Bullseye September 2014

WestGen’s Endowment Fund is on the Move Again

The WestGen Endowment Fund is pleased to announce that their support, along with that of our industry partners: Alberta Milk, BCDA, CDN, DFM, DFC,  and Canwest DHI, have allowed for Dr. Herman Barkema to be appointed the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Infectious Diseases of Dairy Cattle. Infectious diseases are a considerable threat to the profitability and sustainability of the Canadian dairy industry. Diseases such as Johne’s disease, mastitis, neosporosis, bovine leukosis, and bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) not only affect on-farm productivity and dairy cow fertility and welfare, they increasingly affect our ability to export live dairy cattle and bull semen. The Industrial Research Chair in Infectious Diseases of Dairy Cattle addresses these issues, with the ultimate goal of decreasing the impact of infectious diseases on the Canadian dairy and semen industries; this will be achieved through research and training (graduate and summer students and postdoctoral fellows). The research program focuses on two of the most important diseases affecting the dairy industry: Johne’s disease and mastitis. The proposed studies on Johne’s disease focus on transmission of Mycobacterium avium subspeciesparatuberculosis infection to the calf, genetic susceptibility, early diagnosis, and adoption of prevention and control practices by dairy farmers. The proposed mastitis studies focus on the role of coagulase-negative staphylococci in mastitis, antimicrobial resistance, and heifer mastitis. The vast majority of infectious diseases in dairy cattle are the result of an interaction between the genome, microbes, the host immune system, and the environment. Therefore, the research initiated by the Industrial Research Chair (IRC) is inherently collaborative and multidisciplinary in nature.

The research projects proposed by the IRC build upon extensive research efforts currently under way in the University of Calgary’s Department of Production Animal Health, opportunities available through the Canadian Bovine Mastitis and Milk Quality Research Network, and research needs related to improvement of the Alberta Johne’s Disease Initiative, and other regional Johne’s disease prevention and control programs. All projects are conducted in close collaboration with the dairy industry.

Dr. Herman Barkema is Professor of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM), and holds a joint appointment in the Faculty of Medicine. He is also a Guest Professor at Ghent University (Belgium). He leads the environment research theme in the Canadian Bovine Mastitis and Milk Quality Research Network, the Alberta Johne’s Disease Initiative, the Alberta Inflammatory Bowel Disease Consortium, and the Technical Committee of the Canadian Voluntary Johne’s Disease Program.