LARGE ANIMAL CLINICAL SCIENCES (VLCS

The VLCS is focused on four primary areas: preparing students and house officers for a future in rural medicine, serving our equine and livestock industries and maintaining a safe food supply, pursuing cutting-edge research essential to equine and livestock populations and industries, and providing excellent care through our Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) and partnership with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). These four focus areas align so each benefits from advances in the others.

Dr. Joanne Hardy

Dr. Dan Posey

Highlights from FY20 include:

Education

The department continues to provide innovative educational programs intended to develop large animal veterinary medical skills in our students, a vital component in addressing the lack of available veterinary medical support in the more rural parts of Texas and fundamental to those students whose future is based exclusively in serving the equine, livestock, or food-producing industries. Our faculty are actively engaged in this exciting new curriculum which extends through students’ senior clinical year and focuses on providing the best veterinary medical graduates.

The TDCJ partnership provides unapparelled opportunities for students to learn individual medicine, population medicine, and the inextricable link between animal health and welfare to production.

VLCS faculty, working through the Veterinary Emergency Team and VERO, have partnered with the Texas Cattle Feeders Association to develop Secure Beef Supply Plans, providing the opportunity to immerse our students in the cattle feeding industry and produce a safer and more resilient food supply.

House officers engaging with VLCS faculty teaching interns and residents in Equine Medicine, Equine Surgery, Food Animal Medicine, and Theriogenology are destined to become the educators and specialists of the future.

Awards and recognitions: • Dr. Joanne Hardy - Texas Veterinary Medical Association Teaching Award • Dr. Dan Posey - 2020 Instructional Responsibility Excellence Award from West Texas

• Dr. Andra Voges - Honors & Awards Bridges Teaching & Service Awards • Dr. Andra Voges - AFS College-Level Teaching Award • Dr. Jennifer Schleining - Juan Carlos Robles Emanuelli Teaching Award

Research

VLCS faculty are actively engaged in research efforts focused on health and production issues in the large animal species important to our state and nation, specifically: equine infectious diseases, impacts of the microbiome on health and well-being, food animal infectious diseases and production, equine reproduction, and spatial factors in the development of disease. These efforts, in addition to providing answers to pressing problems, create a robust graduate student education experience and the training ground for tomorrow’s researcher.

Awards and research grants: • Dr. Michelle Coleman received the Texas Veterinary Medical Association Research Award and is continuing her work in equine obesity and other diseases affecting horses. • Dr. Noah Cohen has received grants from the Grayson-Jockey Club, Morris Animal Foundation, and Boehringer-Ingellheim and is working in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine on Rhodococcus equi, an important infectious disease in the horse population. The Equine Infectious Disease laboratory has also developed an improved diagnostic test for Streptococcus equi.

• Dr. Angela Bordin also works on Rhodococcus equi and is pursuing additional funding for equine infectious diseases. • Dr. Canaan Whitfield-Cargile is continuing his work on the microbiome’s impact on health and exploring how non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs alter the microbiome.

• Dr. Ashley Watts is continuing her research in stem cell therapy and is funded by the American Quarter Horse Foundation to study the safety and efficacy of stem cell therapy in horses. • Dr. Paul Morley is performing a USDA-FDA-funded multi-university research project on the use of Tylosin in the prevention of liver abscesses in cattle. Dr.

Morley’s position on the VERO campus will support future research directly impacting the food-producing industries of Texas. • Dr. Jamie Thompson is continuing his work in spatial analysis focusing on human health outcomes.

Patient Care

VLCS faculty have worked through the COVID-19 pandemic to continue providing cutting-edge veterinary medical care through the VMTH. Our caseload has remained robust despite many challenges associated with ensuring that faculty, staff, students, and clients are protected as much as possible from this novel human disease. Patient care opportunities represent the “capstone” of the educational process and we continually strive to provide the best care while simultaneously producing the nation’s best entry-level veterinarian.

Awards: • Dr. Kati Glass - Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital Clinical Service Awards • Dr. Kari Bevevino - Advanced Clinical Training Fellowship (Cardiology) Dr. Kari Bevevino