Global Animal Health News

10.24.2019
WSU pilot study to address antibiotic resistance in children
Nearly 1,000 stool samples from halfway around the world may show how to reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance in developing countries. Researchers at Washington State University’s Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health will analyze the samples from Bangladesh for antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic-resistant genes.
WSU Insider

10.23.2019
Workshop inaugurates surveillance project on human and animal diseases in Kenya
A variety of zoonotic diseases afflict Kenyan livestock and the people who raise them. Using a modified prioritization tool developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, experts in human and animal health in 2015 identified five priority zoonotic diseases in Kenya: anthrax, trypanosomiasis, rabies, brucellosis and Rift Valley fever.
ILRI Blog

10.23.2019
Using game theory to identify antibiotic resistance
By employing machine learning and game theory, the researchers were able to determine with 93 to 99 percent accuracy the presence of antibiotic-resistant genes in three different types of bacteria.
SciTech Europa

10.16.2019
Vaccine stockouts expose Kenyans to rabies
Two of the tried and proven methods of controlling rabies are vaccinating dogs or people. Rabies, a disease transmitted by dogs and is fatal when the bitten person develops clinical signs, has been in Kenya for the last 100 years, and kills at least 2,000 people every year in the country. However, stockouts of the life-saving vaccines are being experienced in the counties for as long as nine months.
Daily Nation - Kenya

10.16.2019
New wing of Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health to open in early 2021
Construction of the future home of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL) at the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine will continue thanks to final approval of its $61.3 million budget.
WSU Insider

10.09.2019
Researchers use game theory to successfully identify bacterial antibiotic resistance
Washington State University researchers have developed a novel way to identify previously unrecognized antibiotic-resistance genes in bacteria.
WSU Insider

09.30.2019
Mass vaccination of dogs set to eliminate rabies
A global initiative that seeks to eliminate the rabies virus - Rabies Free Africa - is set to vaccinate two million dogs in East Africa.
The Guardian - IPPMedia

09.30.2019
A 10% increase in dog vaccination reduces human deaths by 12.4%
Rabies is a virus that is usually spread by a bite or scratch from an infected animal. The virus attacks the central nervous system and can cause inflammation in the brain, eventually leading to death. In principle, no human today should die from rabies, and yet rabies is responsible for an estimated 59,000 human deaths and over 3.7 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost every year.
ZME Science

09.24.2019
Why "World Rabies Day" is important
The queue in the center of Shirati Sota village in northern Tanzania begins to form at around 8 a.m. and continues to grow throughout the day. Children, mostly boys, bring the dogs. Women tend to bring cats, usually inside sacks. As they arrive all at once, a newly appointed rabies coordinator struggles to keep the group in an orderly fashion, with dogs, unaccustomed to their twine leashes or metal chain, picking fights with one another. Despite a tedious wait in the tropical heat, no one leaves. By the end of the day more than 350 dogs and cats will be vaccinated – job done.
VetCandy

09.12.2019
WSU researchers grow citrus disease bacteria in the lab
Washington State University researchers have for the first time grown the bacteria in a laboratory that causes Citrus Greening Disease, considered the world’s most harmful citrus disease. Being able to grow the elusive and poorly understood bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), will make it easier for researchers to find treatments for the disease that has destroyed millions of acres of orange, grapefruit and lemon groves around the world and has devastated the citrus industry in Florida. The researchers, including Phuc Ha, postdoctoral research associate, Haluk Beyenal, Paul Hohenschuh Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, David Gang and Ruifeng He, from WSU’s Institute of Biological Chemistry, Anders Omsland, from the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, and researchers from the University of Florida and University of Arizona, report on their work in the journal, Biofilm.
WSU Insider