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Will A Game Cause Increased Fruit/Vegetable Intake And Physical Activity In Elementary School Children?, Derek Trimble Mar 2017

Will A Game Cause Increased Fruit/Vegetable Intake And Physical Activity In Elementary School Children?, Derek Trimble

Biology Posters

Background Incentives increase healthy lifestyle choices. Schools don’t have financial resources for an incentive program. Research Question Is there a way to increase fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity in elementary school children at little or no cost to the school?

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Transformation Of Lactic Acid Bacteria, Bryan Coburn Mar 2017

Transformation Of Lactic Acid Bacteria, Bryan Coburn

Biology Posters

Lactococcus lactis (strain JB704) bacterial cells were transformed at 2500 Volts, 25 µF, and 200 Ω with the pTW8 vector. However, bacterial cells were grown and pre-treated differently. One culture of recipient cells was grown in MRS without 1% glycine and received no pre-treatment, were pre-treated for 30’ with water, or were pre-treated for 30’ with 100 mM lithium acetate and 10 mM dithiothreitol (DTT); a second culture of recipient cells was grown in MRS with 1% glycine and received no pre-treatment, were pretreated for 30’ with water, or were pre-treated for 30’ with 100 mM lithium acetate and 10mM …

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Generation Of Polyclonal Rabbit Antisera Specific To The Zika Virus Capsid Protein, Michael C. Berentzen, Jordan C. Frank, Sang-Im Yun, Byung-Hak Song, Young-Min Lee Mar 2017

Generation Of Polyclonal Rabbit Antisera Specific To The Zika Virus Capsid Protein, Michael C. Berentzen, Jordan C. Frank, Sang-Im Yun, Byung-Hak Song, Young-Min Lee

Biology Posters

Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, is an emerging zoonotic pathogen closely related to Japanese encephalitis virus, West Nile virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. Although ZIKV infection generally produces only mild symptoms in some infected individuals, it has recently been associated with a growing number of neurological diseases, including Guillain-Barré syndrome in ZIKV-infected adults and microcephaly in infants born to ZIKV-infected women. Like all flaviviruses, ZIKV has a plus-strand RNA genome encoding ten functional proteins (designated C, prM, E, NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, and NS5). Of these ten, the C (capsid) protein is an essential structural …

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Virus Survival Without Hosts, Cody J. Bills, Craig W. Day Mar 2017

Virus Survival Without Hosts, Cody J. Bills, Craig W. Day

Biology Posters

It is important to always clean up using proper chemicals following working with a virus. Failure to do so may leave active virus on a surface or in a medium and present a potential hazard. This study was done to determine if viruses from the Flaviviridae, Adenoviridae, and Picornaviridae families can remain active for more than three weeks on a dry surface or in a liquid medium.

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It Pays To Protect The Birds: Estimated Costs Of Collision-Proofing Skywalks On Usu Campus, Rachel Sagers, Kim Sullivan Mar 2017

It Pays To Protect The Birds: Estimated Costs Of Collision-Proofing Skywalks On Usu Campus, Rachel Sagers, Kim Sullivan

Biology Posters

No abstract provided.

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Synthesizing Spider Silk Protein From E. Coli, Mitchell Richwine Mar 2017

Synthesizing Spider Silk Protein From E. Coli, Mitchell Richwine

Biology Posters

Spider silk is a valuable material due to its extreme strength and elasticity. However, spider silk is difficult to produce in mass quantities because of the many factors which get in the way of producing large amounts of pure protein. Harvesting the silk from spiders is not efficient. A major issue is spiders like to kill each other until they have their own web space, so storing spiders is impractical, and the silk harvested from spiders does not allow for large quantities of the pure protein. Also the protein from spiders is only useful in producing fibers. The solution to …

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Bird Strikes At The Chase Fine Arts Building, Michael Preece Mar 2017

Bird Strikes At The Chase Fine Arts Building, Michael Preece

Biology Posters

Up to one billion birds die each year by striking windows. Bird eyes do not interperet windows as solid objects. At Utah State, hundreds of birds die each year in bird strikes. One of the buildings that is responsible for a large portion of bird strikes is the Chase Fine Arts building. Fruit trees in front of the Chase Fine Arts windows cause a reflection which confuse birds A redution in window reflectivity greatly reduces bird strike problems.

