Current News & Events

CORE members participated in the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) 2025 held in Chicago, Illinois. Taylor McAtee, Torre Dunlea, Dr. MaRyka Smith, and Dr. Lucas Horton presented oral presentations, and Dr. Stephen Edache presented a poster.

Dr. Lucas Horton was selected as the 2025 recipient of the Mark Gearhart Memorial Graduate Student Award presented by the Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (AVEPM). This prestigious annual award recognizes a graduate student completing advanced academic or professional training in veterinary epidemiology, public health, or preventive medicine. He presented “Stochastic Modelling of Economic Risk and Net Return Distributions for Feedlot Steers Marketed at Alternative Endpoints” at CRWAD 2025.

Taylor McAtee was awarded 2^nd place in The Association of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (AVEPM) graduate student award competition for her presentation entitled “Associations between estimated greenhouse gas emissions in feedlot cattle cohorts and their health and performance.”

Dr. MaRyka Smith was awarded 4^th place in the AVEPM graduate student award competition for her presentation entitled “A scoping review of Foot-and-Mouth Disease biosecurity practices and farm-level risk factors.”

Torre Dunlea presented “A quantitative model of the risk of FMD transmission following cattle movements during an outbreak.”

Dr. Stephen Edache presented a poster titled “Do swine farms have a mosquito problem? Assessing mosquito abundance and diversity in US commercial swine farms.”

Lucas Horton presented his PhD defense titled "Evaluations of Extended Finishing in Feedlot Cattle and Frameworks for Economic Assessments of Controlled Trials" on November 1, 2024, and he successfully defended his dissertation. Congratulations, Lucas!

The Center for Outcomes Research and Epidemiology (CORE), along with the Departments of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology and Anatomy and Physiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, hosted Dr. Randall Singer, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Singer delivered two insightful presentations: 'Antimicrobial Use in Poultry Production and Its Relationship to Antimicrobial Resistance' on October 15, 2024, and 'Controlling Salmonella in Poultry Production: Challenges and Misperceptions' on October 17, 2024.

Torre Dunlea (left) and MaRyka Smith (right), PhD students advised by Dr. Michael Sanderson, both presented at the 2024 United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) and American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

Torre’s presentation was “A quantitative model of the risk of FMD transmission following cattle movements during an outbreak.”

MaRyka presented “Modeled impacts of improved cattle traceability and size of control areas and surveillance zones on business continuity and Foot-and-Mouth Disease outbreak size.”

MaRyka was awarded 2^nd place for her scientific session oral presentation.

Lauryn Mauler and Dr. Natalia Cernicchiaro at the K-State VRSP poster session

Lauryn Mauler presenting her poster at the 2024 National Veterinary Scholars Symposium

This summer, CORE hosted one veterinary student participating in the Veterinary Research Scholars Program (VRSP). This 3-month research program allows students to work with a faculty mentor on a summer research project. Lauryn Mauler, worked with Dr. Natalia Cernicchiaro, Associate Director of Research for CORE, on the project, “Do swine farms have a mosquito problem? Assessing mosquito vectors in U.S. commercial swine operations”. During the program, she had the opportunity to learn mosquito collection techniques, and she traveled and collected mosquitoes at different pig farms in Iowa. Lauryn presented her work at the 2024 National Veterinary Scholars Symposium (August 8-11, 2024) in St. Paul, Minnesota.

CORE faculty and students attended the Bovine Respiratory Disease Symposium (BRDS) August 7-8, and the Academy of Veterinary Consultants (AVC) Summer meeting, August 8-10 in Denver, Colorado. Taylor McAtee, PhD candidate advised by Dr. David Renter, presented “Treating BRD: Comparing three BRD treatment options in feedlot calves that received tulathromycin metaphylaxis on-arrival" hosted by Merck Animal Health. Dr. David Renter gave a talk on BRD in the context of the sustainability domains and participated in a panel discussion. Dr. Vanessa Horton, PhD candidate advised by Dr. Natalia Cernicchiaro, presented her poster titled “Understanding bovine respiratory disease (BRD) metaphylaxis practice across U.S. feedlots: a survey of veterinary consultants’ perspectives.” Vanessa won a poster award in the EPSCOR states poster competition.

Taylor McAtee presented “Treating BRD: Comparing three BRD treatment options in feedlot calves that received tulathromycin metaphylaxis on-arrival"

In the picture with Vanessa from left to right - Drs. Natalia Cernicchiaro, Vanessa Horton, and Christy Hanthorn)

Both Taylor and Vanessa gave oral presentations at the AVC meeting. Taylor presented "Quantifying associations between cattle health and performance metrics with estimated greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. feedlots." Vanessa presented "Fostering antimicrobial stewardship: a survey of veterinary perspectives on bovine respiratory disease risk and metaphylaxis use in U.S. feedlots.”

Vanessa and Taylor at the AVC

Taylor presenting at AVC

Vanessa presenting at AVC