Fall 2004
What now, mad cow?
Is it really as bad as it seems? » More ...
Veterinary Medicine
Summer 2004
Among old friends in Lahore
WSU has long-standing ties to Pakistan
M. “Ghazi” Ghazanfar (front row center, red tie) is among friends, many of them Washington State University or University of Idaho alumni. (See caption below.) In December 2003 he was invited to Pakistan to lecture at a seminar hosted by the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) in Lahore. He formerly lived in Karachi for nearly 11 years. In 1958 he enrolled at WSU as a freshman, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as a doctorate in economics. He taught for 35 years at Idaho, where he chaired the economics department from 1993 … » More …
Summer 2004
A Vision Thing: Diagnostic tools and a vaccine for paratuberculosis
Bill Davis, professor of veterinary microbiology and pathology at Washington State University, exhibited true vision in the 1970s, when he recognized the potential for veterinary science of monoclonal antibody technology.
Antibodies are proteins produced by cells of the immune system. They help neutralize pathogens and produce immunity. Most pathogens stimulate their hosts to produce a population of diverse antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies, on the other hand, are populations of identical antibodies and are created in the laboratory. A given monoclonal antibody might be specific for an individual cell type, its state of activation, the strain of a pathogen, such as the 0157:H7 component of the infamous … » More …
Spring 2004
Navajo reservation veterinarian aids scrapie test at WSU
As a veterinarian for the Navajo Nation, Dr. Scott Bender’s practice spans more than 18 million acres in the Four Corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah.
His enormous workload includes treating everything from sheep, horses, cattle, goats, dogs, and cats to elk and cougars. Periodically, he even gets to clean the teeth of a 19-year-old bear at the Navajo Nation Zoo and Botanical Park, Window Rock, Arizona, the only tribal-run zoo in the United States.
“There are 250,000 people who live on the reservation and only four vets to cover them,” he says. “It can be a little daunting at times.”
That’s … » More …
Fall 2009
Puppy mills closed for good
Last January investigators in Mount Vernon raided one of the largest puppy mill operations in state history. They found close to 400 animals. Many of the dogs were sick, in filthy cages, and had insufficient food and water. Days later a similar raid in Snohomish County of a site linked to the Mount Vernon business revealed another 200 animals.
Puppy mills are large-scale dog breeding operations where dogs may be denied their basic needs including proper medical care, sanitary living conditions, and adequate shelter and exercise. The businesses, which sell puppies to individuals as well as to pet stores, can be multi-million dollar operations. This … » More …
Fall 2007
Contagion! Emerging diseases: Unraveling the mystery
What makes some strains of pathogenic microbes nastier than others? Why do they emerge when and where they do? Are we more susceptible now than in the past, and if so, why? At least partial answers to these troubling questions may lie with snails and salamanders.
» More ...Summer 2009
Living Large: In search of the elusive large animal veterinarian
Nearly 500 counties in the United States have large herds of cattle, but no veterinarians to care for them. Although veterinary student Sam Nielson claims that it’s the life of the large animal veterinarian that he’s after, not money, fewer and fewer feel that way, moving to other types of practices that offer both better working conditions and compensation. » More ...
Winter 2008
Measuring a career in elephant years
Rose-Tu warily eyes the stranger shuffling toward her. He is moving slowly and grasping the arm of a human she sees almost daily. As Matthew Maberry (D.V.M. ’47) plants his cane inside the Oregon Zoo’s elephant compound, he lifts his eyes and returns the look.
“The only trouble with elephants,” says Maberry, the Portland zoo’s first staff veterinarian, “is you can fall in love with them.”
Maberry—”Doc” to some—is eager to get started. Now up close to Rose-Tu, the 90-year-old presses an instrument against the elephant’s wrinkled belly. Inside, the first Asian elephant baby to be born at the zoo since 1994 is finishing … » More …
Spring 2008
A new life for Winnie
Though she’s only three, Winnie the grizzly bear has already seen some rough times. Her mother left her last year. And when hunger drove her into a Yellowstone campground, park service employees did their best to haze her and scare her off. Eventually she was trapped and moved miles away. But after she found her way back to the campgrounds—twice—she was carted off to a concrete den 600 miles from home.
As the newest, and wildest, member of the Bear Center at Washington State University, Winnie is struggling to adjust to a different life.
Winnie’s story started in the summer of 2006, when she was … » More …
Summer 2008
Donors bring hope—and wags
Jacob the Greyhound, a five-year-old dog belonging to a Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital surgeon, is a regular blood donor at WSU. Because of his size, he’s able to provide 450 milliliters, or about two cups, of blood for the treatment of other ailing canines.
One afternoon this winter we followed Jacob through the donation process. He was content to nibble dog snacks while the students led him, tail wagging, into a small room and prepared him for a blood draw. They lifted him onto a cushioned table, shaved a spot on his neck, and tapped into the jugular vein. He lay still while … » More …