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Internship At Zootah At Willow Park, Tyler Kron, Troy Cooper, Kim Sullivan Mar 2017

Internship At Zootah At Willow Park, Tyler Kron, Troy Cooper, Kim Sullivan

Biology Posters

Project: Creation of a quick and cost effective feed system for the animals. Reason: Regular feed is expensive ($5- $10 per 50lbs) About $80 - $160 per month for one type of feed (I.E. Wheat).

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The Alfalfa Project, Josh Worley Mar 2017

The Alfalfa Project, Josh Worley

Biology Posters

Spider Silk is one of the most unique fibers produced in the natural world. Its mechanical properties are unparalleled and have the potential to revolutionize industries around the globe. However creating this silk as it exists in nature, is difficult. Due to inability to farm orb weaving spiders that produce silk, other hosts must be inserted. This is the point of emphasis at the Spider Silk Research lab at the BioInnovations Center at Utah State University. Hosts that are currently being researched are; Silkworms, E Coli, Alfalfa, and Goats. Each of these hosts is unique in its ability to produce …

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Percent Of Cytopathic Effect In Vero Vs Vero-76 Cells, Taylor Redding, Skot Neilson, Craig Day, Jonna Westover Mar 2017

Percent Of Cytopathic Effect In Vero Vs Vero-76 Cells, Taylor Redding, Skot Neilson, Craig Day, Jonna Westover

Biology Posters

Vero cells and Vero-76 cells are both used to evaluate the antiviral effect of drugs in vitro. This study tested whether Vero and Vero-76 cells yield similar cytopathic effects when inoculated with yellow fever Virus (YFV) or Dengue Virus(DV). Each virus was plated on replicated 96 well plates of Vero and Vero-76 cells with different cell concentrations. The two cells lines did not give significantly different results for most cell and virus concentrations.

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Testicular Microanatomy Of Rhabdophis Tigrinus During Thebreeding And Nonbreeding Seasons, Clayton Grover, Ryan Mccleary, Yosuke Kojima, Alex Foster, Alan Savitzky Mar 2017

Testicular Microanatomy Of Rhabdophis Tigrinus During Thebreeding And Nonbreeding Seasons, Clayton Grover, Ryan Mccleary, Yosuke Kojima, Alex Foster, Alan Savitzky

Biology Posters

Rhabdophis tigrinus, the Tiger Keelback, is native to East and Southeast Asia. It preys on amphibians, including the Japanese toad, Bufo japonicus. It secretes cardiotonic steroids known as bufadienolides (BDs) from its skin. Consumption of BDs is typically fatal in other snake species, but, R. tigrinus displays resistance to these toxins. After consuming toads, R. tigrinus sequesters BDs into glands on its neck. The adrenal glands of R. tigrinus are enlarged in comparison to similar species.

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Genotypic Analysis Of The Canine Multidrug Resistance 1 (Abcb1) Gene In Miniature American And Australian Shephards, Arieanna White, Lee F. Rickords, Miriam Laker Mar 2017

Genotypic Analysis Of The Canine Multidrug Resistance 1 (Abcb1) Gene In Miniature American And Australian Shephards, Arieanna White, Lee F. Rickords, Miriam Laker

Biology Posters

Canine breeders who are breeding to improve genetics often utilize the ability to test breeding stock for deleterious alleles. A DNA sample, such as a cheek swab or blood sample, is sent to laboratory where they determine genotypes that the owner has requested to know. Once the breeder receives results, they are better able to plan crosses or decide if a dog should be castrated to avoid the inheritance of unwanted diseases. This is particularly important with purebred dogs due to the high ratio of homozygous alleles. I will be using canine DNA for the gene ABCB1 or Multidrug Resistance …

