Fernanda Camargo, DVM, PhD
Equine Extension Professor
610 WP Garrigus Bldg
Animal and Food Science Dept
University of Kentucky
Lexington KY 40546
Phone/Fax: 859-257-7525
mailto:Fernanda.Camargo@uky.edu
Short Biography
Dr. Fernanda Camargo has been involved with horses since childhood. She was born is Londrina, a city located in the southern state of Parana, in Brazil. Londrina was once known as the Coffee Capital of the World, in fact, in 1961 Londrina produced 51% of all the coffee of the world. Both her grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, were farmers: raising cattle, ranch horses, coffee, and other crops. Her paternal grandfather raised and raced Thoroughbreds in Brazil for over 50 years. And her great-grandfather was one of the breeding pioneers of the Brazilian Saddlebred horse Mangalarga, in the early 1900’s. Therefore, her affection for horses has been passed down through generations.
She attended Vet School in her hometown, at the State University of Londrina (Universidade Estadual de Londrina), which has been rated in the top two best Vet Schools of Brazil for many years. In 2001 her passion for horses brought her to Lexington, Kentucky, where she started her PhD studies at the University of Kentucky. Her PhD studies were in Equine Pharmacology and Toxicology, and she was mentored by Professor Thomas Tobin. She has been specifically involved in the development, creation and validation of several analytical methods for the detection of pharmacological compounds in equine biological fluids. Some of the drugs she has personally worked with are isoxsuprine, albuterol (Torpex®), clenbuterol, and trimetoquinol among others. Her doctoral project involved the pharmacological actions, detection, quantitation, metabolism and pharmacokinetics of trimetoquinol in the horse and its biological fluids. In that regard her results showed that trimetoquinol is among the most potent compounds existent, in which an extremely low dose can elicit maximal pharmacological actions.
She now is one of the Equine Extension Professors at the University of Kentucky. Her major emphasis is in Equine Youth Extension, the 4-H Horse Program, which has over 5,000 youth and is one of the largest 4-H Horse programs in the country. She develops and delivers educational materials for the County Extension Agents for 4-H Youth Development, volunteer leaders, parents and 4-H youth. In addition, she contributes to the adult equine extension program alongside Dr. Bob Coleman. She also teaches Equine Health and Disease and Equine Anatomy at the Animal Science department at the University of Kentucky.
