StemCell Therapy

Naomi Davis is an amazing example of the power of philanthropy.

Davis, a senior major in music therapy at Colorado State University, will graduate in May with very little debt. Thats because her hard work and talent mixed in with some generosity from CSU supporters have provided enough scholarship assistance to pay for most of her degree (shes also minoring in business).

I have been able to pay for almost all of my college with scholarships, the gifted student and passionate learner said. Im so thankful to the generous people who provide those scholarships. They have definitely eased my way and helped me focus on my studies.

Davis is a remarkably talented musician she plays 12 instruments, from piano and guitar to trombone and bassoon who knew in high school in Colorado Springs that she wanted to harness the power of music to heal. She looked at several universities with music therapy programs before determining that CSU was the best place to pursue her passion.

In addition to her classes, Davis has benefited from undergraduate research opportunities at CSU when she got to see her education in action at a Fort Collins health facility. Shell do a clinical internship in Annapolis, Maryland, after graduation.

We got to see what a difference music therapy makes in patients, she said. Thats really powerful.

While scholarships she has several merit-based scholarships, and her participation in the CSU Marching Band provided even more assistance have paid for a significant portion of her schooling, Davis has also worked two on-campus jobs. During the day you might see her leading a campus tour for the Office of Admissions, while at night she works in the Call-a-Ram program for University Advancement.

Davis story serves as a reminder of why the 2020 CSU Day of Giving, set for March 12-13, is so important. This day actually stretches for 1,870 minutes a tribute to the year CSU was founded and gives faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends a chance to support the university they love.

You can support any number of causes, from programs in your favorite college, to providing meals for hungry students through Rams Against Hunger, to helping preserve the majestic elm trees on the historic CSU Oval. There are scholarship funds, funds to boost professional development, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Graduate Scholarship Endowment, and even a fund to help care for CAM the Ram.

If 1,500 people donate, a donation of $160,000 from an anonymous alumnus will be added to total money raised. Last year, nearly 2,000 donors contributed almost $300,000.

Davis certainly understands the power of giving.

A lot of people are under the impression that they have to give a lot of money to make an impact, but thats just not true. Even the smallest gift makes a difference, she said. Just think about it if everyone associated with CSU gave $10, that would add up to millions. And think of the good that money could do.

Even if you cant donate, everyone is encouraged to tell their CSU story by posting your favorite memory using #CSUDayofGiving on your social media platforms.

Excerpt from:
Day of Giving: 1870 minutes to share past, give to the future - Source

On New Years Eve 2019, Drs. Kate Toyer and Tara Cashman sat down with their three kids and reviewed their escape plan.

The bushfires that had been burning for weeks were now threatening to overtake Batemans Bay, a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia, where the family lives and the veterinarians run a small animal clinic.

They had packed the car a month ago with food, water, and a few other essential itemsenough for the family members and their cat to live a short time away from home.

The calls came at 6 the next morning: Evacuate now.

We werent even asked to go to the evacuation center in town but to go straight to the beach, said Dr. Cashman, explaining they did, in fact, drive 6 miles to an evacuation center because of the better facilities. Thankfully, that was the right decision because the fires were so bad that those who evacuated to the beach actually had to stand in the water.

Fire season in Australia typically begins late in the year during the hot, dry summer when a lightning strike or human negligence sets a tree or patch of grass alight.

Bushfires are destructive and often deadly. In the southeast state of Victoria, 173 people died during the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009 that scorched more than a million acres of land and destroyed over 4,000 homes and other buildings.

The tragedy, one of the worst in Australias history, led to the creation of a task force to study all aspects of the governments bushfire strategy. That investigation resulted in several reforms, including early warning alerts similar to the kind Drs. Toyer and Cashman received.

The changes are widely credited with the relatively low number of human fatalities despite the unprecedented severity of the 2019-20 fire season. At press time in late January, the government reported the fires had killed more than 30 people, burned over 25 million acres, and destroyed roughly 3,000 houses.

Most of the fatalities and property loss occurred in New South Wales, where three American firefighters were killed in a plane crash on Jan. 23, one of whom was Ian McBeth, son of Dr. William McBeth, a member of the AVMA Food Safety Advisory Committee (see sidebar).

Batemans Bay was hit really hard early on, said Dr. Toyer, adding that 350 homes were destroyed. Most of the pictures you see in Western media, of the massive flames and burned-out landscapes, were taken in this area.

The clinic Dr. Toyer runs with her partner, Dr. Cashman, was, like their home, damaged but not destroyed. The practice operated off a generator for more than a month.

The South Coast has just been devastated since New Years Eve, said Dr. Julia Crawford, president of the Australian Veterinary Association. She estimates over 200 veterinary practices have been affected, about 90 seriously.

Support from around the world has been pouring in, including from the AVMA and American Veterinary Medical Foundation as well as other organizations, to support veterinary- and animal-focused relief efforts. The Morris Animal Foundation has allocated $1 million for scientific research grants to fund studies on how the regions wildfires have affected its native animals.

The most startling news about the bushfires has been the number of animals killed. Chris Dickman, PhD, a professor of ecology, conservation, and management of Australian mammals at the University of Sydney, estimates the fires will kill more than 800 million animals in New South Wales alone and impact a billion animals nationwide. By way of comparison, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimated up to 1 million wild and domesticated animals died during the 2009 Black Saturday brushfires.

As Dr. Dickman explained in a statement from the university, animals that survive the fires in the first instance by fleeing or going underground will return or reemerge into areas without the resources to support them. Others will fall victim to predators. Even for those birds or other animals able to flee to unaffected areas, they will rarely be able to successfully compete with animals already living there.

I think theres nothing quite to compare with the devastation thats going on over such a large area so quickly, Dr. Dickman said. Its a monstrous event in terms of geography and the number of individual animals affected.

We know that Australian biodiversity has been going down over the last several decades, and its probably fairly well known that Australias got the worlds highest rate of extinction for mammals. Its events like this that may well hasten the extinction process for a range of other species. So, its a very sad time.

Dr. Crawford described Dr. Dickmans estimates as a fair assessment.

I talked to veterinarians who assisted in the animal part of the response early on. They were waiting for injured wildlife to be brought in, but nothing came in, Dr Crawford said. We think these fires are so hot and burn so fast that probably 90% of these animals died immediately.

The deaths are just far more than we ever thought.

How to explain the catastrophic loss of animal life? How, even with advance warning, were the Australian government and people caught off guard by the severity of the fires?

In September, the same month the 2019-20 bushfire season started, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued a special climate statement warning of elevated fire dangers for New South Wales and the neighboring state of Queensland. Australia is three years into one of the worst droughts in decades. Then, in December, a heat wave broke the record for the highest nationwide average temperature, with some areas reaching up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Together, these factors created an environmental tinderbox on a scale unlike anything the country had previously experienced.

The bushfires this season are unique in that multiple fires are occurring simultaneously and joining up to form superfires, explained Dr. Robert Johnson, director of Vets Beyond Borders, an Australian nonprofit that runs charitable veterinary programs in regions of Asia and the Pacific.

We are in the middle of a serious drought in Eastern Australia that has created an extraordinary amount of fuel for the fires, he said. What also sets these fires apart from previous ones is the fact that they have affected such a large proportion of populated areas. The amount of acreage burned is about eight times larger than the 2018 Californian wildfires.

With fire season expected to continue into the spring, the extent of the destruction is not yet fully understood.

Everyones still in response mode, Dr. Crawford said. The government puts the number of cattle and sheep deaths at more than 23,000, but she expects the final tally will be much, much higher.

When the last fire is finally out, Dr. Crawford worries about the economic fallout veterinary practices are sure to experience after months of interrupted services. She explained that Australian veterinarians generally do not charge to treat injured wildlife brought by the public to their clinics. Some practices provide as much as $3,000 in pro bono services weekly.

Thats all fine and well in ordinary times; we enjoy it, she said. But after a crisis like this, when your practice is almost burnt down, youre working from a generator, and the only patients youre seeing are wildlife, it becomes problematic from a cost standpoint.

Its summer here, Dr. Crawford added, and holidaymakers whod normally bring their pets to these coastal practices arent coming. Those veterinarians have lost that revenue, and its just devastating.

The country may see relief only temporarily, as conditions that caused the bushfires are predicted to continue, if not worsen, thanks to climate change.

Australias climate has warmed by just over 1 degree Celsius since 1910, leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events, according to the Meteorology Bureaus State of the Climate 2018 report (PDF). At the same time, there has been a decline of around 11% in April-October rainfall in the southeast of Australia since the late 1990s. As a result, there has been a long-term increase in extreme fire weather and in the length of the fire season across large parts of Australia, according to the report.

Australia is projected to experience further increases in sea and air temperatures, with more hot days and marine heat waves and fewer cool extremes. Decreases in rainfall across southern Australia with more time in drought are also predicted.

Read more:
Australian bushfires a 'monstrous' event wreaking havoc on wildlife - American Veterinary Medical Association

People see the changes they expect in their pets, leading them to misattribute illness, good health, improvements, and declines.

Dr. Brennen McKenzie is a companion animal veterinarian working in California, the writer behind the SkeptVet blog, and the author of the recently published book, Placebos for Pets? The Truth About Alternative Medicine in Animals. He also is a columnist for Veterinary Practice News and past president of the Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine Association. He wrote a 2014 JAVMA commentary on cognitive bias in clinical decisions (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2014:244;271-276).

