Nutritional issues, including obesity, that affect both people and animals will be discussed as practicing veterinarians and researchers gather Sept. 15-18, in Washington, D.C., for an international scientific meeting on veterinary and comparative nutrition.

The conference, Innovations in Companion Animal Nutrition, is sponsored by Waltham, a leader in pet nutrition research, along with the schools of veterinary medicine at the University of California, Davis, and Cornell University. It will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The conference will feature presentations on topics related to diet and exercise that are common to humans, as well as their dogs and cats. These include obesity and diseases including arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure. Also discussed will be the nutritional evolution of the cat and dog, and the current status of research in human and animal obesity.

Presenting at the meeting from UC Davis will be Andrea Fascetti of the School of Veterinary Medicine. Fascetti is a veterinary nutritionist and head of clinical nutrition at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. Her research focuses on trace mineral metabolism in dogs and cats, the bioavailability of the amino acid taurine in dogs and improvement of pet foods.

Also speaking from UC Davis will be Jon Ramsey, an assistant professor of veterinary medicine, who studies energy metabolism as it relates to aging and obesity in animals.

Bennie Osburn, dean of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, will participate in the opening of the conference. He will speak about the broad role of veterinarians in society, including academic research and comparative medicine studies.

UC Davis veterinary professors Quinton Rogers and James Morris will serve as editors of the Journal of Nutrition proceedings for the conference.

Conference co-sponsor Waltham is headquartered at the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition in England. The provider of pet care products, snacks, treats and complete diets for cats, dogs, cage birds, aquarium fish and horses, it is a subsidiary of Mars Inc.

More information about the conference is available online at http://www.nutritionsymposium.com/.