Performing Department
Veterinary Sciences
Non Technical Summary
The importance of accurate animal disease diagnosis to animal and public health cannot be overstated. Knowledge of what is causing disease in a particular case, and how that cause is related to other cases, to the environment and to human health is key to implementing effective disease control measures. The Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory (WSVL) is an AAVLD-accredited, full-service laboratory and a member of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) located within the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Wyoming. It is the only diagnostic laboratory of its kind in Wyoming. WSVL's strength is in diseases at the interface of livestock and wildlife populations. Given that animal, human, and environmental health are interrelated, WSVL's focus includes diseases that occur at the wildlife/livestock/companion animal/human interface. The mission of the WSVL, is therefore: 1) timely and accurate diagnosis and reporting of disease in all animal species, and 2) surveillance for high-impact animal diseases, including emerging diseases, zoonotic diseases, agents of bioterrorism, diseases that can adversely affect animal production and wildlife management/tourism, and animal diseases that signal poor environmental health. To accomplish this mission requires that we access diagnostic samples representative of the diverse animal species and their diseases that occur in Wyoming, and apply technologically advanced diagnostic methods and approaches to obtain a detailed diagnosis. WSVL receives an ever-increasing number of samples for routine diagnostic investigation, typically from over 60 mammalian species every year. While our faculty and staff are often able to provide a diagnosis using standard methods, a small proportion of these cases remain undiagnosed. The cost to our clients of more advanced testing is a barrier to costly, technologically advanced diagnostic workups. The potential result is that submissions to the WSVL may not accurately reflect the incidence of animal disease across Wyoming. We propose to use Animal Health funds to: 1) implement enhanced, technologically advanced diagnostic testing; 2) adapt and develop advanced diagnostic tests; and 3) provide case material and disease knowledge to inform research and management efforts to control diseases important to the State of Wyoming.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The economic realities of animal production, companion animal ownership, and wildlife management often prevent comprehensive examination and diagnosis of disease in domestic animals and wildlife. This may, in turn, seriously compromise monitoring and tracking of animal disease in Wyoming and the region. The funds requested in this proposal will enable the WSVL to pursue enhanced diagnostic testing that would otherwise be outside our clients' budgets. Funds will also help maintain and expand the capabilities of the WSVL to provide state of the art diagnostic testing across the major animal species. Our overarching goal, therefore, is to use Animal Health funding to lessen the influence of cost on animal disease investigations, and to help defray the cost of maintaining the infrastructure needed for comprehensive evaluation of cases of infectious and other diseases.Our specific objectives are to:Investigate beyond routine diagnostic procedures to determine the cause of naturally occurring diseases in wildlife and domestic animals, especially those which may be emerging, occur as outbreaks and/or have unusual clinical presentations.Adopt and develop advanced technology for use in diagnostic disease investigations.Utilize results of diagnostic disease investigations to identify key applied and basic research questions.Achievement of these goals will provide important information on common, reportable or otherwise high-impact animal and zoonotic diseases for livestock producers, companion animal owners, wildlife managers, public health officials, and state and federal animal health professionals. Knowledge gained from animal disease surveillance and case investigations will be used for teaching and will be disseminated at public and scientific meetings, and through lay and scientific publications.
Project Methods
Case submissions to the WSVL and associated materials provide the raw material for the investigations to be funded by this proposal. Case submissions typically result in some combination of pathology, toxicology, virology, bacteriology, and/or parasitology, as well as laboratory support from clinical pathology and electron microscopy. Case histories, epidemiologic information and environmental data are also commonly part of these analyses. Depending on the nature and severity of the health problem, diagnosticians or animal managers/owners may go to the field to collect additional samples and case history. After initial characterization of the disease in individual animals, epidemiology can be used to put the disease occurrence into perspective, accounting for animal populations or animal/human interaction. As an investigation evolves, other health professionals from the Wyoming Department of Health, Wyoming Livestock Board, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, or federal agencies may be involved in sampling, data collection, or reporting as the situation dictates.When routine investigation of a case does not result in a clear diagnosis, or there is further characterization required to gain more complete understanding of the disease, a decision may be made to perform more technologically advanced diagnostic approaches. One of the primary approaches utilized will be next generation sequencing (NGS). Using grant funding from NIFA-NAHLN, the WSVL has recently obtained two NGS platforms, an Illumina iSeq 100, and an Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION Mk1C. Depending on the particular circumstances of the case, these would be used for genomic, metagenomic, targeted and/or transcriptomic sequencing of either host or pathogen nucleic acid. From this we may identify unrecognized pathogens, assess relatedness of pathogens, define the pathogenic process in a case, identify possible genotypes influencing disease outcome and other information important to the diagnosis and interpretation of a case. This information may be combined with other advanced diagnostics such as MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, molecular serology, ICP-MS mass spectrometry and others available in the WSVL and cooperating labs.The proposed studies utilize diagnostic submissions from naturally occurring disease events and do not require IACUC approval. In the event that additional non-diagnostic sampling is required, specific protocols will be submitted to the IACUC for approval prior to initiation of sampling.