Source: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS submitted to
VETERINARY MICROBIOLOGY RESIDENCY PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS VETERINARY DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
NEW
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1027107
Grant No.
2021-70024-35413
Project No.
ILLV726-100
Proposal No.
2021-06111
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
VSGPE
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2021
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2024
Grant Year
2021
Project Director
Wang, L.
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
2001 S. Lincoln Ave.
URBANA,IL 61801
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
This proposal is to request funding to establish the Veterinary Microbiology Residency Program (VMRP) at the University of Illinois Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (UI VDL). The primary aim of this program is to provide opportunities for veterinarians to receive professional training in clinical microbiology and further increase the members of microbiologists certified by American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM). Board-certified veterinary microbiologists help to guard U.S. animal and public health through sentineling foreign animal diseases, identifying the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pathogens, and expanding our knowledge in potential zoonotic disease spread. The UI VDL is located in central Illinois, an agriculturally-rich region of the U.S. with a critical priority (IL215) for the veterinarian shortage situation. The UI VDL serves veterinary practitioners, livestock producers, public health officials, and researchers and educates professional students, graduate students, anatomic and clinical pathology residents. In addition to the main laboratory in Urbana, the UI VDL has a Zoological Pathology Program and a satellite clinical pathology laboratory in the Chicago area. These three laboratory facilities provide a large number of food animal cases and training materials for the proposed VMRP. Moreover, university researchers will provide collaborative research opportunities for VMRP. The microbiology residents will be trained by two ACVM diplomates, with additional support from one microbiologist, one virologist, twelve veterinary pathologists, and one board-certified veterinary practitioners in the food animal field. This project will train the clinical veterinary microbiologists to fill the needs in veterinary diagnostic discipline.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
31140993020100%
Knowledge Area
311 - Animal Diseases;

Subject Of Investigation
4099 - Microorganisms, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
The primary aim of this program is to provide opportunities for veterinarians to receive professional training in clinical microbiology and further increase the members of microbiologists certified by American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM). We will train 2 Veterinary Microbiology Residents as part of a 2-year residency program over the 3 years of the granting period. Training will primarily occur at the UI VDL, which is located in central Illinois.
Project Methods
We propose to train 2 individuals during three years' time period with 1-year overlapping to enhance individual training. This will be a non-degree veterinary microbiology residency training program at the UI VDL.Training of ACVM residents will take place in the VDL under the direct supervision of two faculty members certified by ACVM. Each resident will be assigned a faculty advisory committee consisting of at least three members listed in this proposal. The training is interdisciplinary and accomplished by training in four major subjects 1) virology 2) bacteriology/mycology 3) serology (immunology), and 4) molecular diagnostics at UI VDL to meet the requirement of ACVM Board Examination and curriculum.Case responsibility:The resident has case responsibility set forth by ACVM: the resident will be expected to participate in routine daily basis diagnostic responsibilities to develop comprehensive knowledge in clinical microbiology, including sample receiving, sample preparation, performance of essential tests, client communication, result reporting, and case interpretation. Additionally, the resident will work with the program supervisors in case consultation, trouble shooting, and leadership development. As UI VDL frequently receives request from researchers to provide service contract on vaccine efficacy evaluation study using serological or pathogen detection by PCR or culture, the residents will participate in related projects to gain experience on infectious disease control and prevention. Furthermore, the resident will participate in field case investigation with veterinary practitioner certified in food animal specialty to earn the clinical experience in food animal disease diagnosis.Presentations:In addition to spending time on the bench learning traditional and contemporary clinical diagnosis and field case investigations, the resident will also be required to give professional presentations in formal rounds, resident seminars, journal clubs, student lectures and focused presentations in an area of the recognized veterinary specialty. A minimum of four (4) presentations of at least fifteen (15) minutes duration in a formal setting during their residency, and one presentation of at least 60 minutes after the first year of their residency are required. The residents will be required to present at the Illinois Fall Conference for Veterinarians, which is held in Urbana each year for veterinary practitioners. Additionally, the residents can present in Annual Carthage Veterinary Service Swine Conference held in Macomb, Illinois and Annual Meeting of Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association held in Tinley Park, Illinois. Each year the residents will participate in a national meeting: either American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians annual meeting or Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases.Publications:This training program will require the resident to earn at least one publication as the first author in peer-reviewed journals. Acceptable peer reviewed publications include: 1. Original research, 2. Comprehensive retrospective studies, 3. Case Reports, 4. Short/brief communications, or 5. Comprehensive Review Article.Approaches for recruiting residents:The UI VDL is located 135 miles south of Chicago, 124 miles west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri, where located in Midwest of US, a well-known agriculture thrive area (in total 12 states with a population 65,377,684). This provides a geographical advantage for this proposed program to recruit local or nearby state candidates with enthusiasm in animal disease prevention, detection, and diagnosis.We will recruit students though a proven, multiprong approach. The college and specifically the UI VDL have an expansive and active clinical research program for veterinary students though our Applied Livestock Epidemiology Laboratory. This program has proven to be a fertile recruiting ground for veterinary students seeking further training by exposing them to the use of advanced molecular, virology, bacterio and immunology techniques in clinical practice. In addition, the UI CVM is the recognized leader for intensive knowledge transfer programs in food supply veterinary medicine. The college has an extensive ongoing marketing program for its applied post-graduate training, both the Master of Veterinary Science Degree and the Executive Veterinary Program, which produce a significant number of contacts with veterinarians interested in post graduate training. We will offer the residency as part of the menu of offerings available at Illinois which will complement our current offerings for our wide range of post graduate learners. Finally, we will conduct specific recruitment efforts for the residency by promoting it on announcements on university (UI) and veterinary professional websites (e.g. AAVLD, ACVM and AVMA) and through specialty electronic mailing lists (e.g. ACVM diplomate group, American Board of Veterinary Practitioners group, American Association of Swine Veterinarians group, American Association of Bovine Practitioners group, clinical pathology residents' group, and Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association).Selecting resident candidates:Applicants must have a DVM or equivalent degree. Residents will be chosen by the UI VDL ACVM board certified faculty members. Criteria used for selecting the residents may include academic records, three reference letters, and overall interest for the position including potential for the candidate to enter into a career providing diagnostic service to livestock sector in a rural/food animal area in US. Interview will be implemented via video-conferencing, phone or onsite interviews. A survey of candidates' career goals will be conducted during the interview process. The applicant who possesses strong interests and passion in providing services in agricultural or livestock sector and plans to work in the US governmental or state-funded diagnostic lab in the future will be considered as a potential candidate. The selection process will follow the HR guidance of University of Illinois to match the requirement of equal opportunity.

Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:1. Recruiting Veterinary Microbiology Resident candidate: We are actively working recruting resident candidates by posting the resident position advertisement on AAVLD and AVMA in Sep of 2022 and Jan of 2023. We promoted the position by sending the advertisement to group list of UIUC Vet School 3rd year and 4th year Vet students in Oct of 2022. We also promote our Veterinary Microbiology Residence position at 2023 Student AVMA annual symposium by posting the position in the symposium website in March of 2023. From Sep of 2022 to May 26, of 2023, UIUC Vet Med college newsletter promoted Featured Hiring Opportunities including our Veterinary Microbiology program position. 2. Training the first UIUC Vet Med Veterinary Microbiology Resident We had one candidate applied our program in March of 2023, and we went though interview process. The candiate Antonio Leonardi-Cattolica started the residency on April 19, 2023. It has been over 1.5 months since his start. He went through internal training on our diagnostic lab quality assurance and quanlty control, lab safety training, and now is getting training as planned in the project proposal. We also registered him at American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM) and he will take board exams after completing the training program. Following the ACVM requirement, we will send training update to ACVM semiannually. Changes/Problems:Although we are facing challenges to recruit the veterinary microbiology resident candidate, we made progress and got the excellent candidate in the program in this year and we will continue to look for the second candidate. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Since he started on April, 2023, Antonio Leonardi-Cattolica has completed quanltiy assurance/control requried by AAVLD accrediation and lab safety training. At the very beginning, he was shadowed on the necropsy floor to learn the sample colllection for microbiology testing. Currently, he has been trained on molecular virology and bateria, and will rotate in virology and bacteriology later. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will plan to continue to post our residency position at AAVLD and AVMA to look for and hire the second resident candidate.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have sucessfully hired the first veterinary microbiology resident Antonio Leonardi-Cattolica. He started on April 19, 2023 and is getting training in veterinary microbiology at UIUC VDL as planned. He is doing well since he started. We registered him at ACVM as a resident and will send semiannual progress about his training to ACVM as required.

Publications


    Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Since the start of the project in last Sep, we worked on the residency position and posted the advertisement three times, Oct of 2021, Dec of 2021, and Feb of 2022. In the meantime, we posted our residency program at American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM) Residency Program site (https://www.acvm.us/residency-programs/), and University of Illinois Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Website (https://vdl.vetmed.illinois.edu/pages/microbiology-residency-program). The residency position advertisement was also distributed twice through ACVM group list, ACVP platform, Honor society(https://jobs.honorsociety.org/job/veterinary-microbiology-residency/59201722/), UIUC Vet school senior student list. We have submitted registration of our Veterinary Microbiology Residency program to ACVM secretary through Route 3. Changes/Problems:Since the Veterinary Microbiology Residency is growing with potential, there is difficult in recruiting the dometic applicant. This problem was present in all current US veterinary microbiology resdiency program. We do see other residency programs increase the salary such as Michigan State University offer $42,000/year. As mentioned, we will continue to distribute our residency program to more DVM students through different platforms. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project will provide the resident Veterinary Microbiology Training in Bacterology, Virology and Immunology areas. The first step is to find the interested candiates, and then provide training on them. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will post our job ad to AVMA site to attract more domestic candidates and will distribute our residency program informaiton to more platforms such as sending it to senior students at different vet school. We will consider increading the resident's salary to atrract potential candiate which means UI VDL will be resposible for the inreased part. Once we find the candidate, we will start microbiology training in different sections of UI VDL.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? In total, we received three international applicants in the first search. They were from India, Ghana, and Iran. There was no new application received in the second search. In the third search, two persons from India and South Korea showed interests in our residency program. In May of 2022, two persons from India and Portugal sent over their CV files to query the residency opportunity. We got one query email from a DVM student at Colorado State University graduating in 2023 and potential will have a visit to UI VDL during the 2023 SAVMA Symposium at Urbana.

    Publications