News Stories Mentioning Our Work

For three days this week, decision-makers of the World Health Organization gather for a special global assembly. With COVID-19 and its variants still very much in the news, the pandemic tops the agenda. And one of the policy briefs up for discussion concerns a concept called "One Health," which considers that the health of all living beings results from the interface between humans, animals and their environment. Université de Montréal professor Hélène Carabin, an epidemiologist in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Public Health, is the co-lead author of the 30-page brief, titled "One Health as Pillar for a Transformative Pandemic Treaty." With six colleagues from the University of Ottawa, University of New Brunswick and universities in Germany, Norway and Ghana, Carabin argues for making animals and the environment part of the human equation in planning for future epidemics.

August 13, 2022, The Slate news website interviewed Dr. Susan McLellan, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “At this point, if it was so easy to jump into the child population, it seems like it would have done so,” she said. “There might be isolated outbreaks, but I’m not super worried about elementary schools and day cares turning out to be hugely important.” Dr. McLellan also spoke to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the same topic. “Worrying about it on the bus I think is silly,” McLellan said. “Worry more about being hit by the bus.”

Newsweek, August 19, 2022 - Dr. Gary Kobinger, director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch, told Newsweek, "It is expected that current vaccination regiments that show protection in other animal species, and/or humans, will also work in dogs. This could be one prevention measure to confirm (in dogs) and use."

Accra/Brazzaville - Ghana has announced the country’s first outbreak of Marburg virus disease, after a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre laboratory confirmed earlier results.

By Ariana Eunjung Cha - Washington Post - Researchers Sarah Hamer and Lisa Auckland donned their masks and gowns as they pulled up to the suburban home in College Station, Tex. The family of three inside had had covid a few weeks earlier, and now it was time to check on the pets.

A new study by Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has revealed that captive white-tailed deer in Texas are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. With more than 90% of the captive deer at one facility testing positive for the virus, the authors indicate their findings likely reflect deer-to-deer transmission. With deer hunting a major recreational activity and economic benefit to the Texas economy, understanding more about the nexus of hunters, deer and the possibility of zoonotic disease transmission is important in ensuring the industry's overall safety and sustainability. There are more than 10,000 captive cervid facilities throughout the U.S. where deer are bred, according to The Wildlife Society, and more than 500 of these facilities are in Texas.