Dr. Roman Ganta points out a graph from one his recent research articles related to vaccine research for Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

The grant supports Dr. Ganta's research into vaccine development for Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a disease with high mortality rates — 30 to 80% — and primarily caused by the bite of a tick infected with Rickettsia rickettsii. This pathogen infects both dogs and people in the United States and is prevalent in Mexico, Central America and South America.

"Unless some of these infections are diagnosed quickly and treated, death can occur within a short timeframe," Dr. Ganta said. " Infections are often misdiagnosed as people may not always realize ticks have bitten them. That makes it very important to have vaccines that can be used to prevent infections."

Recent vaccine studies under Dr. Ganta's direction demonstrated the feasibility of vaccine development preventing severe Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The goals of the currently funded project are to define a broadly applicable vaccine with long-lasting protection.

"Collectively, we have had a great funding base for continuing our internationally recognized, innovative and impactful research program targeting important tick-borne diseases," Dr. Ganta said. "Our research findings on various projects pursued at K-State with extraordinary effort set the path for our continued competitive funding success for research projects on several tick-borne diseases."

Dr. Ganta's previous and ongoing research involves pathogenesis, immunology, genetics, gene regulation and development of novel vaccines to combat tick-borne diseases caused by Anaplasma and Ehrlichia species pathogen infections. Dr. Ganta also has been actively pursuing vaccine research against a significant cattle disease, bovine anaplasmosis, with funding from the Russell L. Rustici Rangeland and Cattle Research Endowment, University of California. He is also investigating an important foreign animal disease of ruminants called heartwater disease.

"I foresee that we will continue our efforts in executing impactful research for many more years at our college," Dr, Ganta said. "The NIH grant support secured three years in a row is a great testimony for our hard work and is also a big boost to our efforts to promote the college's goal of impactful research."

Fourth-year student Colton Hull is one of 15 students chosen for the new Aurora Pharmaceutical DVM Student Scholarship .

In all, the program designated $50,000 in scholarships, including 10 individual scholarships of $2,500 — in addition to three individual scholarships of $5,000 and one individual scholarship of $10,000.

Colton was named as one of the recipients selected for the $2,500 scholarship that will help cover costs associated with obtaining his degree.

“On behalf of Aurora I want to extend my congratulations to Colton,” said Mike Strobel, DVM, CEO and founder of Aurora Pharmaceutical. “We look forward to continuing to grow this program in the years ahead to show our support to the next generation of DVM professionals.”

“I am extremely grateful to Aurora Pharmaceutical for this generous scholarship,” Colton said. “I plan to join a mixed-animal veterinary practice in Kansas after graduation, and this scholarship helps bring me closer to that goal. It is great to see companies actively investing in the futures of veterinary students, and I am very thankful to have been selected as a recipient of one of their scholarships.”

For students interested in the program, you can find additional information at aurorapharmaceutical.com/scholarships.

About Aurora Pharmaceutical Inc.

Aurora Pharmaceutical is a veterinary pharmaceutical product development and manufacturing company headquartered in Northfield, Minnesota. Based on more than thirty years of experience in veterinary practice, medicine, agriculture, and research and development, Aurora applies its unique expertise to fulfill a wide array of needs within the veterinary industry. Aurora strives to create the products needed in the veterinary industry by using innovative, state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly technologies.

Researchers will focus on activities supporting sustainable practices in livestock production and pet health; vector-borne and emerging disease prevention and treatment; and advanced understanding of the microbiome in animals. Elanco's research and development model includes attracting leading innovators as a partner of choice. They have chosen K-State as a primary key veterinary partner.

"K-State and Elanco have many areas of shared strengths and goals. The alignment is a natural fit," said Dr. Bonnie Rush, dean of the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine. "The exchange of scientific expertise between talented scientists from both entities will create a special environment for rapid advancements. The cumulative experience and balance of science and commercialization ensure technologic advancements will achieve practical application."

One of the key objectives of the partnership is to establish novel approaches to increase sustainable practices, reducing the carbon footprint of livestock production, with the ultimate goal of providing innovative solutions to veterinarians and producers to maintain healthy animals using safe and efficient solutions.

Elanco will collaborate with K-State faculty, embed scientists in K-State laboratories and utilize specialized research resources to engage in fundamental and applied collaborative research. Through the partnership, Elanco will support K-State graduate students, fellows and faculty and facilitate an exchange of expertise through researcher exchange programs.

