BY KAYLEIGH FREEMAN
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Local canine health researcher and Auburn University professor Dr. Stacey Sullivan has been named one of eight semifinalists for the 2025 Canine Health Discovery of the Year Award, an esteemed honor presented by the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation.
With 2025 marking the inaugural year of the Canine Health Discovery of the Year Award, Canine Health Foundation CEO Dr. Stephanie Montgomery said the goal is to spotlight advancements in canine health.
“We’re so excited,” Montgomery said. “People have been really enthusiastic learning about the semifinalists, and what I love is we get to spotlight all of the great advancements happening in the field and the people behind them, like Dr. Sullivan.”
Sullivan, a professor of practice in neurology and neurosurgery at Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, has invested her time in research — in particular, dachshunds. After time spent working with the breed in field settings, Sullivan, who owns four dachshunds of her own, became interested in improving the breed’s spinal health, as they are genetically predisposed to disc issues.
For Sullivan, the promise that her research could improve the health of dogs has been the most rewarding aspect of her work. Improving dachshunds’ spinal health once felt hopeless, but her research provides a clearer path toward breeding programs that may reduce the likelihood of disc problems, she said.
“There was a gene discovery out of UC Davis, and the colloquial name for the gene is CDDY, which stands for chondrodystrophy,” Sullivan said. “They showed that this gene causes disc disease in dogs, not just dachshunds, and that the gene is dominant, meaning that one or two copies of the gene would cause disc disease in dogs.”
With the discovery of the gene and the report that it was dominant, it started to look bleak for dachshunds’ spinal health, given that almost all dachshunds have one or two copies of the gene, Sullivan said.
Sullivan’s research, in cooperation with data from the Norwegian Kennel Club and Norwegian Dachshund Club, showed that dogs with one copy of the CDDY gene have a much lower risk of having disc problems than dogs with two copies. Her work also helped establish the magnitude of a gene-dose effect: one copy of the gene behaves more like zero copies than like two, rather than one and two copies being equally damaging.
Although Sullivan’s research has already made a strong impact on canine health, she hopes to expand her work to further improve outcomes for dachshunds. In particular, she wants to develop a method for screening discs in puppies through CAT scans and advance into producing a test that will determine the degree of disc degeneration to guide more thoughtful breeding.
“I think [the Auburn community] should be so proud of the work that the veterinary school is doing there,” Montgomery said. “Dr. Sullivan exemplifies a lot of the work that veterinarians are doing every day, and so as a community, [take] a moment to be proud of what’s happening in your own backyard and getting recognized around the world.”
For the debut of the annual award, the Canine Health Foundation asked experts in the field to nominate the top recent canine-health discoveries they found as impactful to the health of dogs. The nominations were evaluated by a diverse panel of experts across the world, leading to the selection of eight semifinalists, said Montgomery.
From the eight semifinalists, three finalists will be selected. The first place winner will receive $10,000 cash and be eligible for $75,000 in research funds, while second and third place will each receive $2,500 cash.
The three finalists are to be announced weekly on the AKC Canine Health Foundation’s social media throughout the month of November. The first place winner will be announced on Dec. 11 in Orlando, Florida, at the Canines & Cocktails Gala, the Canine Health Foundation’s annual event celebrating canine health research.
“I want to share with everyone the great progress that I get to see every day in my job as a veterinarian and as a CEO of the Canine Health Foundation,” Montgomery said. “It’s such a beautiful way to be able to show the world all of the amazing breakthroughs that are happening that are going to benefit our dogs for generations to come.”
