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Kansas State University achievements
2007 Veterinary Medicine
* Roman Ganta, a professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, has been awarded a grant of $1,825,000 by the National Institutes of Health to figure out how to stop the tick-borne bacteria, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, from making animals and people sick. This is the second grant of roughly the same size Ganta has received for this research. This particular tick-borne pathogen is also unique because it circumvents the initial defenses of the immune system of the animal or human the tick bites. The average, healthy immune system can clear the body of most bacterial infections. But ehrlichia chaffeensis gets past that first line of defense, making the infection persist and the subsequent illness difficult to get rid of. December 2007
* Brandon Reinbold, graduate student in pharmacology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at K-State, has received the Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine Award at the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Disease meeting December 2 in Chicago. The award was for Reinbold's presentation, "Diagnosis of bovine anaplasmosis following iatrogenic infection." Reinbold's research includes a first-of-its-kind study to evaluate blood concentrations of chlortetracycline following administration in feed concurrently with elimination of anaplasmosis infection in cattle. Chlortetracycline is a primary treatment for bovine anaplasmosis, which is the most prevalent tick-transmitted disease of cattle in the United States. Anaplasmosis is estimated to cost the U.S livestock industry more than $300 million per year. Cattle that recover from acute anaplasmosis, including those treated with antimicrobials, develop lifelong infections that preclude export to Canada. December 2007
* When the National Pork Board wanted to research how to eradicate the latest strain of porcine circovirus, K-State's Richard Hesse stepped forward. Hesse and fellow researchers from K-State, Iowa State University and South Dakota State University were recently awarded a $200,875 grant from the National Pork Board to delve deeper into how the disease affects the immune system of infected pigs. The multistate team will lead a national effort to develop the diagnostic tools to determine what viral strain a pig has been infected with, to tell the difference between antibodies produced in response to natural infection or vaccination, and to determine when the best time is to vaccinate. November 2007
* Dr. Gary Anderson, director of the K-State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, was elected vice president of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians. The election is a four-year commitment to serve on the association's executive committee, with culmination in the office of the president. Anderson's responsibilities with the association coincide closely with many of his duties at the diagnostic laboratory, where he sets policies and procedures consistent with the association's accreditation requirements. The full-service K-State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, a part of the College of Veterinary Medicine, serves veterinarians and animal owners in the state and world. It also provides strong support for the teaching and research responsibilities of the department of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, the College of Veterinary Medicine and K-State. October 2007
* Four K-State graduate students received travel awards from the American Society of Rickettsiology to attend and present papers at the recent 21st meeting of the organization in Colorado Springs, Colo. Rickettsiology is the study of vector-borne obligately intracellular bacteria. Students presenting papers at the meeting were Alison Federow, doctoral student in microbiology; Lalitha Peddireddi, doctoral student in pathobiology; James Reinbold, doctoral student in pathobiology; and Kendra Siebert, doctoral student in pathobiology. October 2007
* Bryant Blank, a third-year student in veterinary medicine, has been elected an executive committee officer of the Student American Veterinary Medicine Association. Blank will serve his term as information technology officer upon being sworn in at the association's March 2008 meeting. The Student American Veterinary Medical Association includes 29 student chapters from colleges around the nation with a total membership of over 10,000 students. The organization coordinates student chapter functions, promotes the exchange of ideas and information among students, and represents its members in matters that concern them, both as students and as future veterinarians. October 2007
* A successful career in veterinary medicine has earned K-State's Lisa Freeman, professor of pharmacology and associate dean of research and graduate programs at the College of Veterinary Medicine, a spot in Kaplan Publishing's 2008 edition of "You Are Here: A Guide to Over 380 Colleges & Unlimited Paths to Your Future." The guide, to be released in September, names K-State as one of 25 "cutting-edge schools" in the nation because the university offers programs in many of the 50 hottest career choices today, as determined by surveys with prospective undergraduates across the country. Freeman said she was profiled in the guide to inform students about veterinary careers in biomedical sciences. "Students who are interested in being veterinarians don't always realize that the profession offers many career opportunities outside of companion animal practice, in areas such as biomedical research, food supply medicine and public health," Freeman said. "K-State is a great place for veterinary students interested in these career pathways because of strong faculty mentors and student-centered professional development programs." August 2007
* Juergen Richt, lead scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Animal Disease Center and an adjunct professor at Iowa State University, will be joining K-State as a Regents Distinguished Professor. Richt's appointment begins in April 2008. The Regents professorship, which is in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is the most prestigious of all academic appointments in the Kansas Regents' system of universities and colleges. The appointment comes with generous funding support, as well as the chance to direct the appointment of at least two additional new supporting faculty positions. Richt is a veterinary microbiologist who has worked with multiple agents of zoonotic potential. Zoonotic diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans. Richt has published extensively on topics including the microbiology of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, chronic wasting disease, animal flu, borna virus and other emerging zoonotic diseases. He's been widely published in more than 60 journals, including Nature Biotechnology, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Journal of Virology and Science. August 2007
* Veterinarian Dr. Mike Apley's career achievements in animal health were recognized recently when he was spotlighted as one of the six most influential veterinarians in the cattle feeding industry in the past 35 years. Bovine Veterinary Magazine featured Apley and other industry leaders in an article on "VIPs of the Feedlot Industry" in the July 31 issue. August 2007
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service selected Kansas State University to lead a multi-institutional benefit-cost analysis of the National Animal Identification System. The analysis will be conducted with the assistance of co-contributors Colorado State University and Michigan State University. Montana State University will provide a comprehensive assessment of the economic benefits and costs of the National Animal Identification System, including its three components, premises registration, animal identification and animal tracing.