"An alliance with Kansas State University is truly a win-win for both organizations," said Jose Simas, executive vice president of the U.S. Farm Animal business for Elanco. "It provides Elanco with an opportunity to engage with experts beyond our own walls, focusing on timely innovation and practical solutions. Meanwhile, K- State has the opportunity to utilize the commercial expertise of a leading animal health organization with nearly 70 years of industry experience."

The collaboration allows research that is at the forefront of innovation for the monitoring of new diseases to tailor research programs and provide product solutions, as well as development of innovative approaches to existing vector-borne diseases by leveraging common strengths.

"Forming this strategic alliance with Elanco enhances our ability to receive critical industry feedback earlier in the process on discoveries consistent with their external innovation targets," said Bret Ford, director of business development and licensing, animal health at K-State Innovation Partners. "In addition, the interaction will shine a spotlight on the talent and expertise of our faculty and will demonstrate how their applied research can tackle some of the biggest problems affecting the health and well-being of animals."

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated is a global leader in animal health dedicated to innovating and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets, creating value for farmers, pet owners, veterinarians, stakeholders, and society as a whole. With nearly 70 years of animal health heritage, Elanco is committed to helping customers improve the health of animals in their care while also making a meaningful impact on local and global communities. At Elanco, the vision of Food and Companionship Enriching Life and the Elanco Healthy Purpose™ Sustainability/ESG Pledges work to advance the health of animals, people and the planet.

"As the state's land-grant university, K-State has a long history of commitment to innovations in animal health and agricultural sustainability research," said Beth Montelone, senior associate vice president for research. "This alliance with Elanco will enable K-State to continue this work and contribute important advancements to the industry."

The goal of the program, developed by Drs. Steve Ensley, clinical veterinary toxicologist, and Bob Larson, professor of production medicine, is to create impactful and innovative outreach tools. This will better enable livestock veterinarians to recognize and address toxicology problems in food animal species, especially cattle, small ruminants and pigs.

This project will utilize veterinary telemedicine and other distance-based education resources, including a toxicology hotline call-in for practicing veterinarians, CONSULT training for common livestock toxicology problems and YouTube training videos.

One main objective is to create a much-needed call-in service for food animal toxicology questions with nationwide reach to address common toxicological emergencies.

“The toxicology section at the KSVDL and I receive multiple calls each day dealing with questions about food animal veterinary toxicology from across the U.S.,” Dr. Ensley said. “Many questions are about current cases that veterinarians are dealing with and they want assistance in answering specific questions. Because of the infrequent nature of most toxicological case presentations, most practicing veterinarians find it difficult to maintain the current knowledge necessary to quickly address specific toxicological emergencies.”

“The combination of these outreach portals will provide valuable and currently unavailable resources for practitioners, particularly young ones within five years of graduation,” Dr. Larson said. “In addition, this program will greatly enhance currently available toxicology resources for teaching veterinary nurses and veterinary students during the last two years of their professional education.”

Dr. Larson said some of the resources can even be modified to be content-appropriate to introduce important animal health concepts to students in grades 11 and 12 in high school.

Outreach portals for the training materials will include the websites for the Beef Cattle Institute, Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, K-State Continuing Education, and the Colby Community College Veterinary Nursing Program.

Livestock vaccinations should be stored between 35-45 degrees Fahrenheit to remain viable for the animal, said K-State veterinarian Dr. Gregg Hanzlicek.

Dr. Gregg Hanzlicek, director of the Production Animal Field Investigations at K-State, said that keeping the vaccination bottles between 35-45 degrees Fahrenheit and out of UV light is critical.

“The UV light will have a detrimental effect on the live virus that’s in the mixed-up vaccine,” Dr. Hanzlicek said.

Many automatic syringes used for administering livestock vaccinations will have the barrel of the syringe -- where the vaccination is -- covered to reduce exposure to UV rays. “It’s still best if you can just keep those (syringe) guns out of the light completely," Dr. Hanzlicek said.

Some other tips, according to Dr. Hanzlicek, include:

• Keep the bottle out of the sun because exposure to the bottle can also kill the virus.
  
  
• Store the vaccine at an appropriate temperature, which is especially important if it is a modified live vaccine. “We want those vaccines to always be within 35-45 degrees F and that means during shipping, during storage, after mixing and getting ready to inject into the calf,” Hanzlicek said.
  
