Dr. Valerie Ragan traveled to Armenia as part of the CPCVM grant from USDA's Foreign Agriculture Service to initiate the DVM/MPH practicum for Cassie Wedd, VMRCVM fourth year public corporate track and MPH student who spent a month in Armenia conducting research on the understanding of zoonotic disease transmission at the human-animal interface. Dr. Ragan introduced her to USDA and Armenian Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health officials and finalized the planning of the project while there.

Dr. Samal the chair of College of Veterinary Medicine has been awarded the faculty research award. This award is presented annually to recognize an individual or team, in the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, that has published highly significant scholarly research, enhancing the reputation of the college and university and having a substantial impact on their discipline at the national and international levels. Nominees must be tenured or tenure-track faculty within the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources with a minimum of three years of service in the College. The same individual or team may receive the award more than once during their career in the College, but not for the same work. Read on to see the full list of award recipients

Last week The College of Veterinary Medicine had their annual Excellence Awards ceremony. The ceremony was attended by Dr. Wei the Dean of College of Agriculture and Natural Resources as well as Mrs. Snyder who handed out the David Bruce Snyder Award for Excellence to the recipient. Read on to find out who won.

In the current issue of the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives (121(2): A48-A53 (2013)), contributing author Carol Potera reviews the emerging uses of bacteriophage as antibiotic alternatives. The article "Phage Renaissance: New Hope Against Antibiotic Resistance", examines several applications for phage-directed approaches, including food safety, medical, and water treatment. In the article, IBBR/Vet-Med faculty, Dr. Daniel Nelson, a world-renowned researcher on phage lysins, describes the inherent properties of phage enzymes as a viable approach in several applications. These enzymes, also called lysins, are phage-encoded enzymes that are responsible for select killing of targeted bacteria and are being investigated as alternatives to antibiotics. Dr. Nelson's research group focuses on a number of these phage-lysins and recently published the X-ray crystal structure of PlyC, the most the most powerful lysin known.

Click here for the full Environmental Health Perspectives article.