The Life Science Discovery Fund was designed to invest in Washington’s future through improvements that could clearly be made in health and health care by championing the research of leading Washington state scientists. Several of those leaders can be found in the School for Global Animal Health (SGAH). One recent objective of SGAH faculty members Tom Besser, Kevin Lahmers, Wendy Brown, and Terry McElwain, in collaboration with Professor Carolyn Bohach at the University of Idaho and Professor Sam Miller at the University of Washington, is to develop vaccines to reduce the shedding of E. coli and other diarrhea-causing bacteria in livestock ultimately leading to a safer food supply. Development and deployment of these innovative vaccines will protect human health and reduce economic losses to farmers. With the mission of advancing science, people, and policy SGAH faculty are bringing this vision to fruition.  

School for Global Animal Health faculty actively participate in the annual Pacific Health Summit, which connects top decision-makers in science, industry, and policy to build a healthier world. Each summit focuses on issues of critical importance, such as global nutrition, pandemic influenza, and this year, multidrug drug-resistant tuberculosis. The summit worked to strengthen approaches to controlling TB and to advance technology development and treatment implementation in developed and developing nations.

As a proud supporter of World Rabies Day, the school works locally to raise global awareness of the disease and ways to prevent it. Every year more than 55,000 people die from rabies—one person every ten minutes—mostly in Africa and Asia. The school helped build the momentum of World Rabies Day by funding the printing of about 4,500 educational posters, then supporting their distribution throughout Africa.

 

In September 2008, School for Global Animal Health leaders participated in the inaugural meeting of the University Consortium for Global Health in San Francisco, sponsored by the Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. The interdisciplinary exchange of ideas led to a blueprint for development of global health as an academic endeavor. It identified steps for development of this consortium with respect to educational competencies, partnerships, and scope of the field.