild populations like this ( protecting rare/ critically endangered species is another matter ) but not thinking through public reaction ( and health risk) to large numbers of cadavers has been a continual problem …
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RTarlinton.bsky.social @rtarlinton.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Well I don’t use it but I did see a really nice little software platform one of the lab techs developed with the help of AI recently for helping with clinical decisions based on lab AMR profiles .. it has its uses but it’s still a lot of work checking and validating everything
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