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Dean Lairmore’s Weekly COVID-19 Updates for May

These Perspectives are drawn from the weekly updates provided by Dean Lairmore to the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine community during the coronavirus crisis.

May 4

Mental Health Awareness Month has been observed in May in the United States since 1949. Groups such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness have appropriately focused on a “You are Not Alone” campaign to fight stigma, inspire others and educate the broader public. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public health measures such as self-isolation and physical distancing make it hard to not feel alone.  Because of this unique circumstance we find ourselves in, it is all the more important to be aware of how we can support each other.  At our School, we are always focused on assisting our students, faculty and staff through our mental health and wellness programs. I am glad that our student and personnel programs have found ways to continue in the age of physical distancing, such as virtual counseling for students and virtual pet-loss-grief support. In addition, we have the commitment of an entire university behind us. I hope that you are all taking care of yourselves and taking advantage of resources to promote your own wellness, while also watching out for each other.

The worldwide impact of the COVID pandemic should tell us that across the globe we are not alone in battling this viral threat. This was illustrated this past Saturday when the UC Global Health Institute celebrated its 10th anniversary by holding a virtual UC Global Health Day focusing on “COVID-19: global perspectives on a global pandemic.” Dr. Jonna Mazet, director of our One Health Institute, and Dr. Patricia Conrad, our associate dean of Global Programs, joined key leaders from across the world to share their experiences in battling the pandemic and its aftermath.  

Dean Lairmore’s Weekly COVID-19 Updates for April

These Perspectives are drawn from the weekly updates provided by Dean Lairmore to the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine community during the coronavirus crisis.

April 6

Practicing new physical distancing

As we enter another week, I want to thank you for your continued flexibility and patience. The disruptions and tragic consequences of the pandemic to our society and the global community are unprecedented. We are learning daily how to interact and perform our jobs in new ways to protect our safety, yet continue to move forward.

I am inspired by how the academic transition is happening. We are adjusting our educational delivery to meet the requirements of our students to become trained veterinary professionals. In the past week, we saw 30 different hands-on clinical rotations reimagined into distance learning ‘virtual’ training experiences. In addition, our staff have completed 149 clinical skills training kits for our third-year students to use at home, and supported new lecture and exam delivery options.

Our Office of Research and Graduate Studies is proactively assisting graduate students and their advisors to safety complete our student’s research projects and fulfill their educational degree requirements.

These quick adjustments are a testament to our faculty, who have worked hard to maintain quality while shifting formats, our staff, who are dedicated to making it happen, and our students, who have remained positive and engaged.

We will never think the same way again about how we teach and learn, and once we return to normal, we will undoubtedly take lessons from this experience to make our curriculum and methodologies even stronger.

Career Choices that Make a Positive Difference in the World

“Long-term career aspirations encompass emotional and intellectual impact of work on society.” —Henry Samueli

First-year DVM student Tiffany Tse conducts research on cat viruses in the Pesavento lab.

When I speak to students about the career opportunities offered by our training and educational programs, I often mention how our work influences the world we all share. Our vision to address societal needs and lead veterinary medicine were illustrated throughout this past month, filled with news stories of our research and discovery, our compassion for those we serve, and the examples of the impact we are making in the world.  We have set this aspirational vision to let the world know how we aspire to bring our knowledge, skills, and passion to our work and through our collective actions.

Dr. Niels Pedersen has researched coronaviruses in cats for more than 50 years.

Work performed by our research scientists, led by Emeritus Professor Niels Pedersen and colleagues, have demonstrated the value of novel treatments against deadly coronavirus in cats. Feline infectious peritonitis is one of several chronic viral infections of cats that resemble those in people, and serves as a naturally occurring model of human coronavirus infections. These same types of treatments are now on the frontlines serving as therapies for human patients suffering from the SARS-CoV2 epidemic.

The Global Impact of Preparation, Training, and Cooperation – One Health in Action

“Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.” —Stephen Covey

Workers assemble detection kits for the coronavirus.Credit: EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

When the U.S. Senate declared January “One Health Awareness Month,” they may not have had the current coronavirus epidemic or Australia’s wildfires on their minds. However, these crises provide dramatic illustration of the need for a more comprehensive One Health approach to solving our complex environmental and health problems. One Health Awareness Month has passed, but it’s important to keep advocating year-round for the One Health approach.

One Health recognizes the interconnections between people, animals and their shared environment, and uses collaborative approaches to achieve optimal health outcomes that benefit them all. Traditionally, our society has worked in silos to try to solve individual issues; with a One Health approach, shared goals and knowledge are central to addressing big picture problems.

At the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, we’ve seen important results from One Health approaches that would not have been achieved otherwise. Our One Health Institute has been working with the United States Agency for International Development to understand what leads to human pandemics. Pandemic diseases tend to be zoonotic in nature, so having veterinarians, public health workers, physicians, and scientists working collaboratively has yielded important results like finding the Marburg virus and a novel ebolavirus in new locations. By identifying these potential pandemic threats in animal populations, we are helping to prevent them from jumping to humans.

