April 17, 2025
New insights into the mechanisms that cause more severe cases of schistosomiasis — a disease caused by parasitic worms and second only to malaria in terms of potential harm — have been revealed by researchers at Penn State.
April 15, 2025
New insights into the mechanisms that cause more severe cases of schistosomiasis — a disease caused by parasitic worms and second only to malaria in terms of potential harm — have been revealed by researchers at Penn State.
March 3, 2025
A synthetic microbiome therapy, tested in mice, holds promise as a new treatment for C. difficile, a notoriously difficult-to-treat bacterial infection, according to a team of researchers at Penn State. The targeted treatment was as effective as human fecal transplants in mice against C. difficile infection with fewer safety concerns, protecting against severe symptoms and decreasing recurrent infections.
March 3, 2025
Environmental contaminants don’t just pose direct risks to human health — they may also have hidden effects through the microbiome that researchers are working to uncover. The latest episode of Growing Impact discusses how environmental contaminants affect human health, a research focus for Penn State professors Andrew Patterson and Costas Maranas.
February 21, 2025
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences received a $6 million state grant to establish a new location for the Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System in western Pennsylvania at Penn State Beaver in Monaca.
February 20, 2025
Simple strategies can help reduce inflammation and its subsequent side effects in pregnant cows, according to researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
January 16, 2025
A new storage technique can keep protein-based drugs and vaccines stable without keeping them cold. The discovery, led by researchers at Penn State, could eliminate the need for refrigeration for hundreds of life-saving medicines like insulin, monoclonal antibodies and viral vaccines.
December 18, 2024
A concentrated sugar solution could be just as effective as antibiotics at treating a common infection in dairy cows, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.
December 17, 2024
The future of veterinary medicine is in our hands.
December 10, 2024
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences celebrated another year of outstanding success and accomplishments in research during the 2024 Research Awards Ceremony, held Nov. 19 at the Hintz Family Alumni Center on the University Park campus.
December 6, 2024
With a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, a team led by biomedical engineering researchers at Penn State will apply ultrasound imaging technology to monitor the transport of genetically engineered, cancer-fighting macrophages into brain tumors.
December 6, 2024
PVMA Fall 2024 Publication
November 22, 2024
Pollutants known as “contaminants of emerging concern” or chemicals that could potentially harm human health and have been found in the environment, including pesticides, ingredients from personal care products, pharmaceuticals and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are increasingly found in streams and lakes. A team led by researchers at Penn State recently demonstrated the accuracy and utility of a new method to find even very low levels of these substances in surface waters. They reported their findings in the Science of the Total Environment.
October 1, 2024
A compound found in African wormwood — a plant used medicinally for thousands of years to treat many types of illness — could be effective against tuberculosis, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State.
September 24, 2024
Demonstrations of the immersive game that teaches users about cow care and farm management were available at Ag Progress Days 2024. Dr. Adrian Barragan
August 29, 2024
Teresa Sylvina has been named the new attending veterinarian for laboratory animals under the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and research professor in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences.
August 27, 2024
Dr. Jody Kull, veterinarian and assistant teaching professor in the Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences major, was a featured author in the Summer 2024 Edition of Keystone Veterinarian. Her article titled "Current Challenges and Solutions for the Rural Veterinary Workforce" discussed the alarming decline in rural veterinary practitioners and highlighted a multi-pronged call to action.
August 23, 2024
After three weeks of testing as required under a voluntary state monitoring program for bird flu in dairy cattle, animal health experts in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences announced that the University’s dairy herd has been certified as free of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI.
August 14, 2024
Early life exposure to "forever chemicals" in the environment permanently disrupts the gut microbiome in mice, contributing to the development of metabolic disease in later life, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. The results suggest that human exposure to these chemicals during early childhood may be contributing to the recent epidemic of metabolic disorders, including obesity and Type 2 diabetes among adults.
July 30, 2024
Penn State's Engaged Scholarship and Experiential Learning Seed Grant Program, offered through the University's Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science, has awarded five teams funding to help students apply skills they are learning in class to meet the needs of an external partner or stakeholder.
July 23, 2024
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, through its departments of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences and Animal Science, collaborated with VCA Metzger Animal Hospital and Mars Inc. to establish the Penn State-Mars preveterinary student internship.
July 22, 2024
Animal health experts in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have announced that — out of an abundance of caution — they will test the University’s dairy herd for highly pathogenic avian influenza, under a voluntary state testing program.
July 19, 2024
Troy Sutton, assistant professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State, has been awarded a Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Early Career Chair in Virology.
July 19, 2024
H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was first detected in dairy cattle in Texas on March 25 and has since spread to several additional states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed multiple human infections in which the individuals were exposed to infected dairy cattle. Penn State News spoke with Ruth Nissly, assistant research professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, to learn more about how scientists are monitoring the H5N1 virus.
July 9, 2024
Mathias Martins has been named head of the virology and molecular diagnostics sections in Penn State's Animal Diagnostic Laboratory, effective July 15. Martins will join Penn State from the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory in College Station, Texas.
June 28, 2024
Distinguished Alumni Award recipient Dr. Fred Metzger, representatives from Mars, Inc, VCA Metzger Animal Hospital, the Animal Science Department, and the Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences Department celebrated the completion of the inaugural VCA Metzger Animal Hospital Internship, six pre-veterinary CAS students from ANSC (1) and VBSC (5) presented case studies and celebrated the end of the internship with faculty, staff, and family. Congratulations to all who participated!
June 7, 2024
Multiple states since March 2024 have reported dairy herds displaying symptoms caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza, raising questions about how the virus spreads, how producers can protect their animals, the risk of infection in people, and the safety of milk and meat supplies. Extension veterinarian Ernest Hovingh, clinical professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences, answers these and other questions related to the this avian flu outbreak in dairy cattle.
May 29, 2024
Aubrey Vena-Erisman, a 2018 alumna of Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, recently returned to Pennsylvania to open a large animal veterinary clinic in her hometown of Johnstown.
May 22, 2024
Research led by scientists at Penn State's One Health Microbiome Center have found that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat Type 2 diabetes, has impacts on fungal elements of the human gut microbiome.
May 16, 2024
Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza was detected in dairy cattle for the first time in the United States in March, with nine states reporting outbreaks by May. While the method of transmission among cattle is currently unknown, new research published in Nature Communications demonstrates that a related strain of H5N1, subtype clade 2.3.4.4b, which caused an outbreak in farmed mink in 2022, could transmit through the air to a limited number of ferrets. This is the first time that a member of the group of H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b viruses has been shown to exhibit this ability. According to the Penn State researchers who led the study, the findings suggest these viruses are evolving to infect mammals and with potentially increased risk to humans.
