“Dr. Kevin Kazacos, who has known Dr. Dryden since he began his research with fleas as grad student at Purdue University, remarked that Dr. Dryden’s ‘research not only revolutionized our entire knowledge on this common urban pest, but laid the groundwork for a wealth of new information on the species, ranging from basic biology to practical aspects of treatment and control,’” said Dr. Becky Wilkes, ACVM secretary and assistant professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia.

Dr. Dryden, who works in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, will be formally recognized during the ACVM’s annual banquet on Dec. 4. He has also been asked to give a presentation on the “Theory and Application of Modern Flea Control” at the Annual Conference of Research Workers meeting being held in Chicago Dec. 3-5.

“I was honored and humbled when I learned I had been selected to receive this award,” Dr. Dryden said. “To be recognized by the ACVM for my research and educational achievements in veterinary parasitology is truly special.”

Born in Osborne, Dr. Dryden grew up on a farm northwest of Cawker City. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1982 and a DVM degree in 1984, both at Kansas State University. He spent a couple years in private practice in Beloit and Wichita. He later earned a master’s degree in 1988 and a Ph.D. in 1990, both from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. It was while he was a graduate student at Purdue that the veterinary students started calling him “Dr. Flea.” Upon completion of the graduate program, Dr. Dryden accepted an offer from the CVM at K-State as an assistant professor of veterinary parasitology.

At K-State, Dr. Dryden developed a research program that has been involved in two primary areas: The biology and control of fleas and ticks infesting dogs and cats and the diagnosis and control of gastrointestinal parasites of dogs and cats. While he has published more than 140 manuscripts and 12 book chapters on numerous different internal and external parasites, it has been his research with Ctenocephalides felis (the flea that commonly infests dogs and cats) that has become the most widely known. The K-State flea team has generated publications and dissertations on flea host association, longevity, egg production, blood consumption, carpet microclimate, on-animal and premises flea control assessment techniques, flea trapping systems (intermittent-light flea trap), insecticide resistance, flea allergy dermatitis, flea gender structure, reproductive break point analysis, residual speed of kill models, in-home field trials and numerous articles on flea control. Conducting such an extensive research program has necessitated collaborating with faculty and working with students at K-State and other universities. Dr. Dryden was promoted to full professor in 1999 and in 2011 received the designation of University Distinguished Professor at Kansas State University. In 2011, he was recognized as a charter diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Microbiology (ACVM), when the DVM-Parasitology specialty was initiated.

Dr. Dryden is recognized as a passionate educator. He co-taught the Veterinary Parasitology course in the College of Veterinary Medicine with Dr. Robert Ridley from 1990 to 2001 and became course coordinator in 2002 and has co-taught the course with Dr. Payne for the past 12 years. In 2010, along with Dr. Payne, he developed the “Evidenced Based Small Animal Clinical Parasitology Training Course” (often called Wildcat Parasitology). More than 140 graduate veterinarians from practice, academia and industry in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe have attended this intense weeklong course, designed to provide a deep-dive into practical small animal veterinary parasitology.

Dr. Dryden has been invited to lecture in over 21 countries, presenting more than 1,000 invited seminars at scientific conferences and at dozens of veterinary continuing education meetings. He has also been recognized with numerous awards and honors for his teaching, research and service to the veterinary profession.

Dr. Dryden and his wife, Joan, have two children: a son, Shawn, who lives in Manhattan with his wife, Mindy (Bates) Dryden, and granddaughters, Harper and Carson; and a daughter, Sarah, who also lives in Manhattan.

Dr. Englar was hired in May to help fulfill a priority in the college’s new Strategic Plan of providing clinical experiences and skills in all years of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine curriculum. Previously, clinical training was only formally provided in the third and fourth years of study.

