FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, Sept. 1, 2003

Contacts:
Brenda Hastings
(559) 688-1731, Ext 226
bhasting@vmtrc.ucdavis.edu

Lynn Narlesky
(530) 752-5257
lnarlesky@ucdavis.edu

UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare celebrates 20 years of providing solutions to food animal health and food safety issues

TULARE, CA - At the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, researchers are seeking and providing answers to questions about livestock health and food safety. In 1983, 250 miles from the UC Davis campus, the San Joaquin Valley also became a strategic location for veterinary discovery and education.

October 2003 marks the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, CA.

School officials and community leaders envisioned the Tulare facility in the
late 1970's as a teaching resource. Since then, center faculty have trained 550
senior veterinary students and 25 veterinarians have completed the residency in
dairy production medicine

James S. Cullor, VMTRC director, says, "Those veterinarians learned about basic animal
reproduction, introductory nutrition, milk production, and food animal
medicine. Our vision now encompasses applied research in dairy herd health,
animal well-being, on-farm food safety, and environmental health."

The center also supports graduate-level research and high school science
internships.

Veterinary faculty cultivate ongoing interactions with regional commercial
dairies, which benefit from veterinary services even as they provide
real-world cases for students. Producers also help alert the veterinary
profession to health trends and take part in applied studies concerning
animal health, productivity, environmental health and animal well being.

From 1999 to 2002 alone, nearly 50 faculty and staff have produced more than
300 articles, book chapters and presentations. Research projects from the
late 1980s to the present have touched on topics ranging from management of
endemic diseases to vaccine testing, including the following examples:

• Accuracy of antibiotic residue tests
• Development of tools to trace disease outbreaks, evaluate
  new treatments, and assess health risks
• Investigation of on-farm food safety: control of potential
  human pathogens in food products
• Mastitis research and J-5 vaccine development, which saves
  dairy farmers $11 million a year
• Applying the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control
• Point management
• The ecosystem's role in the spread of waterborne diseases
  such as cryptosporidiosis
• Minimizing environmental pollution from dairy operations
• Nutrient management
• Vaccine safety studies
• Effective diagnostics for samples of E. Coli O157:H7
• Calf health and well being
• Alternative treatment of dairy wastewater to reduce pathogens and
  other environmental impacts
• "Cold sterilization" of milk by laser light to minimize mycobacteria
  and other pathogens
• Technologies for record-keeping, disease tracking and data
  analysis

The California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory, Veterinary Medicine
Extension, Dairy Food Safety Laboratory, Milking Technology Laboratory, and
offices of state and federal departments of agriculture also reside at the
center. Each unit conducts its own mission while taking advantage of liaison
and outreach opportunities with producers, faculty researchers, and public
agencies.

For example, in 2001 when foot-and-mouth disease struck the United
Kingdom, these colleagues arranged for more than 300 producers and
agricultural officials to meet in Tulare and share strategies to prevent an
epidemic in California.

The center's newest proposal, the California Dairy Technology Center,
will be developed as a full-sized, self-sufficient, teaching and research
dairy. The School of Veterinary Medicine, Tulare Joint Union School District
and the College of the Sequoias will offer academic and vocational education
covering dairy production, business management, and veterinary medicine
at all grade levels. Faculty will conduct dairy research and technology transfer
projects. Public and private funding will help complete the venture.

Bennie I. Osburn, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine, states,
"Veterinary students-even from other veterinary schools-and practitioners
from around the world have found an exceptional opportunity in Tulare to
learn how management decisions can affect the health of hundreds of animals
at a time-and influence the producer's bottom line. These are the
professionals who will help answer today's critical questions about
livestock health and food safety."

The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine conducts teaching, research and service
statewide to benefit animal, human and environmental health.

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