OSU Vet Research Report 2012

An official magazine of the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, Oklahoma State University

2012

4 LETTERS

6 RSV A worldwide health crisis

8 TICKS Fighting disease and cost

10 BRD Protecting the cattle

industry

14 BOMBS Detecting bombs with

animal athletes

Cover: Professor Michael Davis works out a horse during research at the Oklahoma State University Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. Like all the research done at the veterinary college, Davis’ work with animal endurance athletes saves lives, time and money. Davis currently is focusing on the training of improvised-explosive-device detection dogs (page 14).

Photo by Gary Lawson

vol. 2, 2012

C O N T E N T S

cvhs.okstate.edu

18 AGING Causes of neurodegeneration in horses and humans

20 DISEASE Adult stem cells battle lung disease

22 TRAINING Teaching post-doctorates, pathologists and future researchers

26 ABOUT US Budgets, spending and pride

2 0 1 2 © O K L A H O M A S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

Photo / PhIL shoCKLey

2 2012 Vet Research Report

Dean, Center For veterInary heaLth sCIenCesJean Sander, DVM

assoCIate Dean, researCh & GraDUate eDUCatIonJerry R. Malayer, Ph.D.

CoorDInator oF PUbLIC reLatIons, MarKetInG anD aLUMnI aFFaIrsDerinda Blakeney, [email protected]

Oklahoma State University, in compliance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 11246 as amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other federal laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, disability, or status as a veteran in any of its policies, practices or procedures. This includes but is not limited to admissions, employment, financial aid, and educational services. Title IX of the Education Amendments and Oklahoma State University policy prohibit discrimination in the provision of services or benefits offered by the University based on gender. Any person (student, faculty or staff) who believes that discriminatory practices have been engaged in based upon gender may discuss their concerns and file informal or formal complaints of possible violations of Title IX with the OSU Title IX Coordinator, Mackenzie Wilfong, J.D., Director of Affirmative Action, 408 Whitehurst, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, (405) 744-5371 or (405) 744-5576 (fax). This publication, issued by Oklahoma State University as authorized by The Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, was printed by Oklahoma CareerTech at a cost of $2,700. (500) 1/12 #4125

The Center for Veterinary Health Sciences is focused on training future veterinarians and leaders who will continue work to save animal and human lives — as perhaps this youngster at a recent center open house may do one day.

eDItorMichael Baker

art DIreCtorRoss Maute

PhotoGraPhersPhil ShockleyGary Lawson

assoCIate eDItorJanet Varnum

S TA F F

3OSU Center for Veterinary Health Sciences

The research and graduate educa-tion programs in the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences have

grown and developed over the last several years bringing us to a place where we are positioned to excel at even greater rates.

Under the guidance of Associ-ate Dean for Research Jerry Malayer and the Faculty Research Advisory Committee, several areas of research strength have developed despite the greater competition for diminishing grant-funding support.

The development of advanced research facilities, including a larger availability of biological safety level-three laboratories because of bricks and mortar support from private funding agencies, has expanded our ability to conduct research on infectious diseases. In addition, we have several level-two research facilities for applied research trials as well as studies with agents of a lower risk factor.

The college has sustainable policies and procedures to govern and distrib-ute indirect costs and salary savings

generated by funded research. The pool of endowed chairs and professorships has increased to 19 with a current value of nearly $12 million.

The Center for Veterinary Health Sciences has made a purposeful effort to focus our research growth in areas of unique strengths such as the National Center for Veterinary Parasitology, food and production animal health, as well as lung biology and comparative exer-cise physiology. We are proud that the interest and involvement of our profes-sional students in veterinary research has increased dramatically with the support of the summer research pro-gram sponsors.

I trust that you will find the past growth and future research potential of the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences allows us to see a future where we shall grow, thrive and prosper in the area of scientific inquiry and student education.

We intend to leverage this position to engage in new and exciting collaborations, which have the potential to increase our visibility and productivity in the area of innovative discovery and scholarship.

Jean E. Sander, DVM, MAM, Dipl. ACPVDean, Center for Veterinary Health Sciences

L E T T E R S

osU vet research Continues to thrive

Photo / Gary Lawson


In the past decade, we have seen sig-nificant growth in research activity at Oklahoma State University’s

Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. With no real growth in faculty and

staff, and shrinking resources from the state, our overall expenditures from grants and contracts have doubled and expenditures from federal sources has tripled over the decade.

Our efforts are focused in a few areas of traditional and emerging importance to create a critical mass of scientists capable of greater national and international recognition for individuals and programs, increased extramural support, focused graduate training programs and increased con-tributions to scientific literature.

Programs in tick biology and tick-borne disease continue to be a major focus, and more recently established programs in comparative medicine, lung development, exercise physiology, and biodefense are having significant impacts. Focus areas include food-animal health and performance, veterinary parasitology, lung biology and comparative exercise physiology, biodefense and emerging infectious disease, and toxicology.

We have excellent facilities to work with a range of animal species and the Association for Assessment and Accredi-tation of Laboratory Animal Care has accredited our animal-care program.

Housed at the Oklahoma Technol-ogy and Research Park, the OSU Elec-tron Microscopy Laboratory is a central facility for the entire campus, offering a wide range of microscopy services to OSU faculty, staff and students.

The veterinary center continues to expand modern laboratory space, along with new technology. The National Center for Veterinary Parasitology is a resource for research, diagnostics and training.

There are opportunities for veteri-nary students to explore a greater num-ber of options for career development by participating with faculty members in research. A summer training pro-gram sponsored by the National Insti-tutes of Health, now in its 17th year, supports student research, as does the Morris Animal Foundation and Merck-Merial. A course in the core-elective curriculum provides an opportunity for mentored research. Students are increasingly choosing post-graduate programs leading into academic and research careers.

We are proud of the colleagues’ successes described in this publication and of the many accomplishments of others not mentioned here. Our faculty members reach out to collaborate with colleagues across the country, and out-standing partnerships have been forged with other universities and the animal health industry.

The process of creating knowledge is important to an institution of higher learning’s vitality. There is a critical need for research in veterinary science and medicine. More veterinarians trained in the creation of knowledge are needed to meet future demands.

In these times of diminishing state support for higher education, the resources generated by externally spon-sored research are pivotal in maintain-ing the overall mission of the veterinary

Jerry R. Malayer, M.S., Ph.D.Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education

center. Resources spill over into learn-ing and service, increasing our overall capability and accomplishment.

We hope you enjoy reading this report on the activities and accom-plishments of our research community. We continue to develop with new fac-ulty joining us and with new facilities coming online. Expanding opportuni-ties to contribute to the health and wel-fare of animals and humans make this a very exciting time to be part of the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.

If you are interested in developing partnerships or collaborative research projects, or would like more informa-tion, please consider opportunities at Oklahoma State University. We look forward to receiving your comments.

osU vet Center research Critical

Photo / Gary Lawson


OSU professor Tom Oomens is working on a vaccine to treat respiratory syncytial

virus, a contagious disease that strikes nearly all children and is estimated to annually kill more than 100,000 chil-dren worldwide.

