Life Sciences Commons^™

Clinical And Subclinical Mastitis Causing Pathogens In Tennessee Dairy Cattle, Michelle Marie Untch

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Milk quality impacts the producers and consumers. Higher milk quality leads to a longer shelf life, improved cheese making ability, and improved taste. Milk quality can be severely impacted by intramammary infections which can result in mastitis. Identifying the common mastitis causing pathogens in milk samples collected from subclinical and clinical mastitis cases can assist the producer in managing mastitis. This can lead to improved milk quality, improved cow health, and reduced need for antibiotics to treat mastitis. This study investigates the prevalence of bacteria causing intramammary infection in dairy cattle of Tennessee. Milk samples were collected from 9 farms …

Histomonas Elisa, Jessica L Martinez

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Histomonas meleagridis is a protozoan parasite of avians and is the causative agent in Histomonosis, commonly known as Blackhead Disease. Current methods for diagnosing the presence of H. meleagridis are limited to parasite culture or Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to amplify target DNA. This project aims to develop an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for faster and more sensitive diagnosis of Histomonas infections. Cultures of H. meleagridis parasites were purified, and surface antigens were extracted using a spectrum of chemical solutions. The various antigen solutions were subjected to an ELISA, with serum from birds immunized for H. meleagridis as positive controls. …

Design Of A Mobile Shade And Cooling Structure For Grazing Dairy Herds, William Barbour, Ellen Moore, Jay Mcmillan

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

The U.S. organic dairy industry has experienced significant growth in recent years: over 10% growth annually since 2009 and 14.5% from 2010 to 2011; total market share is approximately 5% in the United States. The USDA places certain requirements on diary products that are certified organic, some of which are aimed at grazing practices. One challenge farmers must overcome to comply is keeping the cows in optimum conditions in a free-range grazing scenario; poor conditions such as excessive heat can decrease milk production and pose an economic burden on the dairy. The proposed system intends to control environmental conditions for …

The Link, One Health, And Social Capital: A New Strategy For Empathy Education And Social Work, Phil Arkow

International Veterinary Social Work Summit

For 150 years, animal welfare and veterinary advocates have promoted a doctrine that animal welfare will be enhanced by teaching children kindness to animals and responsible animal husbandry practices. However, these efforts have been stymied by societal and professional perceptions that “animal” causes are less worthy than “human” services. Ten significant challenges have made it difficult, if not impossible, to gain access to educators’ curricula and social work training. In a society that continues to place humans’ interests above animals’, it is time to try a new approach that focuses on the human benefits of animal welfare. In particular, a …

Natural Dog Training Provides New Ways To Understand And Manage Stresses Of Canine Assistance Work, Jean Marie Thompson, Kevin Behan

International Veterinary Social Work Summit

Limiting dis-stress experienced by assisted therapy, crisis response, and combat comfort dogs is a concern of handlers, organizations, and researchers. Dogs communicate feelings via body language especially muzzle expressions and physical behaviors that people and other animals recognize. Projection of dis-stress by dogs negatively impacts therapeutic interactions, distracting and detracting from beneficial flow of feelings. Dog welfare is risked. Behan's Natural Dog Training ("NDT") presents an alternative paradigm for understanding dog dis-stress. NDT is an energy flow model that is different from but compatible with positive reinforcement techniques and attuned to Adrian Bejan's constructal law of nature, a physics principle. …

Compassion Fatigue Or Ethics Exhaustion?, Sonnya Dennis

International Veterinary Social Work Summit

Compassion Fatigue or Ethics Exhaustion?

In veterinary practice, the diagnosis is critical for proper treatment. Different diseases can cause the same symptoms, and while palliative treatment is sometimes necessary, ideally we want prevention or cure. In this talk, I will speak from the experiential perspective of companion animal general practice about the very real and common problem of compassion fatigue, and why it is different from, and can mask, what I call Ethics Exhaustion. In brief, I define Ethics Exhaustion as the feeling of being powerless to even try to do what you think that you ethically should do, because …

Cruelty Intervention Advocacy, A New Approach To Animal Hoarding Interventions, Allison Cardona

International Veterinary Social Work Summit

Animal hoarding affects thousands of animals and people across the United States. Conservative estimates place the number of new cases at two to three thousand per year, though no centralized database exists, so the full scope of the problem is unknown. Unlike intentional, single acts of cruelty, animal hoarding impacts a large number of animals over a prolonged period of time. Any type of animal can be hoarded, though the majority of hoarding situations involve cats and dogs, with numbers ranging from a few dozen to several hundred and even thousands of animals living in a single location. Accumulation of …

Canines And Childhood Cancer: The Effects Of Animal-Assisted Therapy For Patients, Families And Therapy Dogs, Molly Jenkins Msw, Amy Mccullough Ma, Ashleigh Ruehrdanz Ba, Kevin Morris Ph.D.

International Veterinary Social Work Summit

PLEASE USE THE PDF (available from the "download" link) TO FOLLOW ALONG WITH THE VIDEO

For many people, animals take center stage in their daily lives, offering companionship, comfort, joy and for some, even kinship. Increasingly, greater attention has been given to the roles that animals can play in supporting the health and emotional well-being of people in need, specifically through the use of animal-assisted therapy (AAT). However, while the field of human-animal interaction (HAI) research has expanded enormously in recent years, it is still unclear whether the incorporation of animals into clinical settings is effective from a scientific standpoint. …

Design Of An Underwater Video And Gps Mapping System For The Exploration Of Streambed Aquatic Populations, William Barbour

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

This design project was initiated due to the need for an underwater video mapping system optimized for exploration along the streambed or riverbed and under rocks. Such a system would be used for population mapping of fish and other aquatic species. The system also needed to incorporate global positioning system data with the visual data. The current prototype successfully fulfills the requirements for underwater practicality and visual and GPS data collection. It incorporates a compact waterproof camera with Sony lens, two Fenix high-intensity waterproof flashlights for illumination, a handheld DVR for recording video, and a Garmin 60CSx GPS unit. The …