“We are thrilled to provide clinical skills training starting with the very first week of veterinary school, said Dr. Bonnie Rush, acting dean of the veterinary college. “Dr. Englar’s experience and expertise has allowed us to implement clinical skills training more quickly than anticipated. We are also getting help from clinical skills technician, Susan Rose, who is tremendously talented. She has designed models that facilitate proficient hand-skills and procedural familiarity in low stakes environment.”

“Everything I do, it’s always for the students,” Dr. Englar said. “They are my heart and soul, and they are why I do what I do. Veterinary students are my greatest passion, so it is very exciting to help provide new opportunities for students to develop the skills they will need as practicing veterinarians.”

Before her appointment as an assistant professor at Kansas State University, Dr. Englar was on the faculty at Midwestern University’s Glendale, Arizona, campus, which opened its door to its inaugural class of veterinary students in 2014. She was responsible for establishing the pre-clinical communications curriculum for Midwestern.

Dr. Englar earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2008 at Cornell University. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners, certified in canine and feline practice. Her research and special interests are in feline medicine, clinical communication, relationship-centered care and the human animal bond.

Above and below: Dr. Englar works with students in the new clinical skills class for first-year students.

Susan Rose gives a brief demonstration on clinical skills to first-year students.

Dr. Coetzee was recognized for his work with livestock animal welfare, particularly for his research on ways of advancing methods to alleviate pain in livestock. Dr. Coetzee is internationally recognized for his work in developing objective assessments of pain experienced by livestock animals during routine management procedures. He has secured more than $9 million in research funding from federal, nonprofit and industry sources, and his expertise is sought by academic researchers and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. He holds one U.S. patent for alleviating pain and improving performance during dehorning and castration, with two additional patents are pending. Dr. Coetzee also is co-founder of the biannual International Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare.

The awards were presented at a ceremony Aug. 29 at the World Veterinary Association's 33rd World Veterinary Congress in Incheon, South Korea. The ceremony included a short video on Dr. Coetzee, as well as videos on the other award recipients. Presiding over the Awards ceremony were Dr. René Carlson, Immediate Past President of WVA and Dr. Marc Prikazsky, Chairman & CEO of Ceva.

It is the second time this summer Dr, Coetzee has been honored for his work with animal welfare. He was presented the 2017 Animal Welfare Award by the American Veterinary Medical Association at its national convention in July. This honor also recognized his commitment to the welfare of livestock and his achievements in development of pain assessment models and pain management of livestock.

The author or co-author of 115 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, Dr. Coetzee also has edited two books and is author or co-author of eight book chapters. He has served on a variety of animal welfare committees and boards, and has been the recipient of many industry awards, including the 2014 American Association of Bovine Practitioners' Award of Excellence and the 2014 Zoetis Award for Veterinary Research Excellence.

Dr. Coetzee earned his Bachelor of Veterinary Science in veterinary medicine from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and his doctorate in veterinary microbiology from Iowa State University. He also holds diplomate status from the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology, the American College of Animal Welfare and the European College of Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law.

The other five winners of the WVA AW 2017 Award are:

Dr. Joseph Othieno from Kenya

Dr. Othieno has raised awareness of animal health issues in Kenya and on a wider scale through his journalism. As well as being a respected veterinarian, he regularly writes articles on a series of veterinary issues in the mass media including appearances on television. View a short videoa> on Dr. Othieno activities.

Dr. Sean Wensley from the UK

Dr. Wensley has concentrated much of his professional life on the issue of animal welfare. He worked on various international welfare projects as a young volunteer veterinarian. He is currently Senior Vice President of the British Veterinary Association and has been active in promoting that organisation’s strategy on animal welfare and promoting the five key factors in the UK’s Animal Welfare regulations. View a short video on Dr. Wensley activities.

Dr. Marlyn Romero from Colombia

Dr. Romero was nominated for the Awards following her work in Colombia and Latin America on the research into animal welfare issues particularly in slaughterhouses. She has authored numerous publications on the subject and is leading a research group looking at animal welfare on the theme of ‘One Health’. View a short videoa> on Dr. Romero activities.