“Currently there are no effective drugs and no vaccine to prevent RSV,” Oomens says. “We are looking at RSV at the mo-lecular level to try to better understand the virus life cycle. RSV infects virtually every person on the planet and presents a serious, worldwide disease burden.”

Oomens, who holds a doctorate from the Netherlands’ Wageningen University and teaches veterinary pathobiology in OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences, is the principal investigator on a three-year Oklahoma Center for the

Advancement of Science and Technology grant that is winding down.

RSV infects everybody, but its main impact is on infants and the elderly. It is the largest viral cause of pediatric bronchiolitis and a big contributor to pediatric pneumonia.

While most cases in the U.S. clear up without complication, 1 to 5 percent of infants with RSV will develop bronchiol-itis and pneumonia, Oomens says, adding that premature infants are at a higher risk.

Besides yearly causing more than 100,000 child deaths worldwide, RSV results in about 100,000 hospitaliza-tions in the U.S. each year.

“Re-infections of RSV occur throughout your life, unlike measles where you get it once or are vaccinated and you’re good for life,” Oomens says.

“While this often results in only cold-like symptoms in adults, the virus poses a threat to the elderly, especially in care facilities. In addition, RSV can cause asthma-like wheezing later in life.”

working on a vaccineResearch indicates a live but weak-

ened virus will give a more effective immune response than inactivating a virus and using it as a vaccine. However, a live vaccine is difficult to produce in large amounts, and once made it is highly unstable.

“We are focusing on the molecular level of this virus to see how it rep-licates and how it makes new virus particles,” Oomens says. “We are trying to determine which combination of the virus is critical to make new virus par-

Combating a Worldwide Health Crisis

an osU professor is tackling a deadly respiratory virus.

Tom Oomens, Ph.D. and professor of veterinary pathobiology, studies human respiratory syncytial virus, which causes the deaths of about 100,000 children a year.

By Derinda Blakeney


ticles and what makes these particles stable or unstable. The more we under-stand the mechanisms — how the virus reconstructs itself and assembles itself and the role of specific viral proteins therein — the better chance we have of making an effective vaccine.”

The unstable nature of the virus makes it difficult to store and trans-port, Oomens says. The virus must be stored at -80 degrees Celsius or below to remain useful.

“In developing countries, there is often no access to regular freezers let alone ultra-low ones, meaning produc-tion and distribution will be very chal-lenging,” Oomens says. “We are always on the look-out to see if we can make vaccines in a new way.”

A number of scientists are working on RSV. Many of them are immunolo-gists using a mouse model to determine why the infection does not result in an immune response sufficient to prevent later re-infections.

“We’re looking at the molecular biol-ogy of the virus in cell cultures,” he says.

“We’re looking at individual proteins and how the virus replicates. We’re ask-ing some fundamental questions about

the assembly — how the virus puts itself together in a cell and spreads to infect neighboring cells.”

the Future of rsv research“We have accumulated a lot of

knowledge, but we need more,” Oomens says. “We are trying to dis-cover what it takes to interrupt the virus spread and contribute to lowering the impact of RSV-related disease.”

Oomens is hoping his work on human RSV will help him develop a veterinary tract to his research.

“Bovine RSV is a very close relative to human RSV and part of a complex disease in cattle called shipping fever,” Oomens says.

“Bovine RSV causes symptoms in calves that are similar to those in human RSV-infected infants. There-fore, studying the process in calves may help better understand shipping fever as well as serve as a model for human RSV infection,” he says. “We can test the vaccine candidates and look at the pathogenesis of the disease, all with the goal of finding better drugs and an effective vaccine to lessen the effects of RSV disease.”

what Is resPIratory synCytIaL vIrUs?In the U.S., RSV yearly causes the hospitalization of 75,000 to 125,000 children younger than age 1.

• syMPtoMs: RSV can cause cough-ing, sneezing, runny nose, fever and a decrease in appetite. In very young infants, irritability, decreased activity and breathing difficulties may be the only symptoms.

• who Is at rIsK: Premature infants, children younger than age 2 with con-genital heart or chronic lung disease, and children with weakened immune systems due to a medical condition or medical treatment are at highest risk. Adults with compromised immune systems and those 65 and older also are at increased risk.

• when Is rIsK Greatest: RSV infections generally occur in the U.S. from November to April. The timing of the season may differ among locations and from year to year.

SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

RSV, while far less familiar than pneumonia or influenza, is the most common source of severe respiratory illness in infants and children worldwide.

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RSV Bacterial Pneumonia

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Influenza deaths in

adults and children

RSV deaths in children under 5

3 - 5 million

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SOURCE: ariatlas.org, World Lung Foundation 2010



Ticks need blood — it’s their only food.

They don’t discriminate. They feed on humans and animals, causing discomfort and skin reactions that take weeks or even months to resolve.

Although one tick doesn’t ingest that much blood, if the number of ticks is multiplied by several thousand, which is often the case in cattle, the result can be damaged hides, reduced weight gains and big impacts on meat and milk production.

To make it all worse, ticks transmit pathogens.

At Oklahoma State University’s Cen-ter for Veterinary Health Sciences in the Tick and Tick-borne Pathogen Vac-cine Development Laboratory, Kather-ine Kocan, Ph.D., has made a lifelong commitment to researching ticks and tick-borne diseases.

“Research is a long and tedious pro-cess,” Kocan says. “One step at a time. The most important characteristic for a researcher is perseverance because

as soon as you find one answer, then it is on to the next question. Sometimes the results are not as expected and this means taking a few steps backward.”

Kocan, an OSU Regents Professor and the Walter R. Sitlington Endowed Chair in food animal research in the veterinary pathobiology department, is embarking on the next chapter of her research, studying an emerging tick-borne disease of humans and animals caused by the pathogen Anaplasma phagocytophilum.

“Anaplasma phagocytophilum infects a wide variety of hosts — people, birds, cats, deer, dogs, sheep, cattle and goats,” Kocan says.

“In 1990, human granulocytic anaplasmosis emerged in the U.S. as a disease of humans and has continued to spread. While this pathogen was first identified as the cause of tick-borne fever in sheep in Europe, HGA is now also being seen in humans in Europe,” she says. “We are likely to see increases in this disease in the U.S. Between 2003 and 2008, more than 3,635

human cases of HGA were recorded in the U.S., most of which have been in the upper Midwest.”

why new tick-borne diseases?As people move into rural areas, the

wildlife on which ticks feed are being driven out of their natural habitats.

“If the deer are no longer available to serve as a tick reservoir, then ticks will feed on available animals such as dogs, cats and people,” Kocan says. “Dogs are especially likely to bring ticks into the yard or house, and this increases the chances of people being exposed to ticks.”

the history More than 37 years of research at

OSU started when Kocan identified the pathogen Anaplasma marginale in ticks, described the complex develop-mental cycle and defined tick transmis-sion patterns.

The organism causes bovine ana-plasmosis, a significant tick-borne dis-ease of cattle in the U.S. and worldwide. Kocan traveled to Kenya and South

Battling Tick-Borne DiseasesBy Derinda Blakeney

From left, OSU professors Ed Blouin, José de la Fuente and Katherine Kocan are developing vaccines for tick control.

