It’s feeding time at the University of Pennsylvania’s Swine Teaching and Research Center in Chester County’s horse country.
Actually, it’s always feeding time in this loose pig environment. Sow gestation stalls are gone, free-roaming pig pens are in. The sow decides when she wants to eat, not the other way around.
Penn Vet and the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) recently initiated the Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program (WFP), a new science-based, wildlife health program that will increase disease surveillance, management and innovative research aimed at better protecting wildlife across the Commonwealth.
Given the dazzling array of dog breeds, from dachshunds to mastiffs, from poodles to bloodhounds, it’s easy to forget that most of that diversity arose only in the last few centuries or so, thanks to human tinkering. People have bred dogs for their looks, but the lion’s share of breeding efforts have taken aim at eliciting particular behaviors, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s James A. Serpell.
Creating an effective gene therapy for inherited diseases requires three key steps. First, scientists must identify and characterize the disease. Second, they must find the gene responsible. And finally, they must find a way to correct the impairment.
State Veterinarian Dr. Kevin Brightbill and Dean Andrew Hoffman talk shop.
[KENNETT SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA] – Equine athletes of all ages and disciplines are susceptible to musculoskeletal injuries. Because of the limited healing capabilities of the tissues most often affected in these types of injuries – tendons, ligaments, and cartilage – avoiding continuous degeneration or re-injury can be challenging.
[STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA] — A Pennsylvania poultry farmer got an unwelcome Christmas present from his laying hens last year. Egg production dropped by a quarter, and some of his 36,000 chickens died.
[PHILADELPHIA, September 12, 2019] - A new core facility, the first on the east coast to exclusively focus on the isolation and characterization of extracellular vesicles, has opened at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet). The Extracellular Vesicle Core Facility at Penn Vet supports investigators with the necessary scientific and technical capabilities to define, standardize and monitor research in pathological and physiological conditions.
Nearly two decades ago, a gene therapy restored vision to Lancelot, a Briard dog who was born with a blinding disease. This ushered in a period of hope and progress for the field of gene therapy aimed at curing blindness, which culminated in the 2017 approval of a gene therapy that improved vision in people with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a rare, inherited form of blindness closely related to the condition seen in Lancelot. It represents the first FDA-approved gene therapy for an inherited genetic disease.
Much remains mysterious about the factors influencing human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but one aspect that has emerged as a key contributor is the gut microbiome, the collection of microorganisms dwelling in the intestines.
Preventing a parasite-related disease is paramount to maintaining your horse’s optimal health. But as concern for parasite resistance has grown and approaches to proper de-worming strategies evolve, how do you know if your management practices are the best for your horse?
The 2019 Pennsylvania Poultry Sales and Service Conference and the 91st Northeastern Conference on Avian Diseases (NECAD) will be held Sept. 11 and 12 in State College.
Some cases of the flu are so severe they cause lasting injury to the lungs. New research from the University of Pennsylvania now points to a strategy that may one day offer protection against this damage.
White-nose syndrome has killed 99 percent of most cave-bat species.
Chronic wasting disease continues to spread to new parts of Pennsylvania, infecting and killing deer and threatening hunting tradition.
In August 2019, Penn Vet and the Game Commission announced the Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program, a new science-based, wildlife health program that will increase disease surveillance, management and research to better protect wildlife across the Commonwealth.
From navigating colic emergencies to pioneering the future of equine imaging, equine enthusiasts of all backgrounds and experience levels are invited to learn from New Bolton Center’s leading equine healthcare experts during the 2019-2020 First Tuesday Lecture series.
The Leukemia Research Foundation is proud to announce a grant of $100,000 in blood cancer research funding to M. Andres Blanco, Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine in Philadelphia, PA, for the research project titled Dual Targeting of LSD1 and KAT6A to Induce Therapeutic Differentiation in AML. The one-year grant is awarded through the Foundation’s Hollis Brownstein Research Grants Program for New Investigators.
A group of microorganisms known as kinetoplastids includes the parasites that cause devastating diseases such as African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis. They share an ability to adhere to the insides of their insect hosts, using a specialized protein structure. But what if scientists could prevent the parasite from adhering? Would the parasites pass right through the vectors, unable to be passed on to a human?
A veterinary student conducting research into stem cell repair, another studying the use of CAR T cells against canine B cell lymphoma, and a student with an interest in equine neuromuscular disorders and protein aggregate diseases are being recognized for their efforts -- and the promise they hold -- by Boehringer Ingelheim’s Animal Health business.
Many dinosaur species are known from scant remains, with some estimates suggesting 75% are known from five or fewer individuals. Auroraceratops rugosus was typical in this regard when it was named in 2005 based upon a single skull from the Gobi Desert in northwestern China. But that is no longer the case.