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Making Electrospun Spider Silk Fibers Stronger, Dan Gil, Blake Taurone, Bailey Mcfarland, Justin Jones, Randolph V. Lewis Mar 2017

Making Electrospun Spider Silk Fibers Stronger, Dan Gil, Blake Taurone, Bailey Mcfarland, Justin Jones, Randolph V. Lewis

Biology Posters

Spider silk is one of the most robust and versatile fibers making it a topic of interest in the scientific community. Possessing strength and elasticity many have sought to create fibers comparable to natural spider silk. Up until recently many scientists have fallen short of creating said fibers. With the use of a technique called electrospinning, comparable spider silk fibers have been created. Electrospinning is the process of creating fibers from a polymer solution using an electrical field. This method leads to the formation of nanofibers. These Fibers can then be further modified by crosslinking, a technique traditionally used to …

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Multiple Sequence Alignment While Assessing Saturation Across Sequence Data, K. Bodie Weedop, William D. Pearse Mar 2017

Multiple Sequence Alignment While Assessing Saturation Across Sequence Data, K. Bodie Weedop, William D. Pearse

Biology Posters

Constructing and analyzing phylogenetic trees is central to biological disciplines such as evolutionary and systematic biology. Accurate phylogenetic inference improves the estimation of evolutionary relationships, rates of molecular evolution, and Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). Careful alignment of sequence data is critical prior to any phylogenetic reconstruction, and there are many different multiple sequence alignment programs that are currently used (reviewed in Edgar & Batzoglou 2006). However, difficulty persists when using alignments to accurately determine actual genetic divergences. A major, yet under-explored, problem is saturation: the repetition of base substitutions at a single site within a sequence. Saturation causes issues because …

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Virucidal Activity Of 70% Ethanol Vs Enveloped And Non-Enveloped Viruses, Nathan R. Clyde, Craig W. Day Mar 2017

Virucidal Activity Of 70% Ethanol Vs Enveloped And Non-Enveloped Viruses, Nathan R. Clyde, Craig W. Day

Biology Posters

Viruses contain genetic material packaged in a protein coat called the capsid. For some viruses, the capsid is surrounded by an envelope composed of a lipid bilayer derived from the host cell membrane (Figure 2). Virus structure determines the stability characteristics of the virus particle, such as resistance to chemical or physical inactivation (Lucas, 2010). To maintain a safe environment at the Institute for Antiviral Research, it is important to understand which viruses are resistant to which chemicals. Thus, the objective of this experiment was to test survival of the viruses listed in table 1, when exposed to various chemicals. …

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Large Scale Production Of Spider Silk Protein In E. Coli, Paula F. Oliveira, David Christiansen, Amir Ghazi, Justin Jones, Randolph V. Lewis Mar 2017

Large Scale Production Of Spider Silk Protein In E. Coli, Paula F. Oliveira, David Christiansen, Amir Ghazi, Justin Jones, Randolph V. Lewis

Biology Posters

Spider silks have long been a focus of research due to their remarkable mechanical properties including strength, toughness and elasticity. Moreover, biodegradability and biocompatibility of spider silks make them beneficial to use in biomedical applications. Spiders cannot be farmed because of their territorial and cannibalistic nature. Hence, production of recombinant spider silks is the only feasible solution for large scale production Large scale production is still challenging due to the small recombinant protein size, low yield and low water solubility of bio-synthetic spider silk. The current study reports our progress as well as evolution of effective protocol for large scale …

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Restoration Of Young Ovarian Function In Post-Reproductive Female Mice Significantly Improves Quality Of Life And Lifespan, Steve Gawrys, Jeffrey Mason Mar 2017

Restoration Of Young Ovarian Function In Post-Reproductive Female Mice Significantly Improves Quality Of Life And Lifespan, Steve Gawrys, Jeffrey Mason

Biology Posters

These studies were designed to elucidate the role of ovarian senescence in the increased susceptibility for postmenopausal females to become subject to disease when compared to premenopausal females. Current dogma hypothesizes that the inability of the senescent ovaries to produce hormones for the reproductively senescent female is responsible for the increase in disease. Preliminary lab work has shown that depletion of germ cells from the ovaries of a young mouse, then a transplanting the germ cell depleted ovaries to a postreproductive mouse produced improved health shown through increased life span and decreased cardiovascular and orthopedic diseases.

