Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
South Eastern (SE) California represents the majority of California's commercial layer industry. This area has been severely affected by virulent Newcastle Disease (vND) (1971-1974, 2002-2003 and 2018-2020) which has resulted in the depopulation of millions of domestic and commercial poultry in addition to economic and trade losses. From a demographic perspective, SE California is a minority-majority population with a relatively high poverty rate. One of the historic and current challenges of dealing with vND outbreaks in these affected areas is the reality that the community "looks and talks" much differently than the state and federal veterinarians who respond to the outbreak. This has led to high levels of distrust between the community and various stakeholders. Among food animal veterinarians, poultry veterinarians are in demand across the U.S. While increasing the number of poultry veterinarians is important, it is equally important to recognize that the next generation of poultry veterinarians will need a variety of skill sets (e.g. multi-lingual, knowledge of disease modeling, broader social links and awareness to different communities) to effectively respond to these types of outbreaks. Here we propose to develop a novel outreach strategy for 11th and 12th graders in collaboration with the CJUSD and CNUSD. Curriculum will focus on vND disease modeling via a game-based approach and on developing social skills related to dealing with a "poultry pandemic" via a documentary we are filming in the affected areas. Our goal is to recruit the next-generation of poultry veterinarians in this important under-served area.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Increase the interest in poultry medicine in a highly strategic area with respect to commercial poultry productionBroaden the skill-set of the next generation of poultry veterinarians by integrating relevant subject areas (epidemiology, social, biology of wild-birds) that are not a focus in the curriculum of current poultry veterinary training programs.
Project Methods
Participants will be 11th and 12th grade students from CJUSD and CNUSD which are within the quarantine zone of the 2018-2020 vND outbreak and live in a county that is one of the largest with respect to commercial poultry in the state.The majority of the participating students will come from the Veterinary Science, Patient Care and Technology courses which are both offered at the schools. Currently there are over 400 students in these courses which are offered at the schools. However, we will also work with faculty at the high schools to identify students not in those programs who may have interests in the proposed curriculum. As one of our goals is to broaden the skill set of students who have exposure to poultry medicine we will encourage students with ancillary areas of interest including computer science, math, engineering and various community/social science interests to participate also.In order to most efficiently develop and deliver a relevant, fun and novel 4-session/year workshop for 11th and 12th graders with the goal of increasing interest in poultry medicine in 4 high schools that are within 2018-2020 vND quarantine zone, we have developed the following approaches (note: logistics and key roles are listed in the management and collaboration plan).Workshop #1 Gamification. In order to better describe how disease modeling works for an 11th and 12th grade audience, we will offer in-kind support to modify our current disease modeling software, Interspread Plus® (ISP) to a digital game (Figure 2) via gamification with the goal of showing how a standard Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered (SEIR) model is used by veterinarians to manage/plan during an outbreak. Specifically, gamification of the Interspread Plus® (ISP) disease modeling software will be developed in such a way by our lab as to allow users to understand various epidemiological techniques in a fun and collaborative way (Figure 2). As background we currently are using Interspread Plus® (ISP) to better understand the efficacy of different vaccination strategies against vND. The ability to develop relevant scenarios for students will allow the students to understand the basics of epidemiological disease modeling without having to learn basic coding or paying a high license fee for disease modeling software.Workshop #2: Documentary: Watch and discuss a documentary being produced by the Pitesky lab (ETA on completion summer of 2023) titled "People, Poultry and Plague: How virulent Newcastle Disease Affected Southern California's and their chickens" Co-director Ms. Theresa Valdez will present the documentary and then lead a discussion on the societal challenges and stressors that previous vND outbreaks have caused in the affected area which overlaps with the CNUSD School District.Workshop #3: Learn how to use open-source wild-bird tracking software. Most commercial poultry veterinarians have little to no training in technologies/tools associated with wild-bird monitoring. As many diseases (e.g. vND and HPAI) are spread from wild-birds to domestic poultry, understanding how these tools work is an important skill that the next generation of poultry veterinarian will need.Workshop #4: vND Animal Disease Outbreak Table Top Exercise. Students will randomly be assigned a role in a gamified version of a poultry disease outbreak. A hypothetical vND outbreak will be simulated. Students will play different roles (state/federal regulatory veterinarians, private veterinarians, concerned citizens) with the goal of learning how an outbreak response happens and the important role that poultry veterinarians play. In addition, due to the nature of these outbreaks the topics covered in the previous workshops will be integrated into the decision-making process the students will have to make. Students will have the opportunity to try different roles and a series of different vND outbreak scenarios will be incorporated into the exercise. Representatives from various stakeholder groups will be invited to participate including the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), USDA, commercial poultry companies, University extension among others. The goal of the exercise is to make the scenario and the exercise as realistic and "hands on" as possible.