Inside CVM

News About People and Programs of Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine August/September 2006

Football, Fans and Feathers

The Southeastern Raptor Center is hosting educational, birds-in-flight raptor programs each Friday this fall before home football games. The programs, “Football, Fans and Feathers,” begin at 10 a.m. and noon in the 350-seat Edgar B. Carter Educational Amphitheater on Raptor Road just off Shug Jordan Parkway. Two dates have only one program, Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. and Oct. 20 at noon. Tickets are $5 and are available at the Auburn University Bookstore in Haley Center on AU’s main campus. Tickets will not be sold at the amphitheater or at the raptor center. Children under three years old are admitted free. Education specialists Roy Crowe and Marianne Murphy present the programs in the new amphitheater that has two flight towers, which allows the birds to free-fly over the crowd. Crowe and Murphy also present shows across the Southeast for schools and organizations. More information is available by calling 844-6943.

Smith receives $1 million grant

Dr. Bruce Smith of the Scott-Ritchey Research Center has been awarded a research grant by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The grant, titled "Targeted gene therapy for lymphoma," will provide $1,067,327 in support over five years. Dr. Smith and his co-investigators on the proposal, Drs. Mary Lynn Higginbotham and Annette Smith of Clinical Sciences, Drs. Curt Bird and Elizabeth Whitley of Pathobiology, and Dr. David Curiel of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will use the funding to develop new treatments for canine lymphoma using gene therapy vectors targeted to canine lymphoma cells. These vectors will be evaluated in clinical trials to determine if they are effective against this form of cancer.

Microscope wins R&D 100 Award

An optical microscopy-imaging system invented by Dr. Vitaly Vodyanoy has been selected by R&D Magazine as one of the top 100 most technologically significant products introduced last year. Dr. Vodyanoy, along with representatives of Auburn University and Aetos Technologies Inc., the commercializing company, will be honored Oct. 19 in Chicago. The new CytoViva system enables researchers to observe unaltered, living cells in extremely fine detail and without delays or extra steps for processing, which are typical of current microscopes. It is attached to an existing research microscope, so samples are viewed directly through the microscope eyepiece and are captured using a standard microscope camera. Dr. Vodyanoy is a professor in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology.

College to celebrate 100^th year in 2007

The College of Veterinary Medicine will celebrate its 100^th year as a college in 2007. Veterinary medicine at Auburn actually dates back to 1892, making it the oldest program in the South. Established as a college in 1907, more than 5,700 doctors of veterinary medicine have graduated since the first degrees were awarded in 1909. The year 1907 also marked the beginning of the college’s first Annual Conference, so this year’s event will be an extra special time for all alumni and students. Mark your calendars for April 12-15, 2007. In addition, the 30^th annual Open House is set for April 21, 2007. This is the perfect time for anyone considering a career in veterinary medicine to visit Auburn.

Bellah is interim head of Clinical Sciences

Dr. Jamie Bellah has been named interim head of the Department of Clinical Sciences. Dean Tim Boosinger recently made the announcement after former department head Dr. David Whitley decided to return to his clinical faculty position in ophthalmology. Dr. Bellah is a professor of small animal surgery and has been director of the college’s Southeastern Raptor Center for two years, a position he will continue to hold. He joined the Auburn faculty in 2003 after serving five years in private practice and 14 years at the University of Florida, where he was chief of small animal surgery. He earned his veterinary degree from Colorado State University in 1979 and received board certification in 1986 by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, of which he was president in 2002-2003.

Swaim serves as guest editor

Dr. Steve Swaim of Scott-Ritchey served as a guest editor of the July issue of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, covering wound management. Dr. D.J. Krahwinkel ’66 of the University of Tennessee was also a guest editor.

Hendrix elected AVMA vice president

Dr. Charles Hendrix of Pathobiology has been elected vice president of the American Veterinary Medical Association and will serve as the liaison to its student chapters. The association’s House of Delegates unanimously selected Dr. Hendrix during its annual meeting in July in Honolulu. He is a former Congressional Science Fellow for the association and for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Hendrix, who came to Auburn in 1981, has received the veterinary college’s Norden Distinguished Teaching Award twice and the AU Student Government Association Teacher of the Year Award twice. He has authored two textbooks, Diagnostic Veterinary Parasitology and Laboratory Procedures for Veterinary Technicians.