"There are tremendous benefits associated with NAIS by registering premises, identifying animals and trace-back ability," said Bruce Knight, undersecretary for USDA's marketing and regulatory programs mission area. "The benefit-cost analysis will provide comprehensive, objective economic information for producers."
Several segments of the livestock industry will be a part of this analysis including small producers; commercial producers; marketing institutions; processing facilities and rendering operations. K-State and colleagues will study the benefits and costs of all components of the National Animal Identification System across species. Also, the analysis will seek to determine the overall distribution of benefits and costs among producers of various sized herds, marketing firms, processors, consumers and state and federal government agencies. July 2007
* The K-State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, a part of the College of Veterinary Medicine, will be the first laboratory in the nation to use a newly developed, highly sensitive test to accurately detect bovine viral diarrhea virus, also called BVDV. For cattle producers, the virus causes economic losses through decreased weight gains, decreased milk production, reproductive losses and death. The lab recently completed training in the administration of the new test. The testing protocol was developed and evaluated in Europe by AnDiaTec, a German company, whose owner, Dr. Johannes Kehle, believes K-State offers several strategic advantages in serving the needs of American cattle producers. A full-service lab, the K-State Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory offers a complete range of animal health diagnostic and consultative services in an accurate and timely manner to the veterinary and animal health community in Kansas and the nation. The lab is accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians. June 2007
* K-State and Agri Food Certification, Mead, are partnering to train auditors for a nationwide system providing "certified traceable" foods. Under an agreement with the university, trained auditors will be tasked by Agri Food Certification to audit sites in the supply chain of participating retail restaurants and grocers. Agri Food Certification is the first certifying body for certified traceable food evaluated and accredited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through its ISO Guide 65 Program. Agri Food provides certification oversight for the nation's first and only feed and food chain traceability program, the VeriPrime Traceability Assurance System. The program introduces new industry best practices for certified traceable food products across the entire food chain. Agri Food Certification operates as an independent third party whose auditors will validate compliance by producers, processors, distributors and others in the food supply chain. K-State will be in charge of training and testing of the auditors. May 2007
* High student demand and a significant commitment to educating large-animal practitioners has led to the creation of a new, six-week intensive advanced beef production medicine course at K-State's College of Veterinary Medicine. The course is being made possible, in part, from ongoing support from the Pfizer Animal Health Beef Production Medicine Fund with a gift of $100,000 to be distributed over two years. The mix of veterinary students has changed significantly in the past 20 years and the percentage of students with beef production experience has declined significantly, according to Ralph Richardson, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. At the same time, Richardson said the demand for veterinarians to serve the animal health and food safety needs of the beef industry is growing. The development of the new advanced beef production medicine course is an outgrowth of two courses the college launched in 2005: advanced cow-calf production medicine and advanced feedlot production medicine. Offered in the spring and fall, respectively, these three-week courses are limited to 15 to 20 students per year. The new course will be offered during May and June and will be open to 30 students from K-State and other cooperating veterinary colleges. March 2007
* Researchers from K-State's College of Veterinary Medicine have completed a study showing that a newly-developed vaccine is effective against a deadly viral disease that is affecting swine herds in Kansas. The disease, most widely known as porcine circovirus associated disease, was first recognized in Kansas swine herds in November 2005. The disease complex is an immunosuppressive condition associated with porcine circovirus type 2 or PCV2. The researchers began a field trial in summer 2006, testing a vaccine in commercial development. The researchers, all from the department of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, were Bob Rowland, Dick Hesse, Steve Dritz, Jerome Nietfeld and Kyle Horlen. Their study showed a 50 percent reduction in mortality of vaccinated pigs compared to non-vaccinated pigs. Mortality was 7 percent for vaccinated pigs compared to 17 percent for non-vaccinated pigs. Vaccinated pigs also experienced an increase in growth. On average, they were 20 pounds heavier than non-vaccinated pigs of the same age. February 2007
K-State College of Veterinary Medicine