Dr. Daniel Ventura from the Philippines

Dr. Ventura is cited for his work in promoting animal health in his home country, particularly in the field of veterinary education and spearheading a steering committee that has promoted the adoption of a syllabus entitled ’Advanced Concepts in Animal Welfare’. He has also led a campaign called ‘Better Lives for Dogs’ and recently organised a mass rabies vaccination day for dogs and their owners in Cebu City, Philippines. View a short videoa> on Dr. Ventura activities.

Dr. Shehab Osman from Egypt

Dr. Osman was nominated for his work as Chairman of the Cairo Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and for promoting a variety of animal welfare issues in his country and on the international scene. He also advises Egyptian government departments and the health authorities on a number of areas including the management of stray dogs which is a huge problem in Egypt. He also acted as Chairman of the Egyptian Federation for Animal Welfare for four years. View a short video on Dr. Osman activities

The newly discovered virus was initially identified by Benjamin Hause during a diagnostic case investigation at the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Virology researchers were asked to assist in identifying the genetic characteristics of the virus.

“Enteroviruses are viruses found in the intestines and are genetically quite distant in the order from toroviruses,” explained Dr. Ying Fang, professor of molecular virology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. “Genetic recombination is one of the mechanisms in which viruses are known to evolve, but you would not expect to see such a unique case of cross-order genetic recombination of viruses. It is very rare because the genetic distance between those two orders are so far apart. The torovirus gene insertion encodes a protein called papain-like protease (PLP) that functions in a way to suppress the host immune response. This increases the virus’s capability to infect the host and to replicate inside the cells of the host animal.”

Dr. Hause has described himself as a “bug hunter,” utilizing genetic sequencing equipment and techniques to help identify viruses found in samples submitted to the diagnostic laboratory. The sample in this diagnostic case was from neonatal pigs with diarrhea.

Pengcheng Shang, a doctoral student who studies with Dr. Fang, performed functional analysis of the PLP protein.

“Like most enteroviral infections, Enterovirus G infection is generally considered to be asymptomatic, with limited evidence to support its association with clinical disease,” Pengcheng explained. “The acquisition of a foreign immune antagonist may explain the pathogenicity of the virus in the natural host animals.”

This article was also co-authored by Saurav Misra, a structural biologist and adjunct associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kansas State University.

“This journal article is a great example of collaboration between diagnosticians and researchers in our university,” said Dr. Gary Anderson, former director of the diagnostic laboratory. “Having a scientific article chosen for a spotlight feature by such a prestigious journal as the Journal of Virology is significant. One of the author’s, Dr. Benjamin Hause was a molecular virologist in the KSVDL.”

“The Beef Cattle Institute Summer Scholars program is an opportunity to bring together students and faculty from multiple disciplines to generate information on a specific beef industry issue,” Dr. White said. “This year, student projects focused on sustainability and provided research in economics, marketing, environmental impact and health management. One of the real benefits of this program is the synergistic relationships developed between faculty and students in different areas of study to create answers that will help the beef industry.”

The summer program begin May 22 and included special guest speakers, as well as a producer panel on sustainability in July. On Aug. 10, the students gave final research presentations about their projects at the conference room at the Kansas Department of Agriculture building in Manhattan.

The students included Christopher Hall, Udall, senior in animal sciences and industry. His project was titled “Development of rapid, on-farm test for methemoglobin,” and his mentor was Jaymelynn Farney, assistant professor at the K-State Extension office in Parsons. Yang Liu, a doctoral student in biological and agricultural engineering, was mentored on “A review of life cycle assessment on carbon footprint of beef production in the US” by Zifei Liu, an assistant professor in the same department. Third-year veterinary student Kainoa Johnson worked on a project titled, “Unmanned aircraft-based thermal remote sensing applications in cattle feedlot systems.” He was mentored by Deon van der Merwe, associate professor in diagnostic medicine/pathobiology.