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Nanoparticles: Lignification Of Wheat With Pseudomonas Chlororaphis O6 (Pco6), Stephanie Doxey, Astrid Jacobson, Anne Anderson Mar 2017

Nanoparticles: Lignification Of Wheat With Pseudomonas Chlororaphis O6 (Pco6), Stephanie Doxey, Astrid Jacobson, Anne Anderson

Biology Posters

Wheat production decreases due to many stresses. Drought stress and lodging (Fig. 1), caused by storms and overgrowth, both reduce yield [1]. My previous work showed induction of drought tolerance in wheat by root colonization of PcO6; drought tolerance was maintained when wheat seedlings were grown with CuO nanoparticles (NPs) (Doxey, Biology Undergraduate Research Symposium Dec 2016). The shoots of wheat grown with PcO6 and CuO NPs were more rigid than shoots grown without either treatment. This work examines whether the rigidity in the shoots was due to lignification as well as a higher water content. Toluidine Blue O (TBO) …

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Assessing Fitness Of Culex Pipiens Mosquitoes Selected For Enhanced Survival To Methoprene, Parker H. Johnson, Nadya S. Keweshan, Scott A. Bernhardt Mar 2017

Assessing Fitness Of Culex Pipiens Mosquitoes Selected For Enhanced Survival To Methoprene, Parker H. Johnson, Nadya S. Keweshan, Scott A. Bernhardt

Biology Posters

West Nile virus (WNV) is the most widespread arthropod-borne viral disease in the United States and is transmitted primarily by Culex pipiens. Methoprene is a pesticide used to control mosquito populations. Evolution of resistance threatens the longevity of any given insecticide with continued use. The objective of this research is to examine any fitness costs associated with resistance to methoprene in Cx. pipiens. Fitness will be examined by measuring wing length in laboratory-reared methoprene resistant and susceptible colonies of Cx. pipiens. Wing length serves as a proxy for body size. It is hypothesized that methoprene resistance in Cx. pipiens mosquito …

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Use Of 5-(Perylen-3-Yl)Ethynyl-Arabino-Uridine (Auy11) To Inactivate Rift Valley Fever Virus And Preserve Neutralization Epitopes, Kolton Williams, Brady Hickerson, Brian B. Gowen Mar 2017

Use Of 5-(Perylen-3-Yl)Ethynyl-Arabino-Uridine (Auy11) To Inactivate Rift Valley Fever Virus And Preserve Neutralization Epitopes, Kolton Williams, Brady Hickerson, Brian B. Gowen

Biology Posters

Rift Valley fever (RFV) is a mosquito-borne disease, endemic to Africa, and known to cause abortion in animals and hemorrhagic fever in humans. All enveloped viruses require the fusion of viral membranes with cellular membranes to enter into and replicate inside the host cell. These viruses have a universal objective: find the cell receptors that match the viral attachment proteins and use those to gain access to the cell membrane. The use of aUY11, a monosaccharide (sugar)-based compound, has previously shown to effectively use a biophysical approach in the inhibition of viral fusion of other enveloped viruses1. In this study, …

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Linking Ecosystem Nitrogen Retention With Soil Microbial Community Structure, Preston Christensen, Bonnie G. Waring, Kenneth Smith Mar 2017

Linking Ecosystem Nitrogen Retention With Soil Microbial Community Structure, Preston Christensen, Bonnie G. Waring, Kenneth Smith

Biology Posters

Understanding the mechanisms behind nitrogen loss in soil through leaching of inorganic nitrogen helps us beWer understand mechanisms for retenMon. Hypothesis: we should see different levels of soil inorganic nitrogen in various agricultural treatments, due to the effects these treatments have on soil microbial communities. Fungi use N less efficiently than bacteria. Fungal-dominated soils should have more inorganic N than bacterial-dominated soils.