Photo / Gary Lawson


what’s next?Kocan and her team discovered that

the experimental vaccines also reduced the ability of ticks to transmit pathogens.

“Now we want to produce dual-target vaccines that will both control ticks and prevent transmission of pathogens,” she says.

“The ticks aren’t going away and, as we see with the emergence of HGA, ticks are changing as the world we live in changes,” Kocan says. “We need to keep the research moving forward to get closer to the answers we need. Preventative measures are needed to control ticks and tick-borne diseases for the welfare of pets, production animals and people.”

Africa where she identified the agent of the cattle disease, heartwater, in ticks and described its developmental cycle.

Kocan next developed a cell culture system for A. marginale. Before, research-ers could only grow the organism in ticks or cattle, which made research difficult and expensive.

Kocan recruited Ed Blouin, Ph.D., and they teamed with two researchers from the University of Minnesota to develop the first cell culture system for A. marginale in 1992.

“The cell culture system, now used worldwide, allows for experimental manipulation of several tick-borne pathogens and has greatly reduced the need for animals in research,” she says.

“This system also allowed us to discover

Americans spend $41 billion a year on pet care, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. No

small part of that expense, especially in the South, is on ticks and the diseases the resilient little arachnids spread.

“Tick prevention and treatment is a multimillion-dollar-a-year industry,” says OSU Regents Professor Susan Little. “People spend a lot of money to try to protect their pets from ticks.”

As the U.S. climate warms, the tick population booms, spreading from its common stomping grounds in the South to northern parts of the country. Ticks’ drug resistance also is increasing.

Oklahoma is one of the worst states for tick-borne diseases and has the high-est rates of pet and human ehrlichiosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences is uniquely equipped to combat tick-borne diseases. Little, a renowned parasitologist and tick expert, studies the organisms and the tick-borne dis-eases affecting dogs and humans.

Little recently led a 14-veterinary school study presented in June 2011

at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine’s annual forums in Denver. The study, funded by the medi-cal firm IDEXX, examined common types of ehrlichiosis, a flu-like disease in humans that is dangerous to dogs in the southeastern U.S. The company developed a diagnostic test that will help veterinarians fight ehrlichiosis.

“We did the field testing for it, applying it to a survey of 8,000 dogs in the middle United States to delin-eate where dogs are infected and with what erhlichiosis agent,” Little says.

The research group also found dogs had more antibodies for bacteria that cause ehrlichiosis, Ehrlichia ewingii, than any of the other species when the prevalence of the disease was not well understood. Little’s OSU veterinary medicine colleague Sidney Ewing discovered the organism, carried by several types of ticks. Little’s research showed it was most common in Okla-homa, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri.

Little submitted a paper on the research for publication to Parasites and Vectors Journal.

As the Krull-Ewing Endowed Chair in veterinary parasitology, Little oversees OSU’s National Center for Veterinary Parasitology established in 2008. It is the only center of its kind in the nation.

the molecule required for A. marginale to adhere to and infect tick cells, which is an important part of the pathogen’s life cycle.”

The next challenge for Kocan’s lab was developing vaccines for tick control. Molecular biologist José de la Fuente, Ph.D., who earlier developed a cattle tick vaccine marketed in Cuba and other countries, joined Kocan’s team in 2000.

“Tick vaccines are needed because the ticks have become resistant to chemicals where pesticides have been used intensively, and this problem will continue into the future,” Kocan says.

“Based on our laboratory tick vaccine model, tick vaccines could easily be de-veloped for other important tick pests.”

Confronting the high Cost of ticksBy Matt Elliott


Susan Little


Jane and Norman Durham credit OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences with helping to keep their cattle healthy.

Photo / Gary Lawson


The vet school helps in other ways, Norman Durham says. Its students and medical personnel skillfully treat his animals if there’s a problem, which always seems to happen in the middle of the night.

“They have quite adequate facilities,” he says. “One of the things we really like is the fact the faculty are very capable, talented and always available.”

On a deeper level, the college’s faculty members are instrumental in furthering the science behind fighting bovine respi-ratory disease, BRD, and other ailments plaguing the beef and dairy industries.

Anthony Confer, who has a doctorate of veterinary medicine and a Ph.D., is a Regents Professor and the Sitlington Endowed Chair in food animal research. Confer patented two BRD vaccines in 2006 and 2010 he developed with Sahlu Ayalew, Ph.D., a research assistant professor and microbiologist. Confer won the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence in 2011 and is also an award-winning teacher.

Confer and Ayalew derived their vaccines from Mannheimia haemo-lytica proteins. However, the disease is far from defeated because immunity depends on the host’s response to a wide variety of other factors. Ayalew and Confer have identified more than 50 such proteins that could be devel-oped into vaccines. Many of these have already been tried and show promise.

The ultimate goal of their research is to develop protective vaccines. One approach they’ve used is designing and building vaccines by molecularly stitch-ing together proteins from M. haemolyt-ica outer cell membranes. A few of these have already been developed, but are still being tested. Confer and Ayalew’s

research has been funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and animal health companies.

Their colleague, Robert Fulton, a doctor of veterinary medicine, Ph.D., Regents Professor and the McCasland Endowed Chair for food animal research, is a renowned veterinary virologist. He investigates viral causes of BRD, in addition to the bovine viral diarrhea virus, BVDV, which also causes respiratory diseases and calf losses because of persistent infections when in the womb.

A collaborator with private industry as well as government, Fulton’s work includes a recent contract with an animal-health company that provided a BVDV strain for vaccine development. He and his colleagues work with the USDA and animal-health companies to make the food supply healthier with better vaccines and diagnostic tests.

In 1995, his team found several viruses involved with bovine respira-tory disease in sick cattle with previ-ous vaccinations. The team also found bovine viral diarrhea in cattle with relatively good vaccination histories, with the biggest source being persis-tently infected calves.

Fulton won the veterinary college’s 2010 Regents Distinguished Research Award in recognition of his achievements in medicine. A faculty member since 1982 in the veterinary pathobiology depart-ment, he is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists.

In addition to their many other funding sources from a variety of areas, Fulton and Confer received a grant from 1999 to 2007 for $2.4 million through the Noble Foundation of Ardmore to study BRD.

The Durhams have been cattle ranchers for 35 years, and the couple’s polled Herefords have

never had a problem with bovine respiratory disease, the most destruc-tive and prevalent disease affecting the cattle industry.

Norman Durham, a Ph.D. and for-mer OSU microbiologist and interim provost who retired in 1995, and Jane Durham, a microbiologist, raise a herd of about 50 cattle on their ranch just west of Stillwater.

“We have made an effort to have a good health plan in our herd, vaccinat-ing calves early on,” Durham says. “But also, if we purchase a new bull, we’ll look very closely at not only his herd health program, but also the genetic problems that his herd might have.”

The Durhams monitor their cattle’s genetic stock and breed accordingly to ensure calves are more likely to be healthy. That and their vaccinations add up to less need for antibiotics later. Con-sumers and the businesses that sell to them are increasingly looking for meat free of antibiotics and growth hormones.