Rachael Walker, junior in industrial engineering from Manhattan, studied “An investigation of the effects of health-related media reports on the demand for beef.” She was mentored by Doug Walker, associate professor in marketing. Inneke Sarwono, doctoral student in human ecology, presented the “Development of a web-based communication platform for monitoring sustainable beef supply and demand in northeast Kansas.” She was mentored by Junehee Kwon, associate professor of hospitality management.

“I learned a lot about an industry I had no knowledge of and now I feel like I'm more aware of what so many people live their lives for in Kansas,” Rachael Walker said. “Everyone involved was very helpful and supportive, which was greatly appreciated. We hope that the results we found will be useful and interesting for those in the beef industry. I feel like I got to experience and learn a lot of great life skills that I can incorporate in my academic, and eventually, career life.”

“The project gave Rachael a much fuller understanding of everything that is involved in academic research, and introduced her to mathematical modeling, data collection and cleaning, statistical analysis, coding, and presenting,” Doug Walker said. “Our findings suggest that negative stories primarily hurt the beef industry by putting downward pressure on prices, with demand essentially flat, which results in lower revenues.”

“Working with the Beef Cattle Institute on the summer scholars program was a great experience for myself and my mentee,” Farney said. “The interactions, educational activities, and support of research projects will continue to make Kansas State University a prime destination for continued education.”

The mission of the Beef Cattle Institute is utilizing collaborative multidisciplinary expertise to promote successful beef production through the discovery and delivery of actionable information and innovative decision support tools.

The BCI Summer Scholars and staff got a look at some of the different operations here at K-State such as the poultry, dairy, feedlot and purebred beef units.

Meningococcal disease in Ukraine represents an important cause of mortality mostly among children less than five years old. The study illustrates the advancement in understanding of Meningococcal epidemiology across the national level by using20 years of data provided by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. This data includes: demography (census); disease incidence from 1973 to 2015; Meningococcal disease mortality; demographic data (sex, age, leaving area/city/village); Comparative etiology of purulent meningitis; serogroups of invasive meningococcal disease; carriers prevalence; a set of clinical data (meningitis, meningococcemia, nasopharyngitis, etc.); and a set of environmental data (season, etc.).

The dynamic of the disease is described for the past 20-year period including incidence, prevalence, spatial distribution, seasonality, and risk factors. Existing state-of-the-art meningococcal infection epidemiology is presented for all of the country. Ultimately, time series analysis of record and spatial distribution over such a long period of time supported the development of original construct of various models encompassing risk and vulnerability, and ways to improve epidemiological surveillance, and develop vaccination strategies in country.

Mokhort is an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Bogomolets National Medical University in Kiev, Ukraine. Kramarev is affiliated with the Ministry of Health in Kiev, Ukraine.

Kansas City group hears Dr. Gonzalez on fighting spread of diseases from

Dr. Gonzalez outlined the challenges facing efforts to combat viral zoonotic diseases in Africa before a group of health professionals in Kansas City recently. He spoke to an Aug. 27-28 meeting of One Health Innovations. He focused his talk on biosurveillance strategies for dealing with emerging diseases in Africa. His presentation was based on material prepared jointly by Dr. Gonzalez and by Dr. Juergen Richt, director of CEEZAD.

Dr. Gonzalez outlined three particular challenges and goals for those attempting to thwart the movement of viral zoonotic diseases both into and out of Africa. Those challenges are: to be part of a global framework; the relative absence of early warning systems, lab networks, capacity-building and health systems; and individual national characteristics that can modulate preparedness and response.

Specifically, he underscored the need for early point-of-need detection, involving PCR detection platforms. To that end, he acquainted attendees with ongoing efforts at CEEZAD to perfect and market a portable PCR detection platform capable of producing results within one hour.

He also discussed the need for broader access to a portable RNA and DNA sequencing device improving sample-to-answer times.

