Current News & Events

Phi Zeta Research Day 2025

Phi Zeta Research Day took place on March 11, 2025, at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University. Dr. Stephen Edache, PhD student, and Lauryn Mauler, 2024 VRSP student, both mentored by Dr. Natalia Cernicchiaro, presented posters on their work investigating the abundance and species diversity of competent mosquito disease vectors in and around swine facilities.

stephen edache lauryn mauler

Taylor McAtee received the A.S.R. Ganta Graduate Award, and Dr. Christy Hanthorn was inducted as a new faculty member of the Phi Zeta Sigma Chapter.

taylor mcatee - ganta scholarship faculty intiates

CattleCon 2025

CORE members attended the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) CattleCon 2025 last week in San Antonio. Torre Dunlea presented “Infection risk associated with cattle movements during an FMD outbreak" to the Cattle Health and Welfare Committee.

torre dunlea

Dr. Mike Sanderson and Torre did interviews with NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen and RFD TV. Check out their interview with RFD TV here: Disease prevention and biosecurity were some main topics discussed at CattleCon 2025 - RFD-TV

sanderson interview

Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases 2025

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. core group

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. lucas presentation lucas award

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.”

taylor presentation taylor award

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.”

maryka presentation maryka award

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

torre presentation

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

stephen poster edache and cernicchio

More headlines

CORE PhD student defends dissertation

Seminars - Dr. Randall Singer, University of Minnesota

randall singer

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.

2024 USAHA and AAVLD Annual Meeting

Torre and MaRyka

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

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

MaRyka

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.”

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

2024 VRSP Student

Lauryn and Natalia
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.

2024 Bovine Respiratory Disease Symposium and Academy of Veterinary Consultants Summer Meeting

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

vanessa award

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 avc Vanessa and Taylor at the AVC

Taylor presenting at AVC

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Vanessa presenting at AVC

2024 Plains Nutrition Council Spring Conference

Taylor McAtee, PhD student with Dr. Renter, attended the 2024 Plains Nutrition Council Spring Conference in San Antonio, Texas, April 10-12, 2024. She presented her poster titled "Growth performance, carcass characteristics, health, and mobility scores of finishing steers fed Experior (Lubabegron) or Optaflexx (Ractopamine Hydrochloride), and she won an award in the highly competitive poster competition.
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