Keeping their cattle healthy is important to the Durhams because they ship them all over Oklahoma to customers who need healthy animals to start their own herds.

The Durhams’ unofficial partner in keeping their herd healthy is OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.

The couple blames the disease’s prevalence on uneven herd manage-ment in the industry, and they praise the center’s faculty members whose progress in bovine respiratory disease vaccines and large-animal veterinary care are legendary.

Couple Protects Herd with Vet Center’s HelposU veterinary professors are instrumental in finding vaccines for bovine diseases. By Matt Elliott


It’s as regular as clockwork.Pneumonia in cattle. Shipping

fever. No matter what you call it, bovine respiratory disease cleans the clock of the cattle industry to the tune of more than $800 million a year, ScienceDaily reports.

Infections by viruses and bacteria cause the fatal disease, also known as BRD, which allows fluid and dam-aged cells to build up in the lungs and harm tissue. Economic losses also include reduced growth and develop-ment affecting meat quality. It’s the main cause of death for feedlot cattle and a major cause of death in dairy operations, according to Pfizer Animal Health’s website.

“It’s by far, unquestionably, the most expensive disease in cattle,” says Jared Taylor, who has a doctorate of veterinary

medicine and a Ph.D. Taylor is an OSU Center for Veterinary Health Sciences researcher who studies the disease.

BRD is particularly problematic in states that have many feedlots, such as Oklahoma, where cattle are shipped from several states in the region and from as far away as Florida. Thousands of head from dozens of different loca-tions mingle in pens that dot the rural areas comprising the state’s $4.6 billion a year cattle industry.

Naturally, OSU researchers such as Taylor have been hot on the disease’s trail for decades. Taylor and his col-league, Douglas “DL” Step, DVM, have been focusing recently on the two most common causes of the disease, the bacteria Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida.

There are all kinds of tests ranch-ers and veterinarians can give animals to determine if they have the bacteria. One of the chief ways is via nasal swabs. The problem is, most animals have those bacteria in their nose, and that doesn’t necessarily mean the bacteria are in the lungs where they do their damage. Determining that requires a much more complex test involving sticking a long tube into the animal’s lungs and washing them with fluid — a bronchial alveolar lavage.

Yet, those two bacteria don’t always cause disease when they’re in the lungs. Researchers are trying to determine if that’s due to genetic mutation.

“We’re trying to figure out ways to characterize these bacteria with the ultimate goal of answering the question:

OSU Vet Center Combats Costly DiseaseProfessors tackle the cause of bovine respiratory disease. By Matt Elliott

Photo / Gary Lawson

Jared Taylor


Are there differences we can point to that show these are more likely to cause disease and these are not?” Taylor says.

“We’re trying to find a fingerprint to say which one is more likely to cause disease.”

In addition to Taylor’s lab, the research goes on at OSU’s Willard Sparks Beef Research Center, a univer-sity-run experimental feedlot where Step collects samples from high-risk animals shipped there from all over the region. That’s as close as possible to what the cattle experience in industry.

Taylor and Step’s research, funded by the veterinary school, is in its early stages. They’re still determining how best to decode the genes of bacteria col-lected from sick cattle and those from healthy cattle. Gene decoding is time consuming and expensive. The quicker methods are the most expensive.

Once he has his process selected and refined, Taylor will begin by look-ing for patterns in the genetic code as

illustrated by telltale black and white bands appearing in a special gel, pro-duced by a process called electrophore-sis, used in genetic testing.

Commonalities found could help researchers better understand the bac-teria’s role in BRD. Progress could lead to fewer infections. Taylor says that theoretically the process they choose could be used to quickly and cheaply break down the genetic code of any disease-causing organism.

Step, relying upon his more than 25 years of experience as a veterinarian in practice, industry and academia, has been collecting specific samples for Tay-lor to process. When it comes to observ-ing which animals may be suffering from clinical BRD, he uses the DART method. DART stands for depression, appetite, respiratory signs and temperature.

“I look for an animal that’s not in the normal range: drooping head and ears, slow movement, stumbling, knuckling, which are indications of weakness and depression. Some people say if they eat, they don’t have pneumonia, but in our experience, that’s not always true.”

In the pair’s research protocols, cattle exhibiting clinical signs sugges-tive of BRD are assigned a severity score from one to four — one being mild and four being moribund. Antimicrobial medications are administered based on specific criteria. While there are not methods to identify all sick cattle, the protocol works well enough that several components are followed in the industry.

“Our hope and goal is that we can provide practical approaches to help out the owners and cattle and to hopefully decrease the incidence and negative impact of BRD,” Step says.

“Through some of our research, we know that management can affect the outcome of these animals. Farmers and ranchers have used some of the work we’ve completed and published, and practicing veterinarians have recom-mended some of the management practices. We know that certain health management protocols on the farm or ranch of origin will greatly decrease the incidence of BRD, but it won’t eliminate it entirely.”

Professors Jared Taylor, left, and DL Step, below, are focusing on the most common causes of bovine respiratory disease.


Douglas “DL” Step


Photo / Gary Lawson


Animal Endurance Athlete Research

Saves LivesosU Center for veterinary health sciences professor Michael Davis’

research with horses and dogs, including bomb-detecting canines,

saves animal and human lives.

By Derinda Blakeney


Michael Davis, who has tracked Alaskan sled dogs and worked with exercise horses in efforts to save lives, is turning his attention to a battlefield lifesaver: improvised-explosive-device detection dogs.

“The Marine Corps has nearly 600 dogs specifically trained to support foot patrols by hunting for explosives and related materials, much in the same way that hunting dogs are trained to find game birds,” says Davis, a professor at OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.

“However, the stakes in a combat area are much, much higher. Miss a bird, and you can still go to the grocery store to get your dinner. Miss a bomb, and the good guys, and possibly a good dog, get hurt or killed.”

Davis, who holds doctorates in veterinary medicine and physiology, will continue to work with animal endurance athletes such as sled dogs and exercise horses. But, funding through the Joint IED Detection Orga-nization administered by the Office of Naval Research has focused the profes-sor’s attention on making the Marine Corps IED detection dogs healthier.

Davis works with the dogs’ producers to figure out how to improve the canines’ health and physical resilience. Other investigators are evaluating and improv-ing methods used to instill psychological resilience for dogs. The canines can find themselves under as much physical and psychological stress as their Marine Corps human counterparts. Testing

results are immediately given to the Army Veterinary Corps so improve-ments can be promptly implemented.

In the short time they have worked on the project, Davis believes his team, which includes long-time collaborators Mike Willard of Texas A&M University and Shannon Pratt-Phillips of North Carolina State University, is making progress.

“We have made huge advancements demonstrating that explosive-detection dogs like the Marine Corps’ IED detec-tion dogs are susceptible to exercise- induced gastric ulcers, much in the same way that other animal and human

athletes are prone to this condition,” Davis says. “We have also demonstrated that the dogs’ nutritional requirements are 50 percent higher than what those nutritional requirements were thought to be. We have provided the military with the specific number of liters of water that the dogs are required to con-sume in specific environments, espe-cially in extremely hot, arid locations.”

