Prof Gerhard Steenkamp BSc, BVSc, MSc, PhD, AVDC-ZWD Associate Professor: Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8428-7309

Summary CV

Prof. Gerhard Steenkamp joined the Department in 1998. He has ever since been responsible for the running of the Dentistry and Maxillofacial surgery clinic.  Prof. Steenkamp lectures undergraduate veterinary and para-veterinary students in general surgery, dentistry and maxillofacial surgery in small animals, oncological surgery of small animals as well as equine dentistry. Prof. Steenkamp’s research projects involve collaboration with researchers from Lancet laboratories, Mammal Research Institute (University of Pretoria) and West Coast Veterinary Dental Services (Canada). To date he has supervised three MSc students. Prof. Steenkamp currently has 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has written four book chapters. He has presented 50 international conference papers and a further 30 nationally.

Research Expertise/Interest

Prof. Steenkamp has a keen interest in clinical research, specifically in the fields of dentistry and maxillofacial surgery of small animals.  He is currently working towards a major project, which involves the surgical dehorning of white rhinoceros calves, in an attempt to conserve the species. Additional work done on injured/ poached white rhinoceros have contributed towards understanding the systemic complications these animals suffer during such a traumatic event.

Postgraduate Students

MSc

• Prof. Martin Schmidt is a neurologist from Giessen University (Germany) that has a keen interest in the skull changes due to metabolic disturbances.  His current project is trying to identify biological markers in the cheetah and lion for hypovitaminosis A.
•  Dr. Jacques du Preez is finalizing his project on the haematological and serum clinical chemistry markers of white rhinoceros and how they differ between injured and non-injured rhinoceros.
• Dr. Roxanne Emslie is a European College of Veterinary Dentistry alternate pathway resident that is doing her MSc on the oral and maxillofacial pathology of a wild population of Serval. 
• Dr. Anndri Garrett is a veterinarian and game farmer.  Anndri’s MSc is looking at the horn development in the Sable antelope and if it can be used to determine age in this species.
• Dr. Jane Budd is head veterinarian at the Breeding Centre for Endangered Arabian Wildlife and studbook keeper for the Arabian Leopard.  Jane’s MSc is focusing on the development of the normal haematology and clinical chemistry reference intervals for this much-endangered animal.
• Dr. Mickaël Robert is an European board certified equine surgeon and his MSc is looking at the normal anatomy of the ear of the white rhinoceros.  In his study Mickaël will not only do a gross anatomical description of the rhinoceros ear, but will also compare the use of standard radiographs and computed tomography (CT) to describe the ear.

MMedVet

• Dr. Keri-Lee Dobbie is a veterinary ophthalmology resident and I will be supervising her research project.  Keri-Lee’s project is to describe the ocular pathology of the common chimpanzee and to determine the normal intra ocular pressure in this species.