In his book, Dr. McKenzie teaches how to evaluate the theories, methods, evidence, and safety records for myriad complementary or alternative therapies. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A. I initially was thinking of it as a resource for pet owners, and I tried to write the book in language that is accessible to the general public. So, Im hoping that it will be an introduction to the general ideas about how we evaluate medical therapies for pets, whats the appropriate way to do that, whats the role of science in helping us to evaluate these thingsand also an appraisal of some of the more common alternative medical approaches that pet owners are likely to encounter. However, I also wanted it to be useful to veterinary professionals. All of the things that I talk about have extensive academic references available so that they can dig deeper if they want.

A. Its a fundamental feature of human cognition, and this is one thing I think all veterinarians should have some familiarity withthe history and philosophy of science and cognitive psychology. We all reason in ways that are kind of built into our brains.

I give a patient a medication, and a week later, that patients clinical symptoms resolve. I see a causal connection there and assume that the medication is responsible for the change. What we know from science is that its a lot more complicated than that. Were often doing multiple things at once. Diseases have a natural history where their symptoms wax and wane and can just resolve spontaneously. We may have the wrong diagnosis to begin with, and so when things dont go the way we expect, its not always because of what we did but because we were wrong about our assumptions.

Its very difficult for any of us, whether were veterinarians or not scientifically trained, to ignore our personal experience. And if a study comes out saying something that Ive been doing for 10 years and been selling to clients doesnt work, its difficult psychologically and cognitively for me to accept that my assessment is wrong and that Ive been doing the wrong thing.

A. Its complicated. One of the primary questions in science education today is, How do you change peoples minds about things? And were facing a crisis in terms of vaccine hesitancy (see story).

As a clinician seeing patients, I have a few key things that I try to focus on when I want to challenge somebodys perception. The first is I have to acknowledge that I understand their perception and validate their experiences and their reasoning.

If you begin by telling people that theyre ignorant or stupid, they wont listen to you. They may have perfectly rational reasons for a mistaken belief. So you begin by saying, I understand why you feel that this is a useful approach or why you feel that this therapy has been helpful to you. And then you introduce some potential reasons to doubt that.

I often talk about other cases in science where weve given up on therapies that clearly dont work anymore. Bloodletting is a great example where we believed in things for long periods of time and found them not to be true.

I also try to say, OK, lets look at this in terms of risk and benefit. Glucosamine is a widespread therapy for which theres very little evidence of efficacy, and yet, everyones using it. I say to people, Here are the reasons why I dont think it probably works. I also think that the risks are quite low, so I dont feel like its imperative that you give up that.

If you meet people halfway and work with their beliefs and their goals, I think theyre more likely to listen to you. Over time, you build a relationship with clients, and they come to trust you, and I think that gives you more credibility to tackle larger and more challenging beliefs.

It also makes a difference where that belief fits in their life. Im not going to talk to a client whos a chiropractor and try to convince them that chiropractic is not a valid therapy because thats embedded in their entire life, and thats not going to be a useful or successful interaction.

A. Almost certainly not, no. I think most people dont understand the theories behind the drugs that I give them, either. Most people are not interested in the deep background of medical therapies. What they hear are claims by practitioners of benefits, usually justified in terms of, Ive been doing this for 20 years, and it sure looks to me like it works. Anecdotal claims tend to be the easiest to offer and the most psychologically compelling, even though theyre the least reliable.

There are certainly some people who have a general worldview that is skeptical of science and technology and the pharmaceutical industry, which has certainly earned a great deal of skepticism. And I think that alternative medicine fits into that worldview. I think also that conventional medicine, particularly for humans, has a lot of serious problems in terms of how we communicate with people, how we manage their lives and their needs. Weve become very siloed and segmented into subspecialties and very technologically focused. I think there are a lot of things wrong with how we offer health care to people, and the environments and conversations that alternative practitioners often have with people address a lot of those concerns and those problems. I do think that alternative medicine fits into peoples lives in an ideological and philosophical way.

A. I do offer some fairly simple guidelines in the book. One is that no single study is ever definitive because its impossible to completely eliminate bias. If theres only one study, you should still be a bit skeptical. Larger studies are better than smaller studies. Any study that does not effectively have a placebo arm and doesnt hide from both the owners of the pets and also the investigators or veterinarians which therapy each pet is getting is probably going to be biased and not reliable. So, there are some very simple rules that you can apply.

I think, honestly, the onus is on veterinarians to be better at understanding how to appraise a clinical trial and then to talk to owners. Even in the absence of large-scale, definitive, high-quality evidence, I do think we can look at these therapies and the reasoning behind them and the evidence for them and make sound, honest recommendations one way or anotherthat dont just rely on anecdotes.

Theres a method that I try to teach in the book for approaching things, so even if there are things that I dont cover in the book, I hope that itll be useful to people in terms of finding a structured, reliable way to approach new things.

As a veterinarian, Im hearing about new supplements and new therapies all the time, and many of them dont have a lot of research evidence. But I dont think we have to say to our clients, I dont know, theres nothing I can do, take your best guess. I think we can use a systematic, science-based approach to help guide and counsel our patients.

Read more from the original source:
Veterinarian works to reduce caregiver placebo effect | American Veterinary Medical Association - American Veterinary Medical Association

AMANA COLONIES, Iowa (KCRG) - Her whole life, Dr. Barbara Roland has loved animals. That love inspired her career path. Since getting her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1987, Roland has treated animals, most recently at the Newton Animal Clinic.

Now that Roland is semi-retired, she continues to save animals' lives by using her knowledge and skills as a veterinarian at Safe Haven of Iowa County. Its a no-kill shelter that serves not only local strays but animals from around the country.

Its mission is to, rescue, protect, rehabilitate and find good homes for dogs and cats in Iowa County. Secondly, to significantly reduce the overpopulation of stray dogs and cats, and improve the lives of humans and the lives of pets through public education and sponsoring low/no-cost spay and neuter programs.

Rolands home has always been the Amana Colonies. That's also where the Safe Haven of Iowa County is, housed in the former Krauss furniture building. Built in 1956 by Roland's relatives, Virginia Marie Hoppe donated the building to the animal rescue in 2012 after the family furniture store closed down.

I know they're all smiling down in heaven at the work we are doing here because our family has always loved animals, Roland said, with a smile. Especially Virginia, this would make her so happy.

In the past couple of years, the Safe Haven of Iowa County added a surgery suite, where Roland's services have helped thousands of animals. She volunteers her time and talents to complete surgery on the rescue animals, all for free.

She's not just a regular vet either, she's a skilled surgeon, Kimberly Buresh, 15-year volunteer and board president, said. Since we've had our surgery suite, and have our volunteer vet here, our adoptions have doubled, especially with the cats, because we're able to get them in, spayed, neutered, so much quicker because we can do that in house.

Buresh said it normally costs around $100 for a spay or neuter procedure, and scheduling is up to other clinics. As more healthy animals get adopted, that frees up space to take in more strays. The shelter can also take on more complicated health cases.

Freddy the cat, at the time of KCRG-TV9s visit, went from near-death to happy and healthy in just days from Rolands care.

He's just one of the countless other animals, helped by Roland, living out her life's dream to help animals, even, without the promise of a paycheck.

I'm glad we were able to save his life," Roland said.

Read the original here:
9 Who Care: Veterinarian uses a lifetime of experience, passion to heal shelter animals - KCRG

Radiation therapy to treat cancer can be grueling, requiring consecutive days of therapy over days or weeks.

When you talk to patients about coming in for 35 treatments, or seven weeks of daily therapy, usually their face kind of sags in disappointment or perhaps apprehension, says Keith Cengel, a radiation oncologist at Penns Perelman School of Medicine.

Thats why the promise of whats known as FLASH radiation therapy, in which a full dose of radiation is given in less than a second, is so great.

But FLASH remains in its infancy, with researchers still unsure about how the all-in-one-go approach stacks up against traditional methods. To test its effectiveness at killing cancer cells and sparing normal cells, researchers from Penn Medicine and Penns School of Veterinary Medicine are pairing their expertise in a clinical trial applying the cutting edge of human medicine in dogs.

From a veterinary standpoint, this is a type of radiation that is still very, very new in human medicine, says Jennifer Huck, a veterinary surgeon at Penn Vet who is partnering with Cengel on the trial. So theres a lot of excitement in the veterinary realm about this.

In the trial, dogs with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer that people, especially children, can also develop, receive the FLASH radiation. They then go on to receive the standard of care for osteosarcoma, which entails amputating the affected limb and, in some cases, at the owners and veterinarians discretion, following up with chemotherapy to slow the growth of microscopic disease in other areas of the body that may already be present at the time of diagnosis.

The study is not designed to confer a direct benefit to the dogs enrolled, though the clinicians arent ruling out that possibility. The main intent, they say, is to understand whats happening to the cells and tissuesboth cancerous and normalthat the therapy targets. In labs both at Penn Medicine and Penn Vet, researchers are studying samples from the amputated limb to assess the effects of the treatment.

Were looking at gene expression profiling, markers of cell death and cell division, and analyzing immune cell populations to just get a survey of what the tumor and normal tissue look like, says Cengel.

The work is moving quickly. The project aims to enroll 20 dogs. The researchers started late in 2019 and have already treated seven. Several more await treatment or evaluation.

I think that we greatly underestimate the excitement of pet owners to be involved in research and to be able to contribute to a project like this, says Huck. The treatment that their pet receives is ultimately no different from any other standard of care that we would offer to any pet that comes in with osteosarcoma, whether theyre on the study or not, so I think that also gives them comfort.

Four-year-old Milo, a leggy SaintBernard, is one such participant. Owner Tim Gordon describes him as perfect.

Hes a great dog, great with the kids, great with our other dog, Gordon says. Hes adjusted to everything weve thrown at him.

