Students from the UK, India, and New Zealand awarded for outstanding veterinary journal submissions 

Students from the UK, India, Australia and New Zealand have been announced as the winners of the Veterinary Evidence Student Awards 2025. The winners submitted papers on a variety of species and topics, covering antiparasitic medication, risk scoring and animal behaviour in companion animals and environmental sustainability in dairy cattle.  

The Awards offered veterinary students the opportunity to test their academic skills by writing and submitting a Knowledge Summary for our open-access, peer-reviewed journal, Veterinary Evidence.   

The full list of winners, their academic institutions, and paper titles is as follows:  

• 1^st place: Justine Cole, RVC (UK), ‘Does the methanogenesis inhibitor 3-nitrooxypropanol affect milk yield in dairy cattle?’  

• 2^nd place: Athulya Prakash, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (India), ‘Efficacy of Vincristine-Ivermectin combination therapy in the treatment of Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumour’  

• Joint 3^rd place: Jacqueline Chappell, University of Sydney (Australia), ‘The quick sequential organ failure assessment score as a predictor of mortality in septic dogs’  

• Joint 3^rd place: Leah Foster, Otago Polytechnic (New Zealand), ‘Thinking inside the box: do hiding boxes reduce the fear and stress of hospitalised cats?’  

Royal Veterinary College (RVC) student Justine Cole won the top prize for her Knowledge Summary on the effects of the use of 3-nitrooxypropanol in dairy cattle to reduce methane emissions, and whether this has an impact on milk yield.   

Justine carried out a critical review of 15 papers and presented their findings in a Knowledge Summary.  

Justine said: “I am honoured to receive this award, and I hope that others in the dairy industry and veterinary community find this Knowledge Summary as interesting as I did.  

“My experience really highlighted the importance of using evidence-based veterinary medicine to evaluate new products in practice. This is especially true when evaluating future solutions within the context of One Health, to ensure that improvements in one domain – such as environmental health – are not achieved at the expense of others, such as animal welfare or public health.”  

The Veterinary Evidence Student Awards were open to any undergraduate student studying a degree related to veterinary medicine anywhere in the world.  

 The successful applicants completed a Knowledge Summary about a topic of their choosing and submitted it to Veterinary Evidence.   

 The winners received the following prizes:  

• 1^st place: £200  

• 2^nd place: £100  

• 3^rd place: £50  

Veterinary Evidence editor-in-chief Peter Cockcroft said: “Congratulations to all winners. It’s wonderful to see veterinary students from across the world making their first contributions to evidence-based veterinary medicine. I hope that their experience of writing a Knowledge Summary has inspired them to continue doing so throughout their career.  

“Whether you’re a student or a qualified veterinary professional, if you’re interested in contributing to a peer-reviewed journal that provides the latest evidence to the veterinary professions, we’d love to hear from you. Our team will support you through the process of writing and submitting your first paper.”  

 Read the winning paper here, and get some inspiration for your own submission to Veterinary Evidence: https://veterinaryevidence.org/index.php/ve/article/view/717  

To contact the Veterinary Evidence office directly you can email: editorial-office@veterinaryevidence.org