  

Dr. Hazlicek said once the vaccine reaches temperatures above 45 degrees F, the virus will be killed.

In a recent study, researchers looked at 300 producers, retailers and veterinary clinics, where temperature logs were placed in the refrigerators where the vaccines were stored.

“What they found was that 76% of those 300 hundred refrigerators did not keep those temperatures between 35-45 degrees,” Dr. Hanzlicek said.

Dr. Hanzlicek recommended that people handling the vaccines use a temperature logger to make sure that the vaccines are staying in the proper temperature range, including guarding against the vaccine getting too cold.

“Freezing will have a negative effect on both modified live and kill (vaccines),” Dr. Hanzlicek said.

More information is available from local extension offices in Kansas.

Dr. Walter Boron, Distinguished University Professor, Myers/ Scarpa Professor and chair of the physiology and biophysics department at Case Western Reserve University, will present the Clarenburg Lecture Oct. 5 in the new BIAH Auditorium.

The Rudolf Clarenburg Lectureship was established in 1996 to honor the late Dr. Rudolf Clarenburg, professor of physiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. This lecture series brings nationally acclaimed scientists to Kansas State University to discuss their research interests with students and faculty throughout the university.

Dr. Boron is Distinguished University Professor, Myers/ Scarpa Professor and chair of the physiology and biophysics department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his AB in chemistry at Saint Louis University, and his M.D. and Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Boron joined Yale University as a postdoctoral fellow with Emile Boulpaep in 1978, and remained there for the next 29 years, serving three terms as chair of the Department of Cellular & Molecular Physiology. In 2007, he returned to his hometown of Cleveland. Dr. Boron developed his lifelong interest in acid-base transport and intracellular-pH regulation with his Ph.D. mentors Albert Roos and Paul De Weer, and his interest in renal HCO3− transport with Boulpaep. His group currently focuses on three related areas: the molecular physiology of the Na+-coupled HCO3− transporters, molecular CO2/HCO3− sensors, as well as CO2 and O2 channels.

Dr. Boron is former president of the American Physiological Society (APS) and former secretary-general of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS), as well as former editor-in-chief of two journals, Physiological Reviews and Physiology. He and Emile Boulpaep co-edit the textbooks Medical Physiology and Concise Medical Physiology. Among Boron’s accolades are an honorary doctorate from Aarhus University (2014), and election to the National Academy of Medicine (2014).

The Clarenburg Lecture series is made possible by the generous support received from the Clarenburg family to honor and recognize the significant contributions made by Dr. Clarenburg to the Department of Anatomy and Physiology and the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Early fall is a good time to assess the body condition of spring calving cows.

“Right after weaning, the beef cow’s energy requirements are low,” said veterinarian and BCI director Dr. Brad White.

Fellow veterinarian Dr. Bob Larson suggested the first step in making a nutrition plan for the cowherd is to assess the body condition of the cows.

“By knowing the body condition, producers can either get by with minimal supplementation for cows in good nutritional shape, or if they are thin, this is a good time to add weight on them while they are in mid-gestation and not lactating,” Dr. Larson said.

For thin cows, beef cattle nutritionist Dr. Phillip Lancaster said the most economical way to add weight is by turning them out on grass while it is still available.

“Aside from the inconvenience of hauling hay and cost of feeding supplements later in the winter, by waiting to supplement the cows in the last trimester of their pregnancy, producers will have less time to ensure that cows reach a desired body condition by calving,” Dr. Lancaster said.

However, he added, from an efficiency standpoint, research has shown that adding body condition in late lactation is improved over that of a non-lactating, or dry, cow.

“If you can separate the thin cows and their calves and feed them away from the other cows in the herd, that can be an advantage, but it also takes more work to manage that system,” Dr. Lancaster said.

White added that the management strategy will be dependent on several factors on the operation, one of which is access to the cows.

“Logistically, it may be easier to add weight on the cows after weaning,” he said.

To hear more of this discussion, listen to the Cattle Chat podcast online.

Dr. Vern Otte receives 2021 Distinguished Alumnus Award

Dr. Vern Otte, Leawood, Kansas, has been selected by the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Alumni Association for its 2021 Distinguished Alumnus Award, to be presented as part of the Alumni Awards Brunch during the Alumni Reunion Weekend on Sept. 25. This award is in recognition of his outstanding achievements, humanitarian service, and contributions to the veterinary profession.