Starting around Thanksgiving, however, the family, which includes Tims wife, Trista, and their 8-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter, could tell Milo was feeling out of sorts.

We noticed he was limping around a bit and being really lethargic, says Gordon. At first they attributed his behavior to the influx of guests they had around the holiday. Then they started to worry about hip dysplasia. But in early December, Gordons 8-year-old son noticed a bulge in Milos leg near his paw.

The family brought their pet to the veterinarian expecting to learn he had a sprain or even a broken bone, but a graver diagnosis came back: osteosarcoma. Wanting to participate in a clinical trial, the family made several trips to Penn Vet from their home near Baltimore to get him evaluated and then for the radiation, limb removal surgery, and follow up.

Not only did participating in the clinical trial help the Gordons cover some of the costs of treatment, but they also appreciated the opportunity to contribute to studies that may advance cancer treatment.

That kept us going, says Trista Gordon. Even my daughter kept saying that Milo could help other dogs or even children who have this disease. That eased her sadness in a way.

That was especially resonant since Tim Gordon lost his mother to osteosarcoma. I knew what we went through with my mom and what she went through, he says. The thought definitely went through our minds that maybe we can help benefit other families by participating.

The goal of radiation therapy, like all cancer-killing strategies, is to unleash a strong assault on tumor cells while sparing normal cells as much as possible. And while researchers have tweaked other facets of radiation, such as how it is aimed and how the dose is fractionated, or spread over days or weeks, its only very recently that the FLASH approach has opened the possibility of giving a full dose all at once.

Traditional radiation therapy uses the energy of photons, or X-rays, to kill cancer cells. Early work with FLASH radiation has used electrons to deliver that energy, but those can only penetrate tumors that are a few centimeters deep.

In January, Cengel and Penn Medicine colleagues including Constantinos Koumenis and James Metz reported on FLASH radiation using protons, which can penetrate deeper than electrons to allow treatment of the vast majority of human tumors by beaming in radiation from outside the body to target tumors and to spare normal tissues.

Our initial results are very promising that FLASH proton radiotherapy may improve outcomes significantly. However, even if this approach isnt more effective or less toxic than what we have been doing, says Cengel, if we end up with exactly the same results but with a single treatment, it is still tremendously beneficial in terms of the patient experience.

Provided the dog trial goes well, Huck and Cengel hope to continue working quickly to translate their findings to benefit more patients, both human and canine.

And while a diagnosis of cancer and subsequent treatment is never easy, the Gordon family is grateful for how well Milo is doing.

Each day hes surpassing our expectations, honestly, says Trista Gordon. Hes getting back to his playful self.

Keith Cengel is an associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jennifer Huck is an assistant professor of clinical surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Go here to see the original:
Treatment in a FLASH - Penn: Office of University Communications

Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor (Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine) in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health[Ref. C/595/09]

City University of Hong Kong is a dynamic, fast-growing university that is pursuing excellence in research and professional education.As a publicly-funded institution, the University is committed to nurturing and developing students talents and creating applicable knowledge to support social and economic advancement. The University has nine Colleges/Schools. As part of its pursuit of excellence, the University aims to recruitoutstanding scholarsfrom all over the world in various disciplines, includingbusiness, creative media, data science, energy and environment, engineering, humanities and social sciences, law, science, veterinary medicine and life sciences.

The Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health was established in July 2017. Its mission is to achieve and sustain excellence in teaching and research in veterinary studies through advancing the understanding of the interconnectivity of animal and human health. This is an opportunity to join a vibrant diverse international team shaping the future of veterinary education and research in the region. The Department plays a key role in teaching students in the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and providing postgraduate research training. Departmental academic staff members undertake teaching and research across their areas of specialty, and are actively engaged in enhancing the profile and effectiveness of veterinary training, public health and applied research through partnership and strengthening links with industry, business, commerce and other institutions locally and internationally.

Applications and nominations are invited for the above posts:

Duties

The appointee is expected to support the overall academic mission of the University and facilitate further development of research and teaching activities including delivery of problem-based learning courses of the Department; contribute to the Departments evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM) teaching, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and through establishing a research programme, especially with the horse racing industry in Hong Kong.

Requirements

A Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree or an equivalent veterinary degree, preferably registrable in Hong Kong, with evidence of further postgraduate education in the form of Diplomate status in a recognized specialty board and/or academic qualifications at doctorate level in EBVM or Veterinary Epidemiology. A PhD in a relevant discipline (veterinary medicine, animal science, biology) or equivalent is highly preferred. Applicants must have demonstrable evidence of research success including publications in internationally-recognised journals and the ability to obtain research funding, and strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work collaboratively as a member of an academic team. Experience in tertiary-level curriculum development and teaching in associated subject areas, such as veterinary epidemiology, and/or experience in equine epidemiological research would be an asset.

Salary and Conditions of Service

Remuneration package will be driven by market competitiveness and individual performance. Excellent fringe benefits include gratuity, leave, medical and dental schemes, and relocation assistance (where applicable). Initial appointment will be made on a fixed-term contract.

Information and Application

Further information on the posts and the University is available athttp://www.cityu.edu.hk, or from the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong (email :ssthilai@cityu.edu.hkorchhung@cityu.edu.hk).

To apply, please submit an online application athttp://jobs.cityu.edu.hk, and include a current curriculum vitae, a cover letter, research and teaching statements based on the position. Nominations can be sent directly to the Department (email:cardith.hung@cityu.edu.hk).Applications and nominations will receive full consideration until the positions are filled. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted; and those shortlisted for the post of Assistant Professor will be requested to arrange for at least 3 reference reports sent directly by the referees to the Department, specifying the position applied for. The University's privacy policy is available on the homepage.

City University of Hong Kong is an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to the principle of diversity. Personal data provided by applicants will be used for recruitment and other employment-related purposes.

Worldwide recognition ranking 52nd, and 4th among top 50 universities under age 50 (QS survey 2020); 1st in Engineering/Technology/Computer Sciences in Hong Kong (ARWU survey 2016); and 2nd Business School in Asia-Pacific region (UT Dallas survey 2017).

See the original post:
Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor (Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine) job with CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG | 195549 - Times Higher...

Veterinary medicines are used for the treatment of animal injuries, infections and diseases. The veterinary medicine include vaccines, veterinary medicines, such as antimicrobial agents, and diagnostic kits to cure the animals from pathogen. Moreover, the medication is also available for animal health care, surgery and preventive services.

The veterinary Medicine market is anticipated to grow in the forecast period owing to driving factors such as increasing awareness towards healthcare of livestock and companion animals and government policies to immunize the animals. Moreover, the inflated R&D investment in this sector, new technology with better therapeutic application and raised quality standards presents the opportunity for the market.

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The global veterinary medicine market is segmented on the basis of product, route of administration, animal type and end user. Based on product, the market is classified as drugs, vaccines and medicated feed additives. On the basis of route of administration, the market is classified as oral, parenteral and topical. On the basis of animal type, the market is classified as companion animals and livestock animals. On the basis of end-user, the market is classified as veterinary hospitals, veterinary clinics, pharmacies and drug stores.

The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global veterinary medicine market based on various segments. It also provides market size and forecast estimates from year 2017 to 2027 with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South & Central America. The veterinary medical products market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 18 countries globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.

The report analyzes factors affecting veterinary medical products market from both demand and supply side and further evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend. The report also provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions namely; North America, Europe, APAC, MEA and South & Central America after evaluating political, economic, social and technological factors effecting the veterinary medical products market in these regions.

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Tags: Veterinary MedicineVeterinary Medicine MarketVeterinary Medicine Market GrowthVeterinary Medicine Market Size

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Veterinary Medicine Market Emerging Trends to Achieve Significant Growth in the coming Years TechNews.mobi Market Reports - TechNews.mobi

The report is an all-inclusive research study of the Veterinary Medicine Market taking under consideration the expansion factors, recent trends, developments, opportunities, and competitive landscape. The market analysts and researchers have done extensive analysis of the global Veterinary Medicine market with the help of research methodologies such as PESTLE and Porters Five Forces analysis. They have provided accurate and reliable market data and useful recommendations with an aim to help the players gain an insight into the overall present and future market scenario. The report comprises in-depth study of the potential segments including product type, application, and user and their contribution to the general market size.

The Veterinary Medicine market report provides detailed information on key factors, Opportunities, Challenges, industry trends and their impact on the market. The market report Veterinary Medicine also includes company data and its operation. This report also contains information about the pricing strategy, brand strategy and target customer of the Veterinary Medicine market.

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The top Manufacturer with company profile, sales volume, and product specifications, revenue (Million/Billion USD) and market share

Global Veterinary Medicine Market Competitive Insights

The competitive analysis serves as a bridge between manufacturers and other participants that are available on the Veterinary Medicine Market. The report includes a comparative study of Top market players with company profiles of competitive companies, Veterinary Medicine Market product innovations and cost structure, production sites and processes, sales details of past years and technologies used by them. The Veterinary Medicine Market report also explains the main strategies of competitors, their SWOT analysis and how the competition will react to changes in marketing techniques. In this report, the best market research techniques were used to provide the latest knowledge about Veterinary Medicine Market to competitors in the market.