Davis says the information his team has discovered will have a huge impact on the health and well-being of these dogs, as well as other military working dogs and canines engaging in similar activities in the private sector.

This information, however, is not easy to generate and is not cheap.

“Once upon a time, you could do a lot more research with a lot less money. Things were cheaper and the questions were a lot simpler. We have answered all the easy, cheap questions. All that is left now are the expensive ones,” Davis

Above: Michael Davis, who receives funding from the U.S. military, tests the aerobic capacity in dogs training for explosive detection work. Left: Davis, a physiological sciences professor and director of OSU’s Comparative Exercise Physiology Lab, is renowned for his work with sled dogs, including the secret behind their legendary stamina and their gastrointestinal tracts in relation to gastric ulcers.

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says. “The level of skill and knowledge that is required to work on privately owned domestic-animal athletes couldn’t be produced by anyone other than a veterinarian.”

Davis is having trouble finding veterinarians with the interest and expertise for such research.

“There are not enough veterinarians interested in a biomedical research career for the amount of work that is actually available to be done,” he says.

“People have a mental picture of bio-medical research being with little white mice, pipettes and bench top assays. This military working-dog research is biomedical research, but it is also clini-cal veterinary medicine,” he says.

“The dogs we are working with are worth between $30,000 and $40,000 apiece and are in very high demand. The Marine Corps certainly doesn’t want us to do anything to harm them and we won’t.

“We are trained as veterinarians to obtain meaningful medical informa-tion without harming the patient. This research requires the same approach, combined with the training for research that allows us to conduct experiments with small numbers of subjects that can then be applied to entire populations.”

Davis is director of the Compara-tive Exercise Physiology Lab at OSU’s veterinary center and holds the Oxley Chair in equine sports medicine. In addition to the military working-dog research, he is doing basic research into the physiology of exercise.

“We’re looking at how exercise works on a molecular level,” Davis says.

“Understanding that could lead to a breakthrough in how humans exercise or, better yet, improve their endurance.”

For nearly 20 years, Davis has worked with sled dog owners who enter teams in Alaska’s Iditarod race. His team studied dogs’ lungs, the secret behind their legendary stamina and their gastrointestinal tracts in relation to gastric ulcers. In particular, he stud-ied the development of gastrointestinal disease, including diarrhea, cramping and ulceration in racing sled dogs.

“Racing sled dogs have been found to have a 50-percent prevalence of subclinical gastric ulcers, and compli-

cations from those ulcers are a leading cause of death in these dogs,” Davis says. “Three years ago, our research showed that an acid suppressant, when properly administered, could nearly eliminate ulcers in the dogs.”

According to a 2011 Los Angeles Times article, no dogs died for the second consecutive year at the Iditarod. Stu Nelson, the race’s chief veterinar-ian, credited Davis’ research as the reason for the drop in mortality.

“We are quite proud of the fact that we were able to offer the sled dog own-ers a preventative measure they could take to ensure their dogs are healthy and able to do what they love to do — run,” Davis says.

“Mammals are very similar genetically despite very different outward appear-ances. The similarities provide us with valuable shortcuts by allowing us to make assumptions regarding the physiol-

ogy and pathophysiology of the various domestic animals,” he says. “Whether you are an athlete, a soldier or a person who simply performs significant amounts of prolonged strenuous exercise day after day, the results of our studies can apply. The ultimate goal of our research is to improve the health and well-being of animals and humans.”

Davis holds the Oxley Chair in equine sports medicine. In addition to the military working-dog research, he is researching the physiology of exercise.

MIChaeL DavIs earned a DVM from Texas A&M University, an M.S. in vet-erinary science from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. in physiology from Johns Hop-kins University. He is a diplomate with a large-animal specialty in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Davis was the ACVIM’s first Hero in Medicine, a recognition of his work in helping athletes perform to their opti-mum ability by studying the effects of strenuous exercise on multiple-organ systems in horses and dogs.

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Photo / Gary Lawson


why study old horses?To McFarlane’s knowledge, PPID is

the only naturally occurring degenera-tive disease of dopamine-producing neurons other than Parkinson’s disease.

“Aging horses give us a naturally occurring model in which to study this condition. It has the advantage over an experiment-induced model of allow-ing us to investigate firsthand how the body and systems within it change dur-ing aging and disease development.

“A naturally occurring disease model lets us ask such questions as ‘What causes the disease?’ and ‘Why did this animal or person develop the disease while another did not?’”

Another advantage is that PPID is common among elderly horses. About 15 to 20 percent of all horses will develop the disease. In humans, only 1 to 3 per-cent of seniors will develop Parkinson’s disease. The high prevalence of PPID facilitates population-based studies.

McFarlane’s work also has direct benefits to the health of the aged horse. McFarlane helped bring to market a drug to control clinical signs associated with PPID.

“OSU was one of three universities to conduct clinical trials on the new drug,” she says. “We are the only ones with a herd of PPID infected horses. We have 10 to 12 horses at any time ex-hibiting clinical signs of PPID. In Oc-tober 2011, Boehringer Ingelheim Vet-medica Inc. announced that Prascent (pergolide mesylate) was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in horses with PPID.”

what’s next?McFarlane presented “Pathophysi-

ology of PPID” in March 2011 as a key-note lecture at the first United States Equine Endocrinology Summit. She’s scheduled to be a keynote presenter at the European Equine Endocrinology Summit slated for March 2012.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about improving the quality of life for humans and animals,” McFarlane says. “The research we do at Oklahoma State’s veterinary center is well worth the investment when the end result can benefit so many.”

As associate professor Dianne McFarlane investigates degenerative diseases in horses, she

hopes also to discover what can cause such conditions in people.

“If we can understand what causes the degeneration in horses, then by extension we can hopefully determine what is going on in people with degener-ative diseases like Parkinson’s, Hunting-ton’s and Alzheimer’s,” McFarlane says.

She uses a horse model to delve into the pathogenesis of neurodegenera-tion. McFarlane, who holds doctorates in veterinary medicine and veterinary clinical pharmacology, seeks to better understand the biological changes that accompany aging and the age-related factors that promote the risk of neuro-degenerative disease.

According to McFarlane, the No. 1 risk factor is age.

“Is it due to a lifetime accumula-tion of damaged cells or cellular components, a failure of some critical cellular function, or the depletion of a limited body resource?” she asks. “If we understand how age contributes to the risk of neurodegeneration, then we would have an opportunity to develop strategies to prevent or delay the onset of these devastating diseases.”

An associate professor of physiologi-cal sciences at OSU’s Center for Veteri-nary Health Sciences and a diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, McFarlane has been studying pituitary pars intermedia dys-function (a neurodegenerative disease of old horses referred to as PPID) for more than 11 years. She is in the final year of a five-year National Institutes of Health grant to study PPID.

“My research goals include develop-ing better tests and implementing pre-ventative strategies that can ultimately be transferred to humans.”

Her project, “Initiating Factors of Neurodengeration,” focuses on what causes the neurons to degenerate. Neu-rons are sensitive to a number of injuries, and similar processes seem to underlie neurodegeneration in many diseases.

