What is CIRALE ?
It’s the Centre d’Imagerie et de recherche sur les Affections Locomotrices Equines [or Centre for Imaging and Research on Equine Musculoskeletal Illnesses]. It’s an off-site branch of ENVA, the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort [Alfort National Veterinary School], one of the four French veterinary colleges. Historically, the whole site belonged to the Normandy Region, which then formed a public-private enterprise with the Calvados County Council. We now occupy the site and our mission is to administer the Centre, generate its work and develop the School on three strategic axes. The first is teaching: we train French veterinary students and practising vets undergoing on-the-job training. Next, we’re also research teachers: we develop research projects focused on equine musculoskeletal problems. Our third activity is developing diagnostics destined for the equine sector. This was the foremost wish of the Normandy Region – it wanted to provide this sector, and notably its trainers, riders, owners and breeders, with a state-of-the-art diagnostic centre focusing on horses’ musculoskeletal problems. Our role is to identify the causes of pain and to diagnose them to try and treat them the best we can so that the animal doesn’t suffer any more and also so that it can get back to work in good condition, allowing it to match or even improve on its past performances. The Alfort School is very happy with this partnership – it represents a unique opportunity for a School to be supported in such a manner.
What innovative equipment has been inaugurated recently here ?
We’ve strengthened our imaging capacity with new techniques and two new machines in a new wing baptised the Unité d’Imagerie Sectionnelle. We have a scanner equipped with a 90cm opening, the biggest diameter for a scanner that exists today, one of the first of its kind in Europe and the first in France. It can be used in two ways: on a horse lying down asleep (employing a very innovative table that we’ve developed); or on a horse that’s standing up but tranquilised, to scan its head. The idea is to have more in-depth imaging to detect a horse’s lesions better and see how to treat it. This way, we’re able to get views of its teeth, its sinuses and its cranium… allowing us to reduce the number of times anesthetics have to be used. The second machine is a new open, tilting MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner. Its magnet, the largest element, weighing 8 tonnes, can pivot 90°, allowing us to scan a horse’s knee, a joint that often needs attention. This is the only MRI machine that exists [in France] today capable of doing this. There were only three in Europe before this, in Germany, England and Belgium. The fourth in Europe is in Normandy !
When will the new machines enter into service ?
The machines are in the process of undergoing adjustments and will be put into service for clients’ horses with the new season. We work above all on case referrals, that’s to say that vets send us horses with problems they can’t manage to diagnose or because they need access to our techniques. We try to find out what’s wrong with the horse and then get back to them with proposals for treatment. That allows them to make the most of our tools and to realise how useful they are. As time goes by, the price of such machines may go down, and some will then be able to afford such equipment themselves. We’re the first to have obtained approval from the [French] nuclear safety authority: as in the past with previous machines, we will serve as a reference. That will help private clinics and it’s another way also of supporting their economic development, transferring know-how bit by bit. The idea isn’t to be in competition, but to work intelligently together.