Global Veterinary Medicine Market Segmentation information

The report provides important insights into the various market segments presented to simplify the assessment of the global Veterinary Medicine Market. These market segments are based on several relevant factors, including Veterinary Medicine Market product type or services, end users or applications and regions. The report also includes a detailed analysis of the regional potential of the Veterinary Medicine Market, which includes the difference between production values and demand volumes, as well as the presence of market participants and the growth of each Region over the given forecast period

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Veterinary Medicine Market: Regional Analysis :

As part of regional analysis, important regions such as North America, Europe, the MEA, Latin America, and Asia Pacific have been studied. The regional Veterinary Medicine markets are analyzed based on share, growth rate, size, production, consumption, revenue, sales, and other crucial factors. The report also provides country-level analysis of the Veterinary Medicine industry.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The report starts off with an executive summary, including top highlights of the research study on the Veterinary Medicine industry.

Market Segmentation: This section provides detailed analysis of type and application segments of the Veterinary Medicine industry and shows the progress of each segment with the help of easy-to-understand statistics and graphical presentations.

Regional Analysis: All major regions and countries are covered in the report on the Veterinary Medicine industry.

Market Dynamics: The report offers deep insights into the dynamics of the Veterinary Medicine industry, including challenges, restraints, trends, opportunities, and drivers.

Competition: Here, the report provides company profiling of leading players competing in the Veterinary Medicine industry.

Forecasts: This section is filled with global and regional forecasts, CAGR and size estimations for the Veterinary Medicine industry and its segments, and production, revenue, consumption, sales, and other forecasts.

Recommendations: The authors of the report have provided practical suggestions and reliable recommendations to help players to achieve a position of strength in the Veterinary Medicine industry.

Research Methodology: The report provides clear information on the research approach, tools, and methodology and data sources used for the research study on the Veterinary Medicine industry.

What will you find out from the global Veterinary Medicine Market Report?

The report contains statistical analyses of the current and future Status of the global Veterinary Medicine Market with a forecast to 2026.The report contains detailed information on manufacturers, Veterinary Medicine Market raw material suppliers and buyers with their trade outlook for 2020-2026.The report informs you about the most important drivers, technologies and Trends that will shape the global Veterinary Medicine Market in the near future.The report added an exclusive market segmentation, broken down by Product Type, Veterinary Medicine Market end user and Region.The strategic perspectives on Veterinary Medicine Market Dynamics, current production process and applications.

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TAGS: Veterinary Medicine Market Size, Veterinary Medicine Market Growth, Veterinary Medicine Market Forecast, Veterinary Medicine Market Analysis, Veterinary Medicine Market Trends, Veterinary Medicine Market

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Veterinary Medicine Market Growth by Top Companies, Trends by Types and Application, Forecast to 2026 - News Parents

DULLES, Va. Question 1:

Is it possible that these seized birds carried the latest strain of the Coronavirus, that is spreading across China?

Answer:

Yes, but unlikely. Various experts told The Verify Team, that while it's possible, the likelihood of birds carrying the latest strain, remains unlikely.

Sources:

Process:

When news broke about the Dulles seizure of birds, the response was widespread on social media, with concern that this could mean the spread of that latest strain of Coronavirus.

"Can these spread the Virus," one person asked.

"Those birds (were) probably carrying the Coronavirus," wrote another.

To find out if this is actually true, the Verify Team called Mohamed Medhat El-Gazzar from Iowa State University and Siba Samal, from The University of Maryland.

"We don't know much about this virus," said Samal. "So we need to take precautions."

Samal said that birds do have "their own Coronaviruses," just like all animals do. He said it was unlikely that it would jump from species to species, although it is possible.

"We know this jumped from species to species before," he said. "So the possibility lies."

El-Gazzar agreed.

"It is unlikely that birds carry this specific outbreak virus," he said. "Because it is thought to come from bats, which are mammals."

That being said, El-Gazzar said we shouldn't take the possibility lightly.

"That does not mean it's impossible," he said. "To cross-species."

RELATED: Dulles customs seizes dead birds in passenger baggage from China

***

Question 2:

Did the spread of the current Coronavirus strain start when someone ate "bat soup," like many are claiming online?

Answer:

Likely not. The origins of this latest strain remain unclear. While the strain likely did come from an animal, there's no evidence that bat soup had anything to do with this.

Sources:

Process:

Soon after news came out about the dead birds seized at Dulles Airport, the online comments began. Many started to spread rumors about how the latest strain of the Coronavirus first began.

"I read somewhere it started from bat soup," wrote one person.

"I read it was from eating wolves," wrote another. "And Koala bears."

To find out the truth, the Verify Team turned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC said that this latest strain of coronavirus was likely caused by animal-to-human transmission.

"Early on, many of the patients in the outbreak..." wrote the CDC. "Reportedly had some link to a large seafood and animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread."

The CDC also said that the latest strain is a "BetaCoronavirus," which like MERS and SARs have origins in bats.

However, there's no evidence indicating that bats, in particular, were the cause.

"I don't think anyone in the world knows what actually happened," said Assistant Professor Mohamed Medhat El-Gazzar, from Iowa State University. "In these cases, it's very hard to pinpoint where it started."

Professor Siba K. Samal, from the University of Maryland, said that it was very unlikely that it came from "Bat soup," as has been stated online.

"The virus is much less likely to survive if cooked," he said.

Question 3:

Has the U.S. completely stopped travel from China to the United States?

Answer:

No. Although there are some major restrictions.

Sources:

Process:

In the aftermath of the dead birds being seized at Dulles, there were a lot of questions about what travel restrictions exist between China and the United States.

"I thought they stopped travel from China," said one person on Facebook.

To answer that, the Verify Team turned to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Bureau of Consular Affairs within the U.S. Department of State.

Secretary of HHS, Alex Azar announced the restrictions on Jan. 31, 2019. United States citizens, permanent residents, and their families are still able to travel from China, although everyone else is restricted.

"These prudent and targeted actions will decrease the pressure on public health officials," he said at the time. "Screening incoming travelers, expedite the processing of U.S. citizens returning from China, and ensure resources are focused on the health and safety of the American people."

Currently, U.S. citizens returning from Hubei Province will face up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine, according to the policy. U.S. citizens from the rest of mainland China will undergo "proactive entry health screening at a select number of ports of entry," and up to 14 days of "monitored self-quarantine."

Azar also announced that President Trump signed a "presidential proclamation" suspending entry into the U.S. of all foreign nationals, except the immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

The Bureau of Consular Affairs has also issued a pretty strong warning to any U.S. citizens wishing to travel overseas.

"Do not travel to China," they wrote.

The BCA also announced that Chinese authorities have "suspended air road and rail travel in the area around Wuhan and placed restrictions on travel and other activities throughout the country."

RELATED: VERIFY: Is it too late to get the flu shot? Is this year's vaccine not as effective?

RELATED: VERIFY: Are our pets at risk of getting the latest strain of coronavirus?

RELATED: Airbnb suspends bookings in Beijing amid coronavirus outbreak

RELATED: Official: Four Virginia high school students under self-monitoring at home for coronavirus

RELATED: Dog masks exist, and sales have spiked as Coronavirus spreads

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VERIFY: Could the dead birds from China seized at Dulles carry Coronavirus? Breaking down this and other questions about the incident - WUSA9.com

While many immunologists use mouse models to conduct their research, J. Oriol Sunyer of Penns School of Veterinary Medicine has made transformational scientific insights using a very different creature: rainbow trout.

In a paper featured on the cover of the journal Science Immunology, Sunyer and colleagues developed a method to manipulate the trout immune system to reveal a new understanding of how the animals defend against infection while promoting a healthy microbiome. The work addresses a decades-old question of whether mucosal antibodiesthose present on mucosal surfaces of the body such as the gut, or in the case of fish, the gillsevolved to fight pathogens, or to preserve a healthy microbiome. As it turns out, mucosal immunoglobulins coevolved both roles from very early on during vertebrate evolution.

You might be thinking, Rainbow trout? We fish for them; we eat them, says Sunyer. But it turns out they can also tell us a lot about some fundamental biomedical, evolutionary, and immunological questions.

Specifically, Sunyer and colleagues found that a mucosal antibody, an immunoglobulin known as IgT, is critical both in controlling pathogens and in regulating the microbiome of fish gills, a tissue type that shares similarities with several mucosal surfaces of mammals, such as the intestines.

We found that IgT is playing two paradoxical roleson the one hand reducing bad microbes, and on the other hand promoting the presence of certain beneficial bacteria, says Sunyer. Fish are the earliest bony vertebrates to possess a mucosal immune system, and so the fact that fish possess a specialized immunoglobulin that does both jobs suggests that these two processes are so fundamentally important for vertebrate survival that they arose concurrently, early on in evolution.

For nearly 20 years, Sunyers lab has contributed a steady stream of discovery regarding the evolution and roles of the immune system using fish as model species. In 2010, a seminal paper in Nature Immunology featured on the journal cover identified the role of IgT. It was the first time that fish were shown to have a form of mucosal immunitya more specialized response to pathogens that enter the body from the environment; in this case, through the gills, skin, and fish gut.

Before that we thought only four-legged animals, or tetrapods, had mucosal immunity, Sunyer says. That study demonstrated the induction of potent IgT responses upon infection with a mucosal pathogen.

The group also showed that IgT coats a large portion of the bacteria that are part of the fishes microbiome, the community of bacteria and other microbes that dwell on various tissues of the animals bodies. That got the researchers thinking about which function arose first for vertebrate mucosal immunoglobulins: fighting pathogens or preserving a healthy microbiome.

In mammals, the immunoglobulin IgA seems to have analogous function to IgT in fish, Sunyer explains. In the last few years there have been some key studies showing that IgA is required to keep the mammalian microbiome in check. In mice and humans lacking IgA, their microbiome changes: The beneficial bacteria go down and the potentially disease-causing bacteria go up.