Dr. Otte, originally from Great Bend, Kansas, earned a bachelor’s degree in 1964 and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1975, both at Kansas State University. After graduation, he practiced at Raritan Hospital for Animals (Edison, New Jersey) until 1977. He then owned and practiced at the State Line Animal Hospital, Leawood, from 1977 to 2014, at which time he sold the practice to his associate. He remained active until retiring from practice in 2017. Dr Otte became Board Certified by the American Board Veterinary Practitioners in 1983 and has been granted Emeritus Status by ABVP. Dr. Otte has been a trail veterinarian for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska for 11 years.

See Dr. Otte's full bio here.

Dr. Pat Payne receives 2021 ER Frank Award

Dr. Patricia Payne, Manhattan, Kansas, has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 E.R. Frank Award by the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine and its Veterinary Medical Alumni Association.

Dr. Payne is being recognized for her time as a faculty member at K-State and service as director of the Diagnostic Parasitology Laboratory. She is also well-respected in the college for her dedication in training puppies for KSDS Assistance Dogs Inc.

This award is presented as part of the Alumni Awards Brunch during the Alumni Reunion Weekend held Sept. 25.

The E.R. Frank Award is presented to a faculty member who displays meritorious service to the college as well as the same professional essence of Dr. Frank, who was a longtime faculty member in equine surgery and a K-State alumnus. Nominees must have at least a 15-year relationship with the college, possess a noteworthy record of service and display an unassuming and unpretentious manner throughout their careers.

See Dr. Payne's biography here.

Dr. Trent Fox receives 2021 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award

Dr. J. Trent Fox, Hays, Kansas, is the recipient of the 2021 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award for his notable achievements since graduating from Kansas State University. The award is presented by the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine and the K‑State Veterinary Medical Alumni Association during the Awards Brunch at the Reunion Weekend held Sept. 25.

Dr. Fox received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Kansas State University in 2010. He also earned a Ph.D. in pathobiology, ruminant microbiology and epidemiology in 2007, also at K-State. Prior to that, he earned a master’s degree in ruminant nutrition from Texas A&M University in 2004. He completed a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences at K-State in 2002.

See Dr. Fox's full bio here.

New video added to CVM Alumni Biography Video series

See the latest addition to our series of Alumni Biography Videos: Dr. Steven Slusher, DVM class of 1970. You can find the full list of Alumni Video Biographies here. We're scheduling interviews with alumni who have 40 years of experience or more, where you can share the stories of your life and career. We seek to create an enduring legacy and inspire future generations of veterinary students. If you are interested in taking part in this exciting and meaningful project, please contact alumni@vet.k-state.edu.

Welcome to:

Dr. Clinton Ryan Lynn, Veterinary Health Center, Intern
Dr. Jessica Canter, Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, Fellow (Post Doc)
Dr. Russell Sakacs, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Medical Resident Year 1
Dr. Shakirat Adetunji, Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, Medical Resident Year 1
Shelby Abts, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Research Assistant
Rachael Bartholome, Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, Office Specialist II
Dr. Sara Michell Gonzalez Blancas, Veterinary Health Center, Medical Resident Year 1
Natalia Costa Ball, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Research Assistant
Riley Francis, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Lab Client Services Assistant
Jessica Mitchell, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Research Assistant
Amber Thompson, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Lab Client Services Assistant
Roberta Jo Barnes, Veterinary Support Services, Accountant I
Rosa Collazo, Veterinary Support Services, Human Capital Representative
Rachael Mae Kunze Peterson, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Lab Client Services Assistant
Jordan Sparks, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Research Assistant
Erin Wilson, Veterinary Support Services, Human Capital Analyst
Nathan Kapaldo, Clinical Services, Assistant Professor

Farewell to:

Dr. Miranda Rohlich, Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, Medical Resident Year 3
Jennifer Livingood, Veterinary Health Center, Veterinary Assistant
Dr. Shakirat Adetunji, Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, Fellow (Post Doc)
Jessica Troutman, Veterinary Health Center, Pharmacy Technician
Gayle Willard, Dean's Office, Professor/Director VM Library
Erica Graen, Veterinary Health Center, Client Services Assistant
Ellen Andrea Mendez Sosa, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Research Assistant
Catherine Boreas, Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Research Assistant
Rosa Collazo, Veterinary Support Services, Interpreter
Erin Wilson, Veterinary Support Services, Human Capital Representative
Kaori Knights, Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, Research Associate