Among specific outbreaks discussed by Dr. Gonzalez were:

• The 2014 emergence of Ebola virus in Guinea and Sierra Leone in West Africa. He noted that hundreds of cases presented in those countries and also in the Democratic Republic of Congo, many in regions where times required to reach a health facility were measured in hours rather than minutes.
• The 2015 emergence in Nigeria and subsequent spread of Avian influenza. He noted that the World Health Organization has found that various influenza subtypes continue to be detected in birds in Africa, Europe and Asia, some containing the potential to cause disease in humans.
• The challenges posed by recent outbreaks in Africa of Rift Valley Fever virus, monkeypox, Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, anthrax and Brucella.
• The potential risk of a pandemic incident involving a disease emerging from Africa, and the need for increased transborder protection measures.

One Health Innovations meeting

Kansas State University’s Master of Public Health (MPH) department donated Glo Germ powder and lotion for the handwashing demonstration. The Glo Germ powder and lotion simulate germs. Once it’s rubbed on a person’s hands, a UV light is used to visualize the germs or bacteria. Following the visualization of bacteria, hands should be washed thoroughly with soap. The UV light is used again to see how well the individual washed their hands. It became evident between fingers, thumbs and nail beds are the most difficult areas to clean thoroughly.

According to the CDC, only 5 percent of people wash their hands thoroughly enough to kill germs. It is estimated that if everyone routinely washed their hands, a million deaths a year could be prevented. It was something the local people never had the opportunity to see before, so I think everyone really enjoyed it. It’s a very simple thing to do but can make a huge difference preventing diseases. It was really amazing to see the kids eyes light up at all the germs on their hands.

One adult, while waiting to receive eyeglasses, participated in the handwashing demonstration and wanted to see what his hands looked like because he worked for a garbage company. Surprisingly, his hands were the cleanest of everyone’s! I think it was great for the adults to see that just because they run their hands through water quickly and may or may not use soap, there are still a lot of germs. Now they know and can be more aware of this going forward.

It was an overall great experience and I feel fortunate that I was able to go and help the people of Belize!

Dr. Roman Ganta, director of the Center for Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases (CEVBD) in the College of Veterinary Medicine, spent several weeks this summer at Grenada with his post-doctoral scientist, Dr. Andy Alhassan, who is supported by an SGU post-doctoral fellowship grant. The CEVBD is an interdisciplinary research center with a mission to combat vector-borne diseases with a focus on pathogenesis, surveillance and disease prevention.

“We initiated and executed this research project focused on defining tick-borne disease prevalence in ruminants, such as sheep, goats and cattle, as well as in dogs from the island,” Dr. Ganta said. “One of the research team members from SGU, Alok Desai, DVM student, has already presented a poster at a summer research scholar program meeting regarding the work we initiated. We anticipate several positive outcomes from this exciting project, including scientific publications and presentations in the near future.”

Dr. Ganta explained the proposed goals of the 2017 project are to evaluate the current existing resources at SGU, develop a realistic and executable plan and then initiate research at field sites and in research laboratories at SGU.

“To achieve these goals require considerable discussions among the PIs [principle investigators] and the project personnel, on site assessments of the existing resources, developing plans and overseeing the initiation of experimental studies and mentoring,” Dr. Ganta said.

One of the investigators includes Dr. Melinda Wilkerson, a former faculty member in the College of Veterinary Medicine, who is now on faculty at SGU. She still holds an adjunct faculty designation at Kansas State University. The other scientists in the project are from SGU: Drs. Bhumika Sharma and Kathryn Gibson.

More information about this CEVBD and its projects can be found online at: http://www.vet.k-state.edu/research/cevbd/index.html

From left: Dr. Roman Ganta, director of the Center for Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases at K-State; Alok Desai, a veterinary student at St. George's; Dr. Andy Alhassan, a K-State postdoctoral researcher in diagnostic medicine and pathobiology; a Grenadian farmer; Dr. Melinda Wilkerson, professor and chair of pathobiology at St. George's; and Bhumika Sharma, a researcher at St. George's.