A weakness of these studies in mammals lacking IgA, Sunyer notes, is the inability to tease apart the precise role of IgA in preserving a balanced microbiome, since the lack of IgA from birth precludes the establishment of a healthy microbiota in these animals.

To better understand the roles of mucosal immunoglobulins in preserving a healthy microbiome, Sunyer and colleagues developed a model in adult fish where researchers could temporarily deplete them of IgT, lasting about two months.

By doing so they could study the role of IgT in preserving, rather than establishing, a healthy microbiome, while also evaluating the susceptibility to pathogens of fish lacking IgT.

When they depleted IgT, the researchers found that levels of a mucosal parasite greatly increased, underscoring the immunoglobulins role in defending against harmful invaders. But they also saw a dramatic impact on the microbiome composition: IgT-depleted fish lost the IgT coating on the bacterial community in their gills and had more bacteria escape from gill surfaces and enter the tissue layer beneath, leading to tissue damage and inflammation.

Looking closely at the bacteria coated by IgT in normal animals, the research team found that IgT targeted specific species over others. These species included bacteria associated with both health and disease states in fishsimilar to what had been found with IgA in mammals.

Critically, the authors found that the overall microbiome in IgT-depleted fish was significantly altered, in a shift known as dysbiosis. The overall diversity of bacteria present decreased, numbers of beneficial bacteria such as those producing short-chain fatty acidscritical for the maintenance of tissue integrity and immune homeostasisalso decreased, while disease-associated species increased.

We see that there seems to be specific microbes that have to be controlled, says Sunyer. Either they are harmful and tend to escape and cause problems in the nearby tissue in the absence of IgT, or perhaps they are beneficial but require IgT to colonize the mucosal surfaces. In both fish and mammals, it now seems apparent that their respective mucosal immunoglobulins do these jobs.

One great benefit of the researchers IgT depletion technique is that its temporary and performed in adult animals. After several weeks of depletion, the fish IgT levels return to normal. Thus the researchers were able to track the microbiome as IgT came back, observing what amounted to recovery; the microbes in the gill regained IgT coating, the microbiome was restored to its initial composition, and the tissue damage and inflammation that had been seen around the gills was reversed.

In microbiome studies, recovery is a very important point, Sunyer says. When you take an antibiotic, you can perturb your microbiome to the extent that recovery may take a very long time, but the perturbation we used, of removing IgT, had a profound but transient effect on the microbiome composition, which underwent a speedy recovery.

As more and more scientific studies identify links between the microbiome and various aspects of health from maintaining a healthy weight to the risk of cancer or even neurological conditions like Alzheimers and schizophrenia, Sunyer is hopeful that his fish model will find even more applications.

Studying only mammalian models is not going to be enough to understand the role of the microbiome in all of these physiological processes, says Sunyer.

Because the symbiotic relationship between vertebrates and their microbiome is very ancient, and one which first flourished with the emergence of mucosal immunoglobulins in fish, Sunyer says that rainbow trout will help us discover the underlying mechanisms by which the interactions between immunoglobulins and the microbiome influence immunity, metabolism, cancer, and much more.

These studies, Sunyer adds, will have a crucial impact on the potential uses of specific species of fish bacteria as probiotic agents that may stimulate the immune system to protect against pathogens. With every other fish that we eat deriving from fish farming, an industry plagued with emerging pathogens, novel therapies, such as probiotics, are in urgent need.

J. Oriol Sunyer is a professor of immunology and microbiology in the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Sunyers coauthors on the study from Penn Vet were co-first authors Zhen Xu and Fumio Takizawa, Yasuhiro Shibasaki, Yang Ding, and Yongyao Yu. Co-authors from the University of New Mexico were Elisa Casadei, Thomas J. C. Sauters, and co-corresponding author was Irene Salinas.

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant 1457282), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Grant USDA-NIFA-2016-09400), the National Institutes of Health (grants GM085207-09 and GM103452), the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, JSPS Overseas Fellowships, and the University of New Mexicos Initiative for Maximizing Student Development Program.

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Answers to microbiome mysteries in the gills of rainbow trout - Penn: Office of University Communications

The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), portrayed in an illustration created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM

Back in 2016, when Zika virus first began to cause infections in the Americas, University of WisconsinMadison researchers pulled together a coalition of scientists to study the virus and openly share their data for others.

Two weeks ago, those researchers David OConnor, professor at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and Thomas Friedrich, professor in the UW School of Veterinary Medicine used the 2016 playbook to start planning efforts to study the novel coronavirus that first emerged in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019.

The virus, which causes flu-like symptoms and respiratory illness, has sickened more than 43,000 people in China and across several nations, according to health officials. At least 1,018 people have died.

David OConnor

Thomas Friedrich

Within the next few weeks, Friedrich, OConnor, and their interdisciplinary partners hope to begin studies to better understand the novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV.

We are working together to develop a plan to build out nonhuman primate models to test medical countermeasures such as vaccines and therapeutics, says OConnor. We want to make sure we are recapitulating the kind of clinical signs (of virus infection) that happen in people.

The researchers are interested in understanding how much of the virus makes its way into the body and in bodily fluids; where in the lungs the virus infects; and in creating opportunities to test new vaccines and antivirals. They also hope to look at how the immune system responds and whether there are indicators that can help clinicians distinguish who might be at risk for developing severe disease.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka

At the Influenza Research Institute (IRI) in Madison, Professor of Pathobiological Sciences Yoshihiro Kawaoka is also preparing to study 2019-nCoV.

Among the research questions he hopes to address is the efficiency with which the natural virus transmits among animal models for disease. The novel coronavirus is capable of transmitting from person to person, but it most likely originated in bats. However, as with other coronaviruses known to cause significant illness in humans, such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, the virus likely passed through another animal before becoming infectious in humans. Researchers have not identified the animal or animals involved.

With SARS, the virus passed to humans through contact with civet cats, and with MERS, through dromedary camels.

Kawaoka is also interested in studying how the virus causes illness and what cells the virus is capable of infecting. The results of the work could be used to help develop treatments and vaccines to protect people against infection.

The work at IRI will be conducted in a Biosafety Level 3 Agriculture (BSL-3 Ag) laboratory, which is just below Biosafety Level 4. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines call for research using the 2019-nCov virus to be conducted in a BSL-3 laboratory since important aspects of how the virus causes disease and transmits are not well understood.

We are using SARS as a biosafety and biosecurity model for this coronavirus because we dont know enough about the virus yet, says Rebecca Moritz, Responsible Official and the Institutional Contact for Dual Use Research at UWMadison. The SARS coronavirus caused an outbreak in more than two dozen countries in 2003, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing 774.

My lab is interested in why things like this happen, why do viruses emerge from somewhere and begin causing diseases in humans? What are the evolutionary pathways they need to take hold, and how do they adapt to our immune responses?

If we can understand that, hopefully we can erect more barriers to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.

Thomas Friedrich

The university has worked proactively with Public Health Madison and Dane County, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the State Lab of Hygiene, infectious disease specialists and University Health Services to prepare to conduct the research.

We are requiring researchers to monitor their health and to take their temperatures twice per day, says Moritz. Fever is one symptom of 2019-nCoV illness. If they are not feeling well, our exposure control plans in place involve infectious disease and public health authorities. We would quarantine and test them for the virus.

With the studies planned, UWMadison researchers are at the leading edge of efforts to understand an emerging human illness. Kawaoka stresses that basic research studies are necessary to combat pathogens that make animals and people sick. OConnor, Friedrich and their collaborators plan to once again share their data publicly so that other researchers may use it to advance the science, and hopefully lead to efforts to improve and protect human health.

Says Friedrich: My lab is interested in why things like this happen, why do viruses emerge from somewhere and begin causing diseases in humans? What are the evolutionary pathways they need to take hold, and how do they adapt to our immune responses? If we can understand that, hopefully we can erect more barriers to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.

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UWMadison researchers lead efforts to understand, thwart new coronavirus - University of Wisconsin-Madison

PULLMAN Some employees of Washington State University were responsible for the misappropriation of thousands of dollars between 2014 and 2019.

Thats according to a new report by the state auditors office.

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports that the university initiated an investigation into several cases of employees misreporting time worked and leave of absence used, which totaled more than $12,000.

The audit found that an employee of the College of Nursing did not properly report leave of absence multiple times between April 2016 and June 2018.

The audit also found two WSU School of Music employees were overpaid by a total of $2,895.61 between August 2014 and February 2018 by claiming hours not worked.

An employee with the College of Veterinary Medicine was overpaid by $6,448.56 between November 2017 and November 2018 by claiming hours not worked. The employee was fired for abandonment of post.

A University Advancement employee, who was overpaid by $2,894.38 between March 2018 and February 2019 for claiming hours not worked, resigned from WSU.

The auditors office recommends WSU strengthen its oversight and monitoring of the reporting and use of leave balances.

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Audit: Some WSU employees misreported time worked and absences - Seattle Times

You only get to celebrate your sesquicentennial once, and on Feb. 11, 2020, thats just what Colorado State University did.

For a birthday this big, the celebration started a day early and in two cities. On Monday, the College of Agricultural Sciences held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Temple Grandin Equine Center on the Foothills Campus. The center will celebrate and elevate the role of the horse in society through the physical and emotional benefits of serving those in need, integrating research and education in order to promote evidence-based practices of equine assisted activities and therapy.

Tuesday morning started with representatives from CSU appearing at the State Capitol in Denver to receive an official proclamation from the Colorado Legislature congratulating the states only land-grant university on its 150th anniversary. The proclamation recognized all three campuses of the CSU System for educating nearly 60,000 students every year, generating more than $465 million in annual economic activity, and improving the lives of all Colorado citizens.