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What Does Self-Reported Likability For Fruit And Vegetables Tell Us About Skin Carotenoid Levels?, Kurtis Hauck, Madison Hauck, Damon Joyner, Heidi Wengreen Mar 2017

What Does Self-Reported Likability For Fruit And Vegetables Tell Us About Skin Carotenoid Levels?, Kurtis Hauck, Madison Hauck, Damon Joyner, Heidi Wengreen

Biology Posters

In most cases, individuals who have a higher likeability of fruits and vegetables will consume more and reap health-related benefits because of it. However, other factors influence how the body digests, absorbs, and metabolizes the beneficial nutrients found in fruits and vegetables. Biomarkers, like carotenoids are measurable indicators of some biological state or condition. They can be helpful in understanding the relationships between dietary intake of nutrients and the other factors that may influence how a nutrient is being used in the body. Other factors known to influence skin carotenoids include body composition, exposure to environmental pollutants, or illness. Carotenoids …

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Internship At Cache Meadow Veterinary Clinic, Andrea Nelson Mar 2017

Internship At Cache Meadow Veterinary Clinic, Andrea Nelson

Biology Posters

I was able to assist on multiple emergency surgeries, some including: an abdominal exploratory and a caesarean section. These procedures allowed me to learn proper surgical techniques as well as radiography techniques.

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Extreme Makeover: Fern Edition, Tanner A. Robison, Paul G. Wolf Mar 2017

Extreme Makeover: Fern Edition, Tanner A. Robison, Paul G. Wolf

Biology Posters

With a few exceptions, all plants have chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are the organelles responsible for photosynthesis in plants. Interestingly, chloroplasts have their own genome -- called a plastome -- which is separate from the nuclear genome. The genetic composition of ferns, gymnosperm, and angiosperm plastomes are remarkably similar, revealing very little change over evolutionary time. There are however a few notable exceptions to the apparent stability of the plastome. A few lineages of both angiosperm and gymnosperm show dramatically higher rates of mutation and genetic rearrangement than those of their relatives, suggesting major genome destabilization. Vittariods are a group of ferns …

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Hla-G 14bp Polymorphism In Autism, Cameron Page, Michael Benson, Thayne Sweeten, Anthony Torres, Martin Kharrazi, Lisa Croen Mar 2017

Hla-G 14bp Polymorphism In Autism, Cameron Page, Michael Benson, Thayne Sweeten, Anthony Torres, Martin Kharrazi, Lisa Croen

Biology Posters

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopment disorder characterized by deficits in communicative and social behaviors (Meltzer, 2017) . As of 2012 the CDC reported that 1 of 68 children born in the U.S. have ASD (Christensen, 2016). The immune systems of mother and child can be important in ASD. A signaling molecule, HLA-G, helps regulate maternal natural killer cell interaction with the fetus. A defect in HLA-G could increase NK cell activity, leading to abnormal neurodevelopment in the fetus (Carosella, 2008). Our study focuses on a 14 base pair insertion/deletion found in the HLA-G gene of autistic subjects and …

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Spidentistry: The Intersection Of Dentistry And Spider Silk, Deven C. Smuin, Thomas I. Harris, Justin A. Jones, Randolph V. Lewis Mar 2017

Spidentistry: The Intersection Of Dentistry And Spider Silk, Deven C. Smuin, Thomas I. Harris, Justin A. Jones, Randolph V. Lewis

