Cheshire-based Northwest Veterinary Specialists has announced that it has tripled its neurology team with the appointment of two new specialists, Massimo Mariscoli and Luca Motta.

Massimo (pictured left) qualified from Bologna Vet School in 1990 and spent two decades working as a specialist in veterinary neurology in Italy and Germany, following a three-year residency in neurology and neurosurgery at Bern in Switzerland.He has also spent almost 20 years lecturing at universities in Italy, including ten years as head of neurosurgery and advanced neurology diagnostics.

He said: "During my career I’ve spent short amounts of time in the UK and once I was aware of the opportunity to work with Northwest Veterinary Specialists, I jumped at the chance to move here.

"It has a fantastic reputation in providing the very best care to pets, and the recent investment in state-of-the-art facilities means we can offer the very best service to patients.

"I have a particular interest in continually improving our work around brain and spinal surgery and biopsies, and will be further researching technology and techniques to support treatment of epilepsy in pets."

Luca, who is currently a member of the Examinations Committee of the European College of Veterinary Neurology, also qualified in Italy (in 2007) at the University of Perugia, before moving to England where he completed his internship program in small animal medicine & surgery in 2009. He gained residency at a multi disciplinary referral hospital in the UK and was awarded the European College of Veterinary Neurology (ECVN) in 2012.

Luca has authored scientific papers in peer reviewed international journals and he has also been a reviewer for the Journal of Small Animal Practice and for the BMC Veterinary Research.

He said: "We’ll be focusing on changing the way we do neurosurgery to ensure the pets referred to us receive the very best treatment for their condition.

"We often see patients with intervertebral disc disease and epilepsy, and I’m looking to increase work around my main interests, including surgery of the central nervous system and epilepsy." 

Liz Cousins, hospital manager at Northwest Veterinary Specialists said: "This year we’ve been making significant investment in our facilities and people, so it’s fantastic to be able to attract two experienced neurology specialists in Luca and Massimo,” said Liz Cousins, hospital manager at Northwest Veterinary Specialists.

"Luca and Massimo’s appointments clearly demonstrate our emphasis on creating teams of experienced and extremely knowledgeable specialists across the centre."

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