By lunch time, the Fort Collins campus was ready to party, first with selfies with the larger-than-life #csu150 on the Plaza, then with cake and cookies and 150th items at The Foundry in the Corbett/Parmelee dining center. CAM the Ram, CSU Cheer and the Pep Band provided the excitement while people signed the giant birthday card.

And the events werent over yet. Tuesday evening, former UN Ambassador Susan Rice sat down for a conversation with NPR foreign correspondent Greg Myre. The free talk, sponsored by the Office of International Programs with generous support from Women and Philanthropy and the Provosts Sesquicentennial Colloquium, filled the Lory Student Center Ballroom. She talked about her early life her mother is widely considered the mother of the Pell Grant that provided college opportunity for low-income students as well as other topics covered in her new book, Tough Love.

Rice could have been summing up CSUs 150 years of education, research and service to the people of Colorado and the world with this observation:

The more we know each other the more we engage each other and recognize each other as human beings the better, because, for better or for worse, we are all in this together and we are going to sink or swim together.

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Scenes from CSU's 150th birthday celebration - Source

Dr. Sarah Naramore in her office. Photo by Robert Mohr (C21).

By Luke GairExecutive Staff

For about three weeks of her undergraduate career, Visiting Assistant Professor of History Dr. Sarah Naramore intended to pursue veterinary medicine. Her history minor, which would eventually become her lifes work, was at first an attempt to stick out as an applicant to competitive veterinary schools.

Im not proud of thinking that way, but it was true of me as an eighteen-year-old, Naramore laughed. Biological and ecological research loomed at the forefront of her work in college but, as she became more attuned to her interests, she realized that the larger, messier questions she kept finding herself asking were more logically suited to the humanities instead.

Rather than a traditional history class steering her toward academia, it was instead mycology that allowed her the revelation necessary to begin her present career path. After she was tasked to research claviceps purpurea, a fungus most notably known for its effects on cereal plants, her two seemingly disparate interests bloomed into a single field of study. In the midst of her research, it became strikingly clear just how braided the scientific and historical are with one another. Thus, the double major in history and biology was declared.

It was the first time I really thought how the biological world has impacted history, she began. I didnt really know the history of medicine or science was a thing until I started putting it together in this class. It sort of clicked, and I thought This is what I want to do, I want to see how this messy biological and ecological world has shaped human activities.

A career in veterinary medicine might be in the rear view mirror for Naramore, but an intersection between her past and present career paths is unyielding: [History and biology] are inherently interested in how both are bringing high understanding of science into different contexts. Rather than a separate entity, she sees doctors as comparable to engineers or scientists, ones who are trying to apply basic science to varying biological and social contexts.

This philosophy greatly manifests in her forthcoming book entitled Medical Independence: How Benjamin Rush Created Medicine, 1780 to 1813, where she argues and explores how the practice of medicine, biological theory, and political theory converge in previously unrealized ways. The work derives from her doctoral dissertation, I Sing the Body Republic: How Benjamin Rush Created American Medicine.

The clever, Whitman-inspired title was changed in the publishing process in order to reach a broader audience [rather than] a four-person thesis committee.

Naramore defended her thesis in April of 2018 and then formally graduated as a PhD student from the University of Notre Dame in August of that same year. Less than a month later, she began teaching her first college classes.

As an alumna of a liberal arts college herself, Naramore was already familiar with the core mechanics of the classroom at such institutions like smaller class sizes, but that doesnt necessarily mean that adaptation wasnt needed.

The first semester of being here was a lot like being thrown in, she noted. With three courses to plan and prepare for, things werent slowing down for the recently arrived professor any time soon. It was great, but it was all at once.

In classes where non-major students are enrolled, especially those introductory level courses, Naramore shared her enthusiasm in approaching those unfamiliar with the course material. In a community like Sewanee where were trying to break down those silos between disciplines, she remarked, theres something to be said about getting fresh perspectives and talking out your ideas with students who are new to these ideas.

Naramore sees the classroom as grounds for conversation rather than simple lecturing, and she underlined such a belief through clarifying that studying history in higher education is less about memorization. Alternatively, it introduces students and scholars to nuanced disciplines and ways of thinking. With the internet at our fingertips, its crucial to understand and process the information we read, so studying history grants such critical thinking skills.

Im interested in how we get from this expansive view to having these very narrow, professional boxes. Im influenced by the idea of American medical exceptionalism, she concluded. I think theres some resonance in understanding how Americans can of themselves as exceptional, and how an interpretation of biology can get us there.

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Different contexts, similar missions: Dr. Sarah Naramore blends interests in biology and history through her academic expertise - The Sewanee Purple

Pet owners near Parker City may have noticed a few changes lately at Parker Veterinary Service. They need not worry though as Dr. Daniel Hendrickson plans to continue the legacy that Dr. Kenneth Stites began nearly 50 years ago providing the same loving care to local pets as his predecessor as well as expanding and improving many of the services that they provide. We strive to provide the best quality care possible at affordable prices, states his wife Telynda.

Over the years, Dr. Stites had numerous partners in his practice, in his small office next door to H & R Block on Highway 32, one of these was Daniels uncle, long-time area veterinarian Dr. Dale Hendrickson, who retired and turned the large swine operation South of Parker City over to his nephew about 5 years ago. Dr. Stites found it quite fitting that Daniel would be the one to buy his practice, as the Hendrickson family has practiced veterinary medicine in the area for decades.

Hendrickson likes to keep things local. All of our staff live within twenty miles of the office, says Telynda. We also try to support the community by buying our supplies as locally as possible, she adds.

As one enters the new office, just down the street, next door to the City Building, you cant help but notice the numerous photos of dogs and cats decorating the walls. We had a photo contest for some of our clients, she explains. This was our winner, she says gesturing to a photo of a Dalmation sitting on a firetruck. We try to keep things as calm and quiet to keep things as stress-free as possible for the animals, she adds noting that they have separate kennel areas for dogs and cats who are recovering from surgery or other treatments. We also have rooms so that we can isolate any aggressive animals that are brought in, she notes.

We are a walk-in clinic dealing with primarily dogs and cats. We also take appointments. We have treated other small mammals, like rabbits and hamsters, in emergency situations, but we focus on dogs and cats. If you have something a bit more exotic, say a bird or a reptile, well gladly refer you to someone who can provide treatment for your pet, She continues.

We have two exam rooms and are equipped to do full dental exams as well. We also have an on-site lab where we can do blood work. Most local practices have to send their blood work to a lab and wait for the results to be sent back to them, she explains. We are very open and allow owners to remain with their pets for as much of the visit as possible, she goes on. Another service that people may not be aware of is our private crematorium operated by a retired EMT who is very passionate and takes great care in his work, staying with the remains throughout the process and ensuring that they are returned to the owner, she adds.

Parker Veterinary Service is also progressing into the digital age. The practice has converted all of its records over to a digital format. Within the next few weeks pet owners will be able to use Care Credit to pay for their pets treatments. The practice will also have an online store where clients can order medicine and supplies and have them shipped directly to their homes. We also have a huge following on Facebook, noted Hendrickson.

As I continued my visit, I was introduced to two of the Veterinarians on staff. Dr. Maggie Thornburg has 27 years experience and has a real talent for dealing with cats. Cats respond well to her, explains Hendrickson. The practice recently added Dr. Lindsey Pritchard to their staff. She greeted me saying, I would shake your hand, but Ive got honey on mine. She was trying to save a kitten that had been found in a shed earlier that cold morning by some workers who brought it in to the office. Im feeding her honey and keeping her warm. Hopefully, shell pull through, she commented.

We would like to thank the community for their support and for helping to make the transition go as smoothly as possible, says Hendrickson. We hope to continue the legacy of Dr. Stites by providing the best possible care for area pets at a very reasonable rate, she adds. Parker Veterinary Service has an extremely compassionate, caring, and knowledgable staff. Area pet owners can rest assured that their furry little friends will receive the best of care in their more than capable hands.

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Continuing a Legacy of Love and Care | News - Winchester News Gazette

Kansas State University researchers who helped develop a faster, more efficient way to detect Shiga toxin-producing E. coli in ground beef include Colin Stoy, technician; Lance Noll, senior scientist; Elizabeth Porter, lab manager; Jianfa Bai, professor of molecular research and development; Yin Wang, doctoral student in pathobiology; Junsheng Dong, visiting scholar; Nanyan Lu, bioinformatician; and Cong Zhu, pre-Doctor of Veterinary Medicine student; and Xuming Liu, research assistant professor.Photo courtesy K-State

MANHATTAN, Kan. Faculty members from the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine have developed a faster, more efficient method of detecting Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, or STEC, in ground beef, which often causes recalls of ground beef and vegetables.

The traditional gold standard STEC detection, which requires bacterial isolation and characterization, is not amenable to high-throughput settings and often requires a week to obtain a definitive result, said Jianfa Bai, section head of molecular research and development in the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

The new method developed by Bai and colleagues requires only a day to obtain confirmatory results using a Kansas State University-patented method with the partition-based multichannel digital polymerase chain reaction system.

We believe the new digital polymerase chain reaction detection method developed in this study will be widely used in food safety and inspection services for the rapid detection and confirmation of STEC and other foodborne pathogens, said Jamie Henningson, director of the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

When ingested through foods such as ground beef and vegetables, STEC can cause illnesses with symptoms including abdominal pain and diarrhea. Some illnesses caused by STEC may lead to kidney failure and can be life-threatening.

