In addition to its teaching, healing and research missions, the College of Veterinary Medicine plays an integral role in safeguarding Missouri’s animal agriculture and public health.
NEWS
CVM Raptor Rehab Houses Harlan’s Hawk for More than 35 Years
The University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Raptor Rehabilitation Project is tasked with the rehabilitation of hawks, eagles, owls and other raptors that are brought to the facility, with the goal of eventually returning them to the wild. However, there are times when birds are not able to be released due to their condition. That was the case for J.D., a Harlan’s hawk, which is a sub-species of the red tail hawk. A Missouri Department of Conservation agent brought J.D. to Mizzou in 1986 after the hawk was found along a roadside. Lizette Somer, a community volunteer with the…
BREATHE Easy: VHC Internal Medicine Specialists Launch New Clinic
In March 2021, Steve Kasper’s 9-year-old beagle mix, Spirit, began refusing to go on her daily 4-mile walk. Suddenly, Spirit was easily getting winded. Based on her clinical picture and the appearance of her lungs on radiographs, her veterinarian suspected the dog had contracted a fungal infection and referred Kasper, of Battlefield, Missouri, and Spirit to the MU Veterinary Health Center. Aida Vientós-Plotts, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, assistant professor of small animal internal medicine, ran a series of diagnostic tests on Spirit including a computed tomography (CT) scan of her chest. Based on those findings, she suspected that the dog had…
Groundbreaking Ceremony Celebrates Diagnostic Laboratory Addition
The University of Missouri held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday to mark the beginning of a project to expand and renovate the College of Veterinary Medicine Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. Plans include building a 34,200-gross-square-foot addition to the existing building, which will also undergo renovations. The cost of the project is $30 million, which is being funded by the State of Missouri, which provided $15 million, the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, which contributed $10 million, private gifts totaling $3.5 million, and the University of Missouri, which provided $1.5 million. The existing VMDL was constructed in 1974 and comprises 21,144 gross…
MU VMDL Earns Five-Year Accreditation from AAVLD
The American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians recently awarded a renewal of full accreditation to the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. The renewal is a five-year accreditation of the facility and its operators. The VMDL’s previous accreditation cycle ends Dec. 31, 2022. The renewal runs from January 2023 to December 2027. The current facility has space and biosecurity limitations. However, groundbreaking for a $30 million renovation and expansion of the VMDL will take place on Friday, Sept. 14. The AAVLD considered the 34,200-square-foot expansion plans when evaluating the capacity of the current facility. The…
MU Tracking Spread of Bird Flu, One Test at a Time
MU Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab helps identify avian influenza among Missouri poultry. Throughout the country, an extremely infectious disease called highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been circulating rapidly among flocks of chicken and turkeys.While the disease poses little risk to humans, it presents a serious threat to infected birds as well as the nation’s poultry industry, which is already facing supply chain disruptions. At the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, the Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (VMDL) is on the frontlines, tracking the disease and alerting veterinary officials to confirmed cases of the virus in poultry. When the…
CVM Participates in Large Multi-center Congestive Heart Failure Trial
The University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine is participating in a large multi-center clinical trial that focuses on treating dogs experiencing heart failure. The trial is titled, “Clinical Field Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness and Safety of Torsemide Compared to Furosemide for the Treatment of Pulmonary Edema Related to Congestive Heart Failure.” The CVM and approximately 20 other participating sites in the United States are targeting client dogs that are experiencing newly onset congestive heart failure to participate in this trial. Stacey Leach, DVM, associate teaching professor of veterinary cardiology, says both new and past clients are eligible to…
MU Lab Aids Surveillance Efforts for Deadly African Swine Fever
Recent reports of African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks in the Dominican Republic and Haiti have heightened surveillance efforts for the highly contagious viral swine disease in the United States. University of Missouri’s Shuping Zhang, professor and director of the Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (VMDL) in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, explains the dangers of ASF and the role the VMDL plays in testing for the virus to help protect animal health and the country’s agriculture industry. What is African Swine Fever and why is it so concerning? ASF is a highly infectious and deadly viral disease that affects both…
How the CVM has Continued to Thrive Through COVID-19
From March 2020 through today and into the future, COVID-19 has changed the lives of everyone at the University of Missouri and across the country. Throughout the pandemic, the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine has striven to provide students with an education and experiences equal to those they would have received if it had not happened. CVM Dean Carolyn Henry, DVM, MS, said while this process has not been easy, the CVM has been able to move through it successfully. “Going into this, there was a perception that because the experience was going to be different for our…
Expert Comment: Pet Food Recalled After MU Researcher Finds Contamination
Following an alert by a University of Missouri veterinary toxicology expert working in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Midwestern Pet Foods, Inc. voluntarily recalled some of their Sportmix brand of pet food on Dec. 30, 2020. The FDA launched a formal investigation to identify all Sportmix pet food products containing potentially fatal levels of aflatoxin, a fungal toxin that can be poisonous if consumed by animals or humans. The FDA is now aware of more than 30 canine deaths and 8 illnesses in dogs, located in multiple states, that ate…
CVM Community’s Efforts Assist Veterans
CVM Provides Free Eye-Exams for Military Service Dogs The University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Comparative Ophthalmology program has done its part to assist military service dogs. Elizabeth Giuliano, DVM, MS, DACVO, professor and section chief of the Comparative Ophthalmology Service at the MU Veterinary Health Center, has diligently worked with both clinical and basic science faculty for more than a decade to provide specialist services through her collaborations with both clinicians and vision-science researchers. “The ophthalmology section has provided free exams to military service dogs through a program organized by the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists since 2011,”…
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