Boosinger named AAVMC president-elect

Dean Timothy Boosinger has been elected president-elect of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, which coordinates the national and international affairs of all 32 veterinary medical colleges in the United States and Canada. The association named Dean Boosinger and other officers in July during its summer meeting, held in conjunction with the annual convention of the American Veterinary Medical Association in Honolulu. Dean Boosinger, who joined the AU faculty in 1983, has served as veterinary dean since 1995. In 2004 he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Purdue University’s School of Veterinary Medicine. He also serves on the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Council on Education and is board certified in veterinary pathology by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists.

Stewart speaks in Budapest

Dr. Allison Stewart of Clinical Sciences was an invited speaker July 4 at Szent Istvan University Faculty of Veterinary Science in Budapest, Hungary. She consulted on equine internal medicine cases in the Clinic for Large Animals and spoke about student life at Auburn and treatment of fungal diseases of the equine respiratory tract. She also gave a presentation on validation of a low-dose adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) stimulation test in normal adult horses, which she had previously presented at the World Equine Veterinary Association annual conference in Morocco.

Officers named for AVSAB

Officers in the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior this fall are President Elizabeth Dehaye ’09, Vice President Jeremiah Alexander ’09, Secretary Nikki Boehman ’09 and Treasurer Wes Whitley ’09. They are organizing approaches to animal behavioral consulting, dog agility, obedience training, and retrieving for the sportsman.

Martin, Smith address gene therapy group

Drs. Douglas Martin and Bruce Smith of Scott-Ritchey presented posters at the annual meeting of the American Society of Gene Therapy in Baltimore, Md., May 31-June 4. Dr. Smith presented "A pseudo-exon derived from an intronic insertion is responsible for Duchenne-like muscular dystrophy in the Welsh Corgi dog” and was a co-author of a poster presented by Dr. Masaharu Nakayama of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Martin presented "Adeno-associated virus gene therapy of feline gangliosidosis.”

Research awards announced at college

The Office of Research recently announced these awards: Henry Baker, The Sweetbay Foundation, “Support for the reproductive and shelter medicine laboratory,” $71,064; Kenny Brock, Mid-Florida Biologicals Inc., “Collection of equine plasma containing antibodies,” $675,516; Fred Caldwell, Arthro Dynamic Technologies Inc., “Safety evaluation of Polyglycan in horses,” $11,000; Clint Lothrop, NIH, “Elastase and B3A function in cyclic hematopoietic dogs,” $320,781; Jishu Shi, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, “Role of defensins in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease,” $88,500.

Ruffin, Stewart receive Breedon Grant

Drs. Debra Ruffin and Allison Stewart of the Clinical Sciences equine section recently received a $2,000 Breedon Teaching Grant titled “Large animal neurologic dysfunction in motion,” to create a CD for the enhancement of teaching veterinary students.

Residents pass ACVIM exams

Congratulations to the Clinical Sciences residents who recently passed the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine examinations. Dr. Patricia Salazar, equine medicine, passed both the ACVIM general examination and certifying examination. Dr. Isabel Hurtado, equine medicine, successfully completed the ACVIM general examination. Dr. Lisa Tieber-Nielson, neurology and neurosurgery, passed the neurology certifying examination.

Merial donates to shelter program

Merial has donated vaccines, Frontline, Previcox, Heartguard, Immiticide and other products to the Animal Welfare Action Committee shelter program for this year. The college thanks Merial for their continuing support. They have made similar donations in previous years, and have been generous again this year.

Veterinary development sets new goal

Auburn is in the middle of its largest fundraising effort ever, and once again the veterinary college is leading the way. The initial goal for the college was set at $17 million, yet it had raised $19.3 million as of Aug. 14. In light of this success, the college has a new goal of $25 million. For more information, contact Sam Hendrix at samhendrix@auburn.edu.

Return To News