Some E. coli strains do not produce Shiga toxins and thus do not affect human health as much, said Xuming Liu, research assistant professor. Because cattle feces and ground beef can contain harmless or less pathogenic E. coli along with STEC, the most commonly used polymerase chain reaction cannot identify pathogenic E. coli strains in a complex sample matrix.

The new digital polymerase chain reaction test was developed for research and food safety inspections that require shorter turnaround and high throughput, without sacrificing detection accuracy.

While the current, commonly used testing method is considered to be the gold standard, it is tedious and requires many days to obtain results that adequately differentiate the bacteria, said Gary Anderson, director of the International Animal Health and Food Safety Institute at the K-State Olathe campus.

The study Single cell-based digital PCR detection and association of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli serogroups and major virulence genes, which describes the test design and results, was published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Funding for this study was provided by the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory with no extramural funding used. The digital polymerase chain reaction technology for co-detection and association of multiple genes is covered by U.S. Patent No. 10,233,505 assigned to the Kansas State University Research Foundation with the principal investigators Bai, Liu and Anderson.

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Veterinary medicine researchers develop new method to improve food safety - Fence Post

Friday, February 7, 2020

When Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine student JoeRichichi (pronounced rih-kee-kee) recently completed his fourth-year clinicalrotations at the Purdue Veterinary Teaching Hospital, he met the requirementsfor graduation, but at the same time, left something behind, intentionally. That something relates to his remarkable artistictalent, which helped put him through veterinary school.

As faculty, staff, and students who got to know him learned, Joe has a flair for illustrating wildlife. His work even has attracted notice from people involved in major animal television and movie productions, including a new IMAX movie. And now, one of Joes wildlife drawings is on display in a Small Animal Hospital exam room.

Joes association with Purdue Veterinary Medicine began in January 2019, when he came to West Lafayette to complete his clinical year. Ross Universitys School of Veterinary Medicine, located on St. Kitts in the West Indies, does not have hospital facilities for clinical training, so it partners with other AVMA-accredited veterinary colleges where its students are able to complete their fourth-year clinical rotations.

Joes pursuit of a veterinary degree represented a change from what he thought he would do ever since elementary school, when he was recognized for having an ability to draw. He took his first drawing class in high school in his hometown of Glens Falls, N.Y. His first self-portrait caught peoples attention and a later drawing of New York City, as viewed from the Empire State Building, was featured in publications, displayed in a museum, and recognized with numerous awards. Though he was offered scholarships to pursue further training, Joe opted to study at SUNY Adirondack, a State University of New York Community College in his hometown, where he earned his first associates degree in communication and media studies.

After working for a few years and not finding a way to do artwork as a career, Joe embarked on a different career path. While working at a pet store, he realized he had a passion for reptiles and promptly relocated to Florida, where he earned his second associates degree in animal sciences before enrolling in the University of Floridas bachelors degree program in animal science, which he completed in 2016.

As he pursued his dream of becoming a reptile veterinarian,Joe also began rescuing unwanted reptiles from Craigslist and reptile shows. Hemade it his mission to nurse them back to health and give them to good ownersthrough ReptiCon, an organization that hosts reptile and exotic animal expos. AsI was taking in all those reptiles, I started drawing them and putting thatartwork online, which turned into people requesting specific species,explained Joe. Eventually, I had more drawings of reptiles than I had liveanimals.

After being accepted into Ross Universitys DVM program, Joe was in for a pleasant surprise related to his art. He said he never anticipated the number of doors in the art world that would open for him once he started veterinary school. After seeing some of my drawings of sea turtles online, the Tennessee Aquarium contacted me to express their interest in having me illustrate promotional materials for an IMAX movie, Turtle Odyssey, Joe said. If you view the movie website at tutleodysseyfilm.com, and click on the education link, you can download the classroom poster that features Joes artwork and credits him as the artist. The 3D movie is playing this month at the IMAX Theatre at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.

In addition, one of Joes professors at the University of Florida wrote an equine history textbook and asked Joe to illustrate ancient equine species based on their skeletons for use in the book. Shortly after that experience, Joe was contacted by hosts of two different television shows for his drawing prints of various caiman crocodile species. Also, wildlife expert and TV personality Forrest Galante requested Joes help illustrating a once-forgotten species that Galante had rediscovered.

Its easy to see examples of Joes artwork by visiting his website, drawingsbyjoe.com. Or you can see one in person in Exam Room B in the Small Animal Hospital, where his drawing, Macaws of the World is hanging on the wall, courtesy of Dr. Sarah Malek, who had received the artwork as a gift and decided to share it on loan so others can enjoy it. As of a few months ago, Joes art also is being sold in some stores. So, not only is his artwork a form of creative expression, it also has generated income that helped finance his education.

Fittingly, Joe finished his year at Purdue in his favorite rotation, treating exotic pets in the hospitals Small Animal Primary Care service. Joe especially appreciated the opportunity to work with two fellow exotic animal enthusiasts, Drs. Steve Thompson and Lori Corriveau.

Thanks to his success in earning his DVM degree, Joe will have another means of earning income beginning in March when he starts his new job as an exotic animal veterinarian at City Creatures Animal Hospital in Buffalo, N.Y. The full-service veterinary clinic offering companion and exotic pet care is just the kind of work setting that Joe, or Dr. Richichi as he will be called, had hoped to find. And he has seven pets to keep him company, including Blaze, an Argentine Tegu; Agent Romanov, an albino red tail boa; Vanna White, a leucistic Ball Python; two Axolotls (Mexican walking fish) named Mudkip and Wooper; and two cats named Chicken and Waffles.

Writer(s): Maya Sanaba, PVM Communications Intern, and Kevin Doerr | pvmnews@purdue.edu

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Clinical Year Student from Ross University Shares Talent as a Wildlife Artist - Purdue Veterinary News

The process of finding the right veterinarian for your pet can be daunting.

This week, The New York Times detailed the case of a veterinarian in Oregon who had decades of complaints in two states from people who said animals were harmed in his care. Many of the cases had been investigated by state veterinary boards.

Yet some of his customers, including one who reported that his dog was handled so roughly last year that it had to be euthanized, said they never realized the veterinarian had been disciplined in the past.

Records on veterinarians can be difficult to track. In some states, they are tucked away on regulatory board websites. In others, the records have to be formally requested from the licensing body. Disciplinary actions are rare, and formal complaints that do not result in action against the veterinarian are typically inaccessible to the public.

What can pet owners do to make sure their pet is in safe hands? Here are some tips, compiled from interviews and industry guidelines:

Before needing the urgent services of a veterinarian, pet owners should spend time shopping around for a veterinarian that works for their family. That might begin with online research or tips from friends, but it should also include in-person visits to potential providers.

Jennifer Reba Edwards, the founder of the Colorado-based Animal Law Center, said she liked to see whether the veterinarian got on the ground with her pets and made efforts to gain the trust of the animal. If they are rushed or quickly pass her off to a veterinary technician, Ms. Edwards said, that is a red flag.

A tour of the facility can give a sense of its organization, cleanliness and overall treatment of animals. It does not hurt to ask questions: How long have they practiced? What specialties do they have? How does the facility monitor pets that have to stay overnight? What sorts of payment options do they have?

Dr. Grace A. Mengel, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, suggested asking whether the veterinarian practiced low-stress handling, which includes strategies to make veterinary visits more calm for animals.

There are limited resources available for consumers to assess whether a veterinarian has a troubled past. But each state has a licensing body that investigates and doles out discipline.

In some states, such as California and New York, regulators have websites that allow pet owners to search for veterinarians by name and review their disciplinary history. Some states, however, do not have these online records; in those cases, there is little access to a veterinarians history of past complaints unless consumers file a request.

Online reviews can be helpful, but consumers should also be skeptical of them. One option is to check the local courts for lawsuits involving a veterinarian or facility.

Dr. Mengel said pet owners might also want to check the American Animal Hospital Association to find facilities accredited by that organization.

When its time to bring pets in for treatment, it is best to come with questions ready. Writing them down in advance can be especially helpful when dealing with a stressful visit that could involve bad news or difficult decisions.

For a pet with a specific problem, an owner may want to ask whether the veterinarian has experience with that issue. If surgery is contemplated, ask how many times the veterinarian has done the procedure. It may be advisable to see a specialist. Dr. Mengel said one question to ask ahead of a procedure is how the facility monitors pets under anesthesia.

It is important to share details about the pet. Has it had trouble sleeping? Has gas been a problem? Those small details that might not otherwise surface at a checkup could help a vet better assess the animals health.

Do not hesitate to get a second opinion about a pets care, especially when it comes to major decisions.

Ms. Edwards said she recently went to a veterinarian about a heart issue with her dog and got the news that the dog might live for only a few weeks. But after checking with a veterinarian with more specialization in the issue, she learned the dog could live for a couple of years with proper care.

For those who switch veterinarians, either because of a move or by choice, it is important to get a pets full medical history so that a new vet will have the full picture of the animals treatment history.

And for pet owners who may not be able to afford high-cost veterinary services, there are nonprofit organizations around the country that offer financial assistance.

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Has Your Veterinarian Been Accused of Malpractice? It May Be Tough to Find Out - The New York Times

For Immediate Release: February 07, 2020 Statement From:

Statement Author

Leadership Role

Commissioner of Food and Drugs - Food and Drug Administration

Genome editing is a groundbreaking technology used to introduce intentional genomic alterations in animals and has the potential to improve human and animal health, animal well-being and to enhance food production and quality. It is paramount, however, that as we move forward, we maintain standards of safety and effectiveness.

