Driving animal, human and environmental health forward

Morriston resident Valerie Frederick, still haunted by the death of a beloved Friesian colt that succumbed to colic several years ago, was in danger of losing a stallion to the same illness. She put her trust in a distinguished professor of equine surgery at UF who employed a technique he developed at the university, one that has only been used a handful of times due to its difficulty.

According to a new University of Florida study comparing two types of ancestral origins of patients from a Florida population infected with COVID-19, your susceptibility to the virus isn’t impacted by whether your ancestors were Black or white.

Dr. Jon Kim joined the UF College of Veterinary Medicine faculty through the school’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative. In his new role at UF, Kim will focus on developing novel diagnostic and clinical applications in the field of comparative oncology and translational medicine by utilizing AI and machine learning. We sat down with Kim to ask him about his exciting new endeavors at our university.

Florida has many invasive species, with Burmese pythons being one of the best known. However, while impacts of these reptiles are often framed in terms of threats they pose to the environment or other species due to habitat encroachment, the risks of diseases associated with emerging pathogens they carry are worthy of further study.

Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) affects millions of Americans, and current treatment options are ineffective for many patients. Patients with this syndrome suffer from chronic pain that severely affects quality of life. Dr. Aaron Mickle, an assistant professor of physiological sciences, incorporates multiple techniques at the system and cellular level to answer questions related to mechanisms of bladder sensory function and pain.

Osteosarcoma is the most common form of bone cancer in dogs. Building on technology he originally developed to treat melanoma in animals, UF’s Rowan Milner developed a vaccine to treat osteosarcoma in dogs. Rather than being administered to prevent a dog from developing cancer, it is given to a dog to treat cancer once it has developed. He discusses promising results from years of studies and what’s ahead to improve survival for dogs with this aggressive form of cancer.

Veterinary colleges are increasingly requested to respond to animal issues related to natural and man-made disasters. Dr. Lawrence Garcia, medical director of the UF Veterinary Emergency Treatment Service (VETS) Team, recently led his team on a 10-day deployment to Fort Myers in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. He discusses the many reasons why a well-trained disaster response team is important for veterinary colleges to have.

Asthma attacks account for nearly one-third of all asthma deaths. Anxiety is a common comorbidity in asthma, but despite links between asthma attacks and anxiety, there have been few studies in the asthma field of the amygdala, the brain region that initiates anxiety. UF’s Leah Reznikov, an associate professor of physiological sciences, discusses how her research aims to tackle that considerable gap with the goal of developing new approaches to treat asthma and reduce patient deaths.

The dangerous rat lungworm parasite is showing up in a growing number of species, including giant African snails and invasive Cuban treefrogs in Florida. Heather Walden, a University of Florida parasitologist and an expert in the rat lungworm parasite, shares what this means to human and animal health, as well as to the environment.