Accumulation of non-functional, misfolded proteins, accumulation of damaged organelles, injury from oxidative stress or inflammation are all considered likely contributors to the neurodegenerative process in Parkin-son’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS and Huntington’s disease.

“We are characterizing the type of changes that occur in the dopamine producing neurons in equine PPID cases to see just how similar those neuron injuries are to those that occur with Parkinson’s disease,” she says.

Dopamine is an important chemi-cal in regulating the horse’s production of hormones from the pituitary gland, McFarlane says. However, horses with PPID lack available dopamine, which results in unchecked hormone produc-tion from the intermediate lobe of the pituitary and causes high blood con-centrations of hormones. This, in turn, leads to the wide array of clinical signs in horses with PPID.

“The same types of neurons degener-ate in humans with Parkinson’s disease, but they are located in a different part of the brain, a region that regulates move-ment,” McFarlane says. “Consequently, people with Parkinson’s disease have motor disorders such as muscle tremors and difficulty initiating movement. So while the diseases don’t look alike, the primary cause or causes of the disease may be very similar.”

Unlocking Disease SecretsosU’s Dianne McFarlane strives to develop better preventative strategies in horses and use that knowledge to treat humans.

By Derinda Blakeney


OSU’s first scientific team examining the uses of adult stem cells to treat chronic dis-eases is bringing research money to the university, Oklahoma and the region, while also fighting a deadly disease.

Myron Hinsdale, Lin Liu and Pamela Lloyd of the physi-ological sciences department lead the OSU Adult Stem Cell Focus Group in the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.

The trio began their collaboration two years ago and recent-ly received three grants for $72,800 each from the Oklahoma Center for Adult Stem Cell Research to study the cells’ uses in treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Curing Chronic Lung DiseaseBy Matt Elliott



“We’re trying to make this an interactive group,” he says. “That’s the strength of this project.”

Helping research the cells are three much-needed postdoctoral fellows: Rohan Varshney, Sivasami Pulaven-dran and Eyayu Belay.

An engineer, Varshney has a doc-toral degree in bioengineering from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Belay obtained a doctoral degree in biomedical sciences and a molecular biology master’s degree from Belgium’s Catholic University of Leuven. Pulavendran has a master’s and a doctoral degree in biotechnology from India’s Bharathidasan University and the University of Madras.

The three say they came to OSU because of the project. A native of India along with Varshney, Pulaven-dran says they started their work in February 2011.

“I feel like this has been a great environment for further developing my skills in research as well as in academic areas,” Pulavendran says.

Belay, who is from Ethiopia, agrees.“I think working in the adult stem

cell focus group provides a great oppor-tunity to be a part of an interdisciplin-ary team,” Belay says. “What makes it unique is that I’m being mentored by three professors from three different labs and backgrounds.”

Liu hopes to attract more research-ers and students to the focus group. The group’s goal is to establish itself as a nationally recognized center for adult stem cell research, competing for mil-lions of dollars in government grants.

“Modern biomedical research is so complex, the trend today is for researchers from multiple disciplines to work together,” Liu says. “This model of research makes us much more com-petitive in obtaining research funding.”

More than 30 million people in the U.S. have chronic obstructive pulmo-nary disease, a common and usually fatal disorder in which the lungs lose their function over time, reports the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Using adult stem cells against the disease requires a bigger toolkit than one area of medicine can handle. Liu, Hinsdale and Lloyd bring differ-ent specialties to the project, which requires giving mice the disorder and using additional mice adult stem cells to treat the animals.

Hinsdale, a veterinarian, focuses on how cells preserve normal func-tions and how diseases alter them. He also has expertise in mouse models of diseases. Lloyd, a physiologist, is an expert in blood vessels, diabetes and cardiovascular maladies. Liu, a biochemist, is an expert in lungs and their diseases.

“We didn’t specify a lung project initially,” Lloyd says, “but we ended up finding that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was a hugely rel-evant problem to study, and using the tobacco settlement funds seemed very appropriate.”

The project is in its early stages, gathering information on how best to encourage the adult stem cells to treat the disease. The group meets regu-larly to discuss results and refine their efforts, Hinsdale says.

The team investigating the use of adult stem cells to treat chronic diseases is, front row from left, Lin Liu, Sivasami Pulavendran and Pamela Lloyd; and, back row from left, Eyayu Belay, Myron Hinsdale and Rohan Varshney.

what Is ChronIC obstrUCtIve PULMonary DIsease?There are two types: chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

It is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.

It is common among smokers and former smokers.

SOURCE: American Lung Association

More aboUt aDULt steM CeLLsThey are cousins to the more widely known and controversial embryonic stem cells.

Adult stem cells have been used in bone marrow transplants for more than 40 years.

Found in a variety of organs, the cells can assume the form of cer-tain cell types and heal damaged tissue.

SOURCE: National Institutes of Health


the Center for veterinary health sciences intently focuses on training researchers. From developing

vaccines to applying discoveries to humans, CVHS provides top-notch training to specialists, post-

doctorate of veterinary medicine residents and those just beginning to delve into veterinary medicine.

Training tomorrow’s researchers is an essential arm of Oklahoma State University’s Center for

Veterinary Health Sciences. But, with limited funding and only a few open-ings, resources must be maximized.

“What we need is National Institutes of Health funding for post-doctorate of veterinary medicine or post-residency can-didates,” professor Dianne McFarlane says.

“We do, however, currently have a position funded by Morris Animal Foun-dation,” she says. “We recruited for this position for two years because we wanted to find the right person and we did.”

Aaron Herndon, a doctor of vet-erinary medicine and a small-animal internal medicine resident, is that person. Herndon is a Ph.D. candidate in veteri-nary biomedical sciences.

the Cat-human LinkWith a team of advisers consisting

of professors and DVMs Jill Brunker, Lara Maxwell and McFarlane, Herndon is looking at why cats are so suscep-tible to diabetes and the similarities to human diabetes.

“My research involves investigating the molecular mechanisms of inflam-mation and oxidative stress on beta cell decline in the feline diabetic,” Herndon says. “I will first identify markers of inflammation and oxidative stress present in the diseased feline pancreas and develop techniques in pancreatic islet and beta cell culture. I hope to then demonstrate a protective effect of

Maximizing resources to support researchInvestigating the diabetic cat-human link shows how supporting veterinary research can benefit society.

The Importance of Training

Stories by Derinda Blakeney


diabetes have continued to rise since 2007. Between 0.5 and 1.3 percent of cats develop diabetes. Accord-ing to Herndon, similar trends in human diabetes have been noted, with the World Health Organization estimating that one in three adults in the U.S. will have diabetes by 2050.

“During their DVM training, a number of students end up intrigued with the research side of veterinary medicine,” McFarlane says. “They branch out into parasitology, exer-cise physiology, pathology and more. Aaron Herndon’s project is a great example of biomedical crossover in research from animal to human applications.”

(continues)

Glucagon-Like Peptide and Glucagon-Like Peptide mimetics (synthetic compounds that mimic natural GLP) on cultured feline beta cells subjected to inflammatory or oxidative stressors.”