This is a tremendously exciting field. Because were committed to fostering advances in this space, we take a risk-based approach to oversight. We want to ensure that the intentional genomic alterations in animals are safe for the animal, safe for people eating food products from the animal and that the alteration does what its intended to do. Thats why we encourage sponsors to participate in our Veterinary Innovation Program, which facilitates advancements in the development of innovative animal products by providing greater clarity in the regulatory process, encouraging development and research and supporting an efficient and predictable pathway to approval.

We are taking steps to help ensure confidence in products of biotechnology and will soon be undertaking a public education campaign to help consumers learn about the safety and benefits of agricultural biotechnology products. We are committed to partnering with Americas farmers, innovators, biotechnology companies and research universities who are at the forefront of this remarkable moment of scientific advance.

The FDA is leveraging our scientific and technical expertise and regulatory experience to oversee intentional genomic alterations in animals developed using novel techniques, such as genome editing, through a timely and efficient process. The agency is a trusted global regulator and we are committed to overseeing this space in a manner that fosters innovation, promotes consumer confidence and protects the public health.

The following statement is attributed to Steven M. Solomon, DVM, MPH, director of the FDAs Center for Veterinary Medicine.

Today, the journal Nature Biotechnology published the FDA-authored analysis Template plasmid integration in germline genome-edited cattle, which describes how a bioinformatics method developed by FDA scientists was able to detect previously unreported, unintended alterations in genome-edited bulls. The analysis emphasizes the FDAs expertise and critical role in risk-based evaluation of intentional genomic alterations.

Our analysis demonstrated that genome editing in animals can have unintended consequences, and in this case, it caused foreign DNA to be integrated into the animals genomes. While the existence of an unintended alteration does not necessarily mean that the genome edit is unsafe to animals or consumers, it does show that both scientists and regulators need to be alert to the potential for such unintended alterations to take place.

A companion piece, Genome editing in animals: Why FDA regulation matters, also published today explains the value of the agencys oversight of intentional genomic alterations in animals to protect animal and human health, even when the intended modification seeks to replicate a naturally occurring mutation. The commentary further describes the FDAs intent to support innovative scientific approaches, while balancing the agencys role to protect public health through a risk-based approach.

The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nations food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.

###

02/07/2020

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FDA Expertise Advancing the Understanding of Intentional Genomic Alterations in Animals - FDA.gov

This animal, the heavily trafficked pangolin, may be the key in how the new coronavirus spread from animals to humans. USA TODAY

A Chinese university says scientistsidentified the heavily trafficked pangolin as a possible intermediary host of the new coronavirus.

The coronavirus from China is believed to have originated in bats and transferred to humans through some other animal, health officials say. The pangolin may be that key link, researchers at South China Agricultural University said Friday.

"This latest discovery will be of great significance for the prevention and control of the origin of the new coronavirus,"South China Agricultural University saidin a translated statement.

The research team tested more than 1,000 samples from wildanimals and found a 99% match between the genome sequences of virusesfound in pangolins and those in human patients, the AFP reported, citing Chinese state media.

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Coronavirus, explained: Everything you need to know about coronavirus, the deadly illness alarming the world

James Wood, a veterinary medicine professor at the University of Cambridge, told the French news agency that more data is needed and showing similarity between the genome sequences alone is "not sufficient."

"You can only draw more definitive conclusions if you compare prevalence (of the coronavirus) between different species based on representative samples, which these almost certainly are not," Dirk Pfeiffer, professor of veterinary medicine at Hong Kongs City University, told Reuters.

Li Wenliang, a Chinese doctor who was reprimanded for warning fellow doctors about the initial coronavirus outbreak, has died of the illness. USA TODAY

Pangolins, the world's only scaly mammal, havelong been valued for their meat, viewed as a delicacy in some Asian countries, and scales, used for traditional medicine, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Recent conservation efforts have worked to protect the eight pangolin species found in Asia and Africaand threatened by illegal international trade. More than 100,000 pangolins are poached every year, according toWildAid, a nonprofit that works on illegal animal trade.

Inside quarantined coronavirus cruise: 61 cases onboard; room service, TV and spotty WiFi

News of thepossible pangolin link to the coronavirus outbreak comes as the World Health Organization cautioned Fridayagainst too much optimism after a decline in new cases over recent days.

"The numbers could go up again but the last two days were showing a declining trend," said WHO's director-generalTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

China reported 31,161 cases in mainland China in its update Friday. The rise of 3,143 was the lowest daily increase since at least Tuesday.

According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University as of Friday, 34,887 people have been infected and 724 killed from the outbreak that first appeared late last year. The mortality rate of the virus is 2.1 percent. That compares to a death rate of 9.6 percent for the SARS virus that spread in 2002 and 2003.

The outbreak may have emerged from a market selling seafood and meat in Wuhan. Researcherstheorizethat someone bought contaminated meat at the market, ate it, got sick and infected others, creating a ripple effect around the world.

However, research in the British medical journal The Lancet suggests the outbreak started earlier than December and casts doubt on the market connection.

While the majority of cases and deaths have been in China, the virus has spread across continents, prompting the WHO to declare a"public health emergency of international concern."

In the United States, 12 people have been infected, per Johns Hopkins. Federal health officials confirmed last week the first U.S. case ofperson-to-person spread of the virus.

President Donald Trump tweeted Friday he "had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China" on the country's response to the coronavirus.

"He will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone," Trump tweeted.

China's state media said President Xi Jinping urged the U.S. to respond reasonably" to the virus outbreak in a phone call with President Donald Trump.

"A peoples war against the virus has been launched," Xi was quoted as saying by broadcaster CCTV, using timeworn communist terminology, according to the Associated Press. "We hope the U.S. side can assess the epidemic in a calm manner and adopt and adjust its response measures in a reasonable way."

Beijing has complained that the U.S. was flying its citizens out of Wuhan but not providing any assistance to China.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Friday that the U.S. isprepared to spend up to $100 million to assist China and other countries to contain and combat the virus. Pompeo said his department had facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to China this week.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar speaks during a press briefing on the coronavirus, in the briefing room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 31, 2020, in Washington.(Photo: Evan Vucci)

The U.S. government hasevacuated about 800 Americans from China on five chartered flights,Steve Biegun, Deputy Secretary of State, said at a Friday press conference of the President's Task Force on Coronavirus.

One flight left on Jan. 28, followed by two flights on Feb. 5 and two on Feb. 6, Biegun said.

As of Friday, officials at 11 U.S. airports had screenedmore than 17,000 passengers for coronavirus and were expected to screen about 4,000 on Friday, according to CDC director Robert Redfield.

The screening process involves more than 1,000 daily flights across400 carriers originating at 200 airports worldwide, according to Joel Szabat, Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs. More than 2,000 Americans are in or recently left China, he said.

Of the thousands of confirmed coronavirus cases, 14 locations had reported 69 patients who had not traveled to China, Redfield said.Two of those cases were in the U.S., where two people had passed the virus onto their spouses.

Health and Human Services Sec. Alex Azar said the Chinese government had not accepted the U.S.'s Jan. 6 offer to send scientists to China to assist with containment and learn more about the nature of the virus.

"At this point, it's a decision for the Chinese," Azar said."We have made the request now for almost a month."

Azar said he remained "optimistic" that the Chinese would accept American scientists.

Wuhan Central Hospital confirmed early Friday thatLi Wenliang, 34, an ophthalmologist at the epicenter of the virus outbreak, died from the virus aftercontractingit from a patient.

Li had become a national hero for alerting fellow doctors Dec. 30 in an online post about the emergence of a SARS-like illness, warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection.

Li, along with seven others in Wuhan, were later arrested by local security police on charges of spreading rumors and forced to sign a document disavowing his statements and agreeing to quit speaking out.

Li's deathhas triggered a national backlash over freedom of speech and censorship that has overwhelmed official online attempts to contain or remove the expressions of anger.

Death of doctor who warned about virus: Backlash errupts over China's censorship

Coronavirus has spread from Wuhan, China, to countries across the world. But how do you know you have it? Here are some signs to watch out for. USA TODAY

Americans trapped on Princess Cruise ship

The number of diagnosed cases of coronavirus on a Princess Cruises ship quarantined off the coast of Yokohoma, Japan, has tripled to 61, according to areport from the cruise line late Thursday.

The Japanese Ministry of Health notified Princess Cruises that an additional 41 people screened aboard the Diamond Princess have tested positive for coronavirus. Eight of those patients that have tested positive are Americans, according to the cruise line. On Wednesday, Princess Cruises confirmed 20 diagnosed cases of coronavirus on the ship, which was already under a 14-day quarantine.

Guests testing positive are expected to be taken to local hospitals immediately.

Princess cruise: Americanstest positive for coronavirus; Guam bars ship

Two Chicago coronavirus patients the first U.S. case of person-to-person spread were discharged from the hospital Friday and placed in home isolation, according to health officials.

The patients were being treated at AMITA Health St. Alexius Medical Center Hoffman Estates and were at home under the guidance of the CDC and the Illinois Department of Public Health, according to AMITA Health spokesperson Olga Solares.

"With it being an uncomfortable situation, the care and the services weve received have been great. Everyones been very kind and very respectful. This has been the best health care experience weve ever had, but were definitely looking forward to getting home and getting life back to normal," the patients said in a statement.

The cases sparked panic in Hoffman Estates, a Chicago suburb where protective face masks had been sold out for over a week.

Contributing: Adrianna Rodriguez, Jayme Deerwester, Morgan Hines and Doug Stanglin; The Associated Press

Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller and Grace Hauckon Twitter @RyanW_Millerand @grace_hauck.

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Pangolins may have spread coronavirus to humans: What to know about the Wuhan virus - USA TODAY