Tonight’s one health discussion was led by Dr. Jürgen
Richt, a veterinary microbiologist and distinguished professor at the Kansas State
College of Veterinary Medicine. He also serves as the director of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic
Animal Diseases (CEEZAD). Dr. Richt shared experiences from his journey in One
Health, from practicing large animal medicine to doctoral studies in virology.
He provided a working definition and history of one health and why a focus on
identifying and preventing emerging infectious diseases is economically
important.
 |
| Dr. Jürgen Richt |
A large amount of Dr. Richt’s research has been done on
prion diseases, infectious diseases caused by pathogenic agents causing
“misfolding” of normal host proteins. Examples given included: Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, Scrapie in sheep, Chronic Wasting
Disease in cervids, and Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy (TME). BSE has been
confirmed as transmissible to humans, causing Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and its
variants, but others such as CWD are still unconfirmed as zoonotic due to long
incubation times and difficulty of ante-mortem testing. Dr. Richt developed
prion protein (PrP) “knock-out” calves though a series of cloning trials. These
calves were tested against normal wild-type cattle inoculated with prion
disease (cattle-adapted TME brain homogenate) and monitored in the same
facility for signs of disease. By 16 months post-infection, all wild-type
animals were showing clinical signs of infection, while the PrP knock out
cattle were healthy. These findings were confirmed histologically and
immunologically. The prion-deficient cattle developed in this study may be a
useful model for prion research and a source of prion-free bovine industrial
products.
The topic of discussion was moved to a brief overview of Dr.
Richt’s work with swine origin H1N1, in which researchers attempted to recreate
pandemic H1N1 in a porcine host. Findings from this study indicated that H1N1
could not be recreated in any of the study animals, raising the question that
it may have not been created in the pig, but arose from possible co-infection and
reassortment of several viruses in another mixing vessel such as a human or
turkey.
Dr. Richt then moved on to introducing the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal
Diseases (CEEZAD), which was founded in June of 2010 to develop countermeasures
to foreign animal and zoonotic diseases, which have increased in incidence and
number over time. Some current projects include the development of vaccines for
Rift Valley Fever Virus (RVFV), Foot and Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV), Avian
Influenza Virus (AIV), and Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV). Another research goal
of CEEZAD is to create unbiased detection of disease agents, such that it is
easy for any individual to use in the field. A third area of CEEZAD activity is
focused on epidemiological modeling to guide U.S. emergency response to
emerging threats, to predict disease, and select geographic locations and
species for disease surveillance. An overlay to CEEZAD research themes is the
education and outreach of future experts in animal health. A major strength of
this established infrastructure is the number of federal, state, industrial,
and research partners and collaborators involved with CEEZAD’s vision and
mission.
Post authored by Natalie Padgurskis, DVM (UNC MPH candidate)
Up next (28 Feb):
The West
Nile Virus Outbreak of 1999: A Compelling Argument for One Health
Tracey
S. McNamara, DVM, DACVP, Professor of Pathology at Western University of Health
Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine
No comments:
Post a Comment