GLP is a hormone originating in the stomach and small intestine that plays a large role in insulin production and the release and maintenance of healthy beta cells in the pancreas.

“Several companies are working on compounds that have the same proper-ties as natural GLP but aren’t as sensi-tive to destruction by the body and, therefore, have great potential for use as anti-diabetic drugs,” Herndon says.

helping animals and PeopleStudies find incidences of feline

OSU takes great pride in its renowned residency veterinary pathology training program,

which is responsible for ensuring an ample supply of top-notch veterinary pathologists.

“Our goal is to provide an intensive and comprehensive training experience in either anatomic or clinical pathol-ogy with the ultimate goal of American College of Veterinary Pathologists board certification,” says Brad Njaa, who holds a doctorate of veterinary medicine, a master’s in veterinary sci-ence and is a diplomate of the Ameri-can College of Veterinary Pathology.

Njaa is also an associate professor in veterinary pathobiology and the resi-dency training coordinator for anatomic pathology. Jim Meinkoth, a DVM, Ph.D. and an ACVP diplomate, is the interim head of the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology and overseer of the clinical pathology resident program.

Programs offered include an ana-tomic pathology three-year residency, an anatomic pathology six-year com-bined residency/Ph.D. program and a clinical pathology three-year residency.

“Candidates are required to have a DVM or equivalent veterinary degree,” Njaa says. “Our intent is to provide a broad-base exposure to multiple disci-plines to prepare applicants for a wide range of career options.

“Pathology is often an opportunity for discovery of a new disease. Once you see a certain condition, you can start looking for specific examples of that in different samples and then publish your findings. Pathology can also lead to collaborative efforts with National Institutes of Health funded

Pathology training Program Pays Dividends

Small-animal internal medicine resident Aaron Herndon is a doctoral candidate research-ing why cats are so susceptible to diabetes and the similarities to human diabetes.

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Training programs that interest veterinary students in research and inspire them to choose

careers in biomedical research are critical to meeting America’s need for trained biomedical researchers.

Through the Veterinary Scholars Research Program, OSU’s veterinary center is doing its part to increase the number of veterinarians trained in biomedical research by connecting with veterinary students. In some cases the program reaches students before they enter veterinary college.

Evolving over the last 16 years, the program identifies talented and highly motivated veterinary students inter-ested in exploring a research career and provides them with a summer training experience in biomedical research.

Each student is paired with a senior researcher. For a diverse selection of research projects, mentors outside the veterinary center also participate. Stu-dents worked with researchers at OSU, Oklahoma Medical Research Founda-tion and even abroad at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

One of the longest-running research programs in the country, it began with National Institutes of Health funding and is now supported by the NIH, Morris Ani-mal Foundation, Merial and OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.

Veterinarians trained in biomedical research support the nation’s health in a number of areas:• Prevention,surveillance,diagnosis and control of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases• Foodandwatersafety• Developmentandapplicationof animal models for use in biomedical research.

veterinary scholars Program trains Future researchers

researchers. For example, a pathologist can provide pathology services for a specific research project.”

Melanie Breshears, a DVM, Ph.D. and ACVP diplomate, provides that very type of pathology support for professor Lin Liu’s research. Liu, a Ph.D. and Regents Professor, is director of the Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory and the Lundberg-Kienlen Professorship in biomedical research. He writes the grants, acquires the fund-ing and collects the samples. Breshears does the pathology work.

“I’ve worked on a few different projects from Dr. Liu’s lab. For one project, I did microscopic examination of lung samples to characterize the abnormalities in an experimental model of bronchopulmo-nary dysplasia, which is a chronic lung disease affecting premature infants,” Breshears says. “For another project, I did histopathological scoring of lung injury in rats with experimentally induced acute respiratory distress syndrome, which affects approximately 150,000 Americans each year.”

Adds Njaa, “Dr. Breshears has also collaborated with a clinician who came across an interesting syndrome, sent it

to Breshears, who did the pathology workup, and together they published the findings. It’s a great teaching tool.”

Njaa completed a chapter on “Diseases of the Ear” in the textbook, Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Dis-eases, 5th Edition.

“The previous edition had six pages and one image,” he says. “I felt I made a significant contribution with a total of 43 pages and 93 images. You take what is known and not known and encourage pathologists and research-ers to go into discovery mode.”

The pathology training program has three anatomic residents and one resident and Ph.D. candidate. In clini-cal pathology there are two residents, Njaa says.

“We have a highly successful residency program with an outstand-ing pass rate for clinical pathologists,” Meinkoth says.

In mid-2011, there were at least 143 pathologists with OSU ties either as a DVM graduate who went on to pursue pathology at OSU or another location, as a faculty member who mentored pathology students, or as someone who came to OSU to complete a pathology residency or a combined residency and master’s degree or Ph.D. program. Ninety-seven of those pathologists became ACVP diplomates.

There will be another residency position available in summer 2012, and there already are 45 applications for that one position, Njaa says.

“We encourage residents to pub-lish articles during their residency training. It’s good to increase their knowledge base; it recognizes their work in taking information and pre-senting it in peer-reviewed journals,” Njaa says.

“The residency program gives veterinarians an opportunity to come to OSU to study. Some decide to stay and do a Ph.D. One went on to pursue a Ph.D. at the National Institutes of Health. She passed her boards the first time. That’s the ultimate goal — to have the residents become board certi-fied in pathology.”

Brad NjaaPhoto / Gary Lawson


Starkey is fulfilling a residency with the National Center for Veterinary Par-asitology at OSU, where she researches vector-borne diseases.

“Prior to admittance to veterinary school, I had participated in a research lab and really enjoyed it. I wanted to stay in Stillwater for the summer. It seemed to be a good fit to apply for the sum-mer research scholars program at OSU,” Starkey says. “I met with a few different research mentors to choose which lab would be the best fit for me. I had an interest in zoonotic pathogens and para-sitic organisms, so I picked a lab that worked with those types of organisms.”

The program had a tremendous influence on Starkey’s career path.

“I have entered a Ph.D. program rather than entering into clinical practice,” she says. “I realized that working in a research setting, figuring out how things work and why for the benefit of the veterinary profession as a whole was what I wanted to do with my career.

“OSU’s research program is a great opportunity for any student. It showed me that there were additional oppor-tunities for veterinarians that I had not previously thought about. Having a DVM degree doesn’t mean you have to work in a veterinary clinic.”

Since its inception, 142 students have participated in the 12-week program. One participant, Todd Yeagley, who received his doctorate of veterinary medicine from OSU in 2009, researched a parasite, Babesia gibsoni, most commonly found in pit bulls that are used for dog fighting. That research resulted in a first-author publication in the Journal of the Ameri-can Veterinary Medical Association.

Today, Yeagley is a small-animal veterinarian researching Heterobilhar-zia americana, which causes a disease called heterobilharziasis. Yeagley was the first veterinarian to diagnose the parasite in Oklahoma dogs. He has documented an outbreak of the para-site in a detention pond in south Tulsa.

