A seminar will take place on Thursday, April 13, from 4-5 p.m., at the Gluck Equine Research Center Auditorium at the University of Kentucky campus. The topic of the presentation will be Advances in Diagnostic and Control Strategies for Rift Valley Fever Seminar presented by William C. Wilson, PhD. Wilson is a research microbiologist in Arthropod-Borne Animal Diseases Research Unit (ABADRU) of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Manhattan, Kansas.
Wilson received his BS and PhD in Animal Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign. After a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Eppley Cancer Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, he joined the Arthropod-Borne Animal Diseases Research (ABADR) Laboratory in Laramie, Wyoming. The ABADR Laboratory moved to Manhattan, Kansas in 2010, and Wilson currently serves as a Lead Scientist for the now ABADR Unit (ABADRU).
His research is part of a multidisciplinary research team addressing insect-transmitted pathogens of concern to the US livestock industry. His primary research focus is on Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), which is endemic and epizootic in Sub-Saharan Africa causing high rates of abortions and mortality in young cattle, sheep and goats. He collaborates with the ABADRU research team and others to develop new detection, characterization and countermeasure strategies for insect-transmitted disease of livestock.
Wilson’s research has been funded by the Canadian CRBNE Research and Technology Initiative, US DHS, US Department of State, NIH, National Association of Animal Breeders and the Kansas BioScience Authority. He has served as consultant in national and international workshops including the FAO/IAEA, Office of International Epizooties (OIE), the US National Veterinary Stockpile RVF recommendation committee, and the World Bank’s Reduce Climate Sensitive Diseases recommendation committee. He serves as reviewer for USDA-NIFA, Republic of South Africa Scientific Review Board, BARD, CDC and numerous journals. He is also a Fellow of the Biosecurity Research Institute, a Cooperating Investigator in the Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases (CEEZAD) and is on the Scientific Board of the Center for Vector-borne Diseases at Kansas State University.
Veterinarians seeking Continuing Education credits must sign the CE book and request their CE certificate at the time of the seminar.
For more information contact Diane Furry of the Gluck Equine Research Center, Department of Veterinary Science, University of Kentucky at Lexington, 859-218-1117 or email dfurry1@uky.edu.
