The university is in the early stages of a $1.36 million project to upgrade its biosafety level 3 laboratory and enhance its infectious disease research and pandemic response capacity.
Q fever naturally infects goats, sheep, and cattle. If transmitted to humans, the infection can lead to diverse clinical outcomes including flu-like symptoms, miscarriage or stillbirth in pregnant women.
A parasite often spread by domestic and wild cats is a cause of abortions, or pregnancy loss, as well as neonatal deaths in big horn sheep, according to a study led by WSU researchers.
Elis Fisk, a fourth-year anatomic pathology resident and doctoral student at Washington State University, has been accepted as a fellow in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s infectious disease and microbial immunology post-doctoral training program.
Cases of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in birds have been confirmed in Washington, and disease experts at WSU are asking the public to take measures to avoid spread.
Dr. Laura Williams, a licensed veterinarian at the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at WSU, is one of fewer than 50 veterinarians in the U.S. board certified in parasitology by the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM) and the only one in Washington.
The network is a partnership of 60 animal disease diagnostic laboratories in 42 states dedicated to the early detection of, response to, and recovery from animal health emergencies.