Role
Dr Strong is a Senior Lecturer in Animal Science and Veterinary Nursing. She currently teaches across the Animal, Zoo and Veterinary Nursing degree programmes at NTU on a variety of topics including Anaesthesia, Global Animal Disease, Welfare Science, Anatomy, Physiology and Zoo Biology.
Career overview
Dr Victoria Strong qualified as a Veterinary Surgeon from the University of Liverpool in 2010 after having been awarded a First-Class BSc (Hons) in Veterinary Pathology from the Royal Veterinary College, London in 2008.
After 3 years in full time general (mixed farm and small animal) veterinary practice she embarked upon a four-year doctoral training programme at The University of Nottingham and Twycross Zoo, and in 2017 graduated with the Degree of Veterinary Medicine (DVetMed).
The DVetMed involved a combination of doctoral research alongside specialist clinical training in zoological medicine. Her doctoral thesis was entitled ‘Getting to the heart of the matter: an investigation into great ape mortality and cardiovascular disease’, and aimed to confront significant gaps in knowledge about these two key areas of interest. As part of this work, Dr Strong co-founded the Ape Heart Project, a pan-European taskforce which has been instrumental in furthering international research into the epidemiology, pathophysiology and clinical diagnosis of sudden cardiac death in zoo-housed great apes.
Research areas
Dr Strong’s research spans across numerous aspects of animal health and disease, her main areas of interest being comparative medicine, great ape health and disease and anaesthesia. Her research into great ape mortality and cardiovascular disease has gained international recognition, meaning she has an extensive international network of collaborators (vets, pathologists, scientific researchers and zoo professionals) from across the globe.
External activity
Dr Strong is a passionate science communicator and delivers talks on the topics of her research and ‘life as a zoo vet’ to the general public. Alongside her teaching and research commitments, Dr Strong continues to practice as a small animal veterinary surgeon. She writes scientific content for Vetlexicon, is a reviewer for the Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research and International Zoo Yearbook, and is European representative for the Great Ape Heart Project (USA).
Sponsors and collaborators
Dr Strong has an extensive collaborators include:
- Twycross Zoo (UK)
- The (European) Ape Heart Project
- The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Great Ape Taxon Advisory Group
- The Great Ape Heart Project (USA) and Kolmärden Zoo (Sweden).