Biology Posters

Spider silks are an ideal material for periodontal chips/gels because they are biocompatible, biodegradable, lightweight, strong, and create no immune response. Furthermore, the various silks types and forms allow for tunable materials and properties. Spider silk materials may have an advantage over other products because of the ability to release medication more consistently over a longer period of time and be adjusted as needed. Unlike products currently on the market, our chip/gels are biocompatible, which aids in reducing the bodies immune response to periodontal treatment. The ability to incorporate multiple bioactive compounds into the spider silk materials allows them to …

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Life History Differences Across A Latitudinal Gradient In Side-Blotched Lizards (Uta Stansburiana), G. D. Smith, P. A. Zani, S. S. French Mar 2017

Life History Differences Across A Latitudinal Gradient In Side-Blotched Lizards (Uta Stansburiana), G. D. Smith, P. A. Zani, S. S. French

Biology Posters

Latitudinal variation has long been known to affect life history. Bergmann and Allen made latitudinal “rules” for mammalian anatomy and Lack, Skutch, and Moreau described differences in life history in birds. Trade-offs occur between important life history processes, like self maintenance (immunity) and other expensive but necessary processes. It is likely that trade-offs occur mostly when resources are limited. Side-blotched lizards have a wide geographic range, and more northerly lizards have been observed to have longer lifespans than their southern conspecifics. We hypothesized that northern sideblotched lizards would invest more energy into self-maintenance compared to shorter-lived southern animals.

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Got Bugs In Your Kefir?, Julienne Henrie Mar 2017

Got Bugs In Your Kefir?, Julienne Henrie

Biology Posters

What is Kefir ? Kefir is a type of fermented milk that is cultured with Kefir grains. Kefir grains make up the probiotic culture used to produce Kefir. These cauliflower-like grains contain mostly lactobacilli bacteria and yeasts held together by Kefiran, an exopolysaccharide structure. (Korsak et al. 2014). Kefir grains are Mesophilic. Mesophilic starters are cultured at room temperature, which allows the probiotics to remain active when consumed. Properties of mesophilic starters also give Kefir the liquid consistency it is known for. (Sarah, 2016). Kefir originated in the Caucasus Mountains thousands of years ago, the name coming from the Turkish …

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Murder She Wrote: Death And Drama In Nesting Woodpeckers, Taylor Albrecht, Blake Christensen, Sammy Cowell, Phil Fischer, Ryan Gallegos, Teresa Lorenz, Mariah Panoussi, Taryn Rodman, Ryan Sabel, Allison Stassel, Kim Sullivan Mar 2017

Murder She Wrote: Death And Drama In Nesting Woodpeckers, Taylor Albrecht, Blake Christensen, Sammy Cowell, Phil Fischer, Ryan Gallegos, Teresa Lorenz, Mariah Panoussi, Taryn Rodman, Ryan Sabel, Allison Stassel, Kim Sullivan

Biology Posters

Woodpeckers serve as primary cavity excavators in fire-dominated forests. Secondary cavity users (SCU’s) rely heavily on cavities excavated by woodpeckers. Woodpecker species are declining, and some are now locally threatened. Management needs answers. How is woodpecker reproductive success impacted by the behavior of woodpeckers, SCU’s, and predators?

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Culturing Viruses From Wild Deer In Utah, Brennan Winkler, Justin Moscon, Eric Dewart, Annette Roug, Bart Tarbet Mar 2017

Culturing Viruses From Wild Deer In Utah, Brennan Winkler, Justin Moscon, Eric Dewart, Annette Roug, Bart Tarbet

Biology Posters

In the Spring of 2016, two deer showing clinical signs of neurological illness were reported to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The animals were euthanized and post-mortem tissues collected for identification of any disease causing agents. Brain and spleen samples were sent to Dr. Eric Delwart, University of California-San Francisco for metagenomics evaluation. Mobukvirus (described once) and novel picornavirus and bovine parvovirus were tentatively identified. However, cell culture of the viruses is necessary for further characterization and genomic sequencing. If these novel viruses can be cultured, it may be possible to develop serologic tests for additional field investigations in …

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