Samantha Bilko is an early admit student in the professional curriculum. Early admit students maintain a high GPA, participate in Center for Veteri-nary Health Sciences activities and are eligible to enroll in OSU’s veterinary program once they complete prereq-uisite coursework. Bilko will join the college program after finishing her bachelor’s in animal science with a pre-veterinary option.

Bilko was the first high school student to participate in the veterinary center’s summer research training program. The program allowed her to work with professor Pamela Lloyd

studying vascular endothelial growth factor and placental growth factor related to lung development, an opportunity that might not have been available otherwise.

“I did research at Yale during the summer of my junior year in high school and became really interested in lab work,” Bilko says. “When I heard about the opportunity at OSU, I was very excited, especially because I would be working at the veterinary school.

“The program gave us a realistic look at what research involved. Sometimes you don’t get the results you want, or a test might fail, or a question might stump you, but you have to persevere. It’s a great way to explore research as a possible career opportunity. I was able to continue my research into the next school year and ultimately presented a poster, winning awards at the National American Physiological Society Sympo-sium in Washington, D.C., in April 2011.”

Participation in the program can change career paths.

When she went through the program, Lindsay Starkey, who received her DVM from OSU in 2011, worked on a project called “Characterization of Diversity of Hepatozoon spp. in Coyotes.” Regents Professor Susan Little, the Krull-Ewing Endowed Chair in veterinary parasitol-ogy, mentored the project.

Participants in the 2011 Veterinary Research Scholars Program are, front row from left, Mason Reichard (DVM), Quinci Layman, Luisa Velasquez, Kevin Lisenbee, Kathleen Scott, Stacy Blaylock, Betsy Kriner and Stefanie Bolas. In the back row are, from left, Chris Ross (DVM), Morgan Thompson, Cassandra Cullin, Emily Howland, Erin Jeffress, Jacqueline Fountain, Jeffery Chalfant and Rachel L’Heureux.

Photo / ProvIDeD


In 2011, the OSU Center for Veterinary Health Sciences graduated 82 members, the largest class since the college opened its doors almost 64 years ago.

The class members begin their careers as practice-ready veterinarians dedicated to the wellness and clinical care of ani-mals and as biomedical researchers committed to the control and eradication of emerging infectious diseases.

It’s been the same for more than six decades among those who graduate from and serve at OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.

aboUt the Center • 2012enrollmentinDVMdegreeprogram:343

• Postdoctoralfellows:9

• Enrollmentingraduateprogram:55

• Totalalumni1951-2011: 3,322

• Totalamountendowed:$18.7 million

A Cowboy Tradition of Excellence

sponsored research:

•GrantproposalssubmittedinFY11: $30,618,787

• TotalnewR&DawardsinFY11: $6,369,809

•NIHdollarsreceivedinFY11:$1,895,375

•CVHShasaT35traininggrantsfrom NIH for short-term research training for veterinary students in its 16th year

• FederalR&DexpendituresinFY11: $5,023,578

• TotalR&DexpendituresinFY11: $7,545,973

•HomelandSecuritygrantsandcontracts in force: $737,518

Future building Projects (2011-2012):

• VeterinaryAcademicCenter ($12.1 million)

• EquineCriticalCareUnit ($3.5 million; $1.2 million pledged)

•McElroyHallResearchAddition ($15 million)

•Dean’sComplexEndowment ($40 million)

reCent PoInts oF PrIDe• 2011PfizerDistinguishedTeacher Award: Melanie Breshears

• 2011PfizerAnimalHealthAwardfor Research Excellence: Anthony Confer

• 2011RegentsDistinguishedTeaching Award: Robin Allison

• 2010RegentsDistinguishedResearch Award: Robert Fulton

• RegentsProfessors:KathyKocan, Anthony Confer, Carey Pope, Lin Liu, Robert Fulton and Susan Little

• RegentsServiceProfessor: Michael Lorenz

•OSUEminentFacultyAwardRecipients: Sidney Ewing and Anthony Confer

• 2011DistinguishedAlumniAward Recipients: Theresa Casey (’82), Keith Flanagan (’78), Dee Griffin (’75) and Kermit Minton (’58)

• RogerPanciera(’53)isadistinguished fellow in the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. He also is a member of the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.

• 2011Classof1963Distinguished Lectureship: Guy Palmer, Director of the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University

• 2011Lundberg-KienlenLectureshipin Biomedical Research: Joseph P. Mizgerd, Sc.D., professor of medicine, microbiology and biochemistry, director of the Pulmonary Center, Boston University School of Medicine

• 2011SitlingtonLectureinToxicology: Donald Fox, Ph.D., professor, College of Optometry, University of Houston with joint appointments in biology and biochemistry, pharmacology and pharmaceutics, and health and human performance

Fy11 actual revenue:

• Teachinghospitalrevenue:$3,963,293

•DiagnosticLaboratoryRevenue: $1,372,794

recently Completed building Projects:

• Small-AnimalReproductiveLaboratory Renovation (2010-2011)

•NationalCenterforVeterinaryParasitology (sustaining phase funded)

•MRIproject(GE1.5TEchoSpeedPlus mobile unit installed on-site)

scholarships for 2010-2011:

• Endowedscholarships:$6,492,479

• Earningsavailableforawards:$201,400

•Non-endowedawards:$43,900

• Totalavailableforawards:$318,794

• Totalscholarshipsavailable:181 (awarded to 134 students)

budget highlights Fy12

• Totalbudget:$34,000,000

• Stateappropriation:$10,673,695 (31% of budget)

• Tuitionrevenue:$7,106,023 (21% of budget)

• Tenuretrack/clinicaltrackfaculty:70

• Graduateteachingpositions:9

• Non-tenuretrackpositions:31 (Residents – 21; Interns – 10)

• Endowedchairsandprofessorships:19


The Center for Veterinary Health Sciences uses a variety of methods to pay for its important research. In 2011, the CVHS spent more than $7.5 million in funds from federal, state and private sources. It was the largest

amount spent in the last five years on CVHS research.

Center for veterinary health sciences Five-year research expenditures

Private

State

Federal

$8.0 M

$7.0 M

$6.0 M

$5.0 M

$4.0 M

$3.0 M

$2.0 M

$1.0 M

$0.0 M

TOTAL

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

$3,612,777 $472,952

$2,844,450 $6,930,179

$2,674,172 $630,731

$3,246,116 $6,551,019

$2,640,805 $241,148

$2,383,412 $5,265,365

$3,210,100 $236,942

$1,992,009 $5,439,051

$5,023,578 $335,693

$2,186,702 $7,545,973

NOTE: Numbers do not include spending on capital improvements for research. State sources indicate competitive research grants from state sources and do not include state budget allocation to the CVHS.


Veterinary Research, Training, Education and Care at the Highest LevelOSU CENTER FOR VETERINARY HEALTH SCIENCES

Oklahoma State UniversityCenter for Veterinary Health Sciences308 McElroy HallStillwater, OK 74078-2011

Non-Profit U.S. Postage

PaIDStillwater, OKPermit #191


OSU Vet Research Report 2012

Documents

Transcript of OSU Vet Research Report 2012