Collaboration Required to Solve Global Problems

“Nature is based on harmony. So it says if we want to survive and become more like nature, then we actually have to understand that it’s cooperation versus competition.” —Bruce Lipton

Homo sapiens, the dominant species on planet Earth, has a growing impact on the natural systems that all living species depend upon to exist. The challenges we face are not all regionally defined; they involve global systems to produce safe and sustainable food sources to feed an expanded population, control and prevent infectious trans-boundary diseases, and limit the negative effects of climate change on interlinked ecosystems.

As a result, how we cooperate across geographic, political, and cultural boundaries will determine our collective future. To educate the next generation of healthcare workers capable of addressing societal needs, our approaches to train this workforce must adapt to create professionals that bring together multiple disciplines with knowledge and skills to solve complex problems at the interface of people, animals, and the environments we share.

Resilient Solutions for Growing Populations–a One Health Approach

“The power of community to create health is far greater than any physician, clinic or hospital.” –Mark Hyman

The recently completed 5th Annual One Health Symposium, focused on “Resilient Solutions for Growing Populations,” was a vivid example of how our community comes together to focus on the health of animals, people, and the environment. The symposium brought together veterinarians (faculty, alumni, and invited speakers), veterinary and medical students, staff, as well as physicians, public health officials, and other scientists promoting diverse networking opportunities and transdisciplinary approaches to one health.

Dean Michael Lairmore with Dr. Laura Kahn (center) and Dr. Jonna Mazet.

Dr. Laura Kahn, a world-renowned physician and research scholar served to frame the issues of the day and to honor, with her lecture, legendary former faculty member, Dr. Calvin Schwabe. Dr. Kahn highlighted the global challenges in food production in the 21st century, including policy and social issues that serve as barriers to progress. Her talk served to demonstrate the sobering facts of planetary concerns such as climate change, and outlined what will be needed to find solutions for the future.

Enlightenment Through Scientific Discovery

Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge”. –Stephen Hawking

While sitting in a laboratory meeting as a Ph.D. student, my advisor brought us an image of a virus particle that all of the graduate students recognized as a retrovirus, specifically the genus of retroviruses called “lentiviruses.” We knew this because these viruses plagued veterinary medicine for decades, causing a variety of chronic animal diseases, well known to veterinarians. What surprised us and the world at the time, was that the virus was isolated from patients suffering from a new human epidemic eventually known as AIDS. The world for me changed almost overnight and I dedicated my career to studying these deadly viruses of animals and people.

Researchers collecting samples from a bat

PREDICT’s Ebola Host Project team safely and humanely collect samples from bats in the field. The team is active in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, where teams are sampling wildlife and domestic animals to learn more about potential host species for ebolaviruses. (Jaber Belkhiria/UC Davis)

This past week, one of our research teams lead by Dr. Tracey Goldstein described the discovery of a new strain of Ebola virus from bats in Sierra Leone.  As with most scientific investigations, the new virus was discovered by a collaborative team effort that included our One Health Institute, well as colleagues at Columbia University. As I spoke to Dr. Goldstein about the discovery, she became expressive, excited, but restrained at the same time, trying to contain her sense of discovery with her analytical side as a professor whose job it is to identify the origin of viruses like Ebola. Her motivation was in context to the vivid reality that the most recent Ebola outbreak in 2013-2016 killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa. While this new virus may not be the origin of that outbreak, her team’s work provides more evidence that bats are a likely host for these deadly human viruses and opens new questions in their goal to prevent global pandemics.

Curiosity is Key to Knowledge

Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” –William Arthur Ward

Dean Michael Lairmore greets attendees at the Spring Showcase.

A basic characteristic to becoming a good student, an astute researcher, or insightful clinician is curiosity. The ability to ask questions to learn new information and explore new paths of knowledge is forged from the trait of being inquisitive. Our school has led veterinary medicine and contributed to fundamental knowledge in biomedical and agricultural research by talented faculty, staff, and students who seek new and innovative ways to advance the health of animals, people, and our planet. Many of these advances were on full display at our Spring Showcase, an annual event to highlight the accomplishments and aspirations of the Centers for Companion Animal Health (CCAH), Center for Equine Health (CEH), and our Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center (KCDWHC).

Dr. Michael Kent, on left, chats with donors attending the Spring Showcase.

The CCAH, led by Director Dr. Michael Kent, continues to build upon a rich history of advancing the health of companion animals through research grants, resident project funds, and equipment grants. At the Showcase, Dr. Kent reviewed how the CCAH provided over $1.5 million in research support this past year, made possibly by generous donations from grateful clients, foundations, and individuals united in their passion to help discover new ways to help animals through studies to solve the toughest problems faced in veterinary medicine. In turn, those faculty, residents, and students who are the beneficiaries of this support have responded by creating new knowledge that is at the leading edge of understanding in veterinary medicine. From the discovery of genetic clues to explain diseases in chondrodysplasia in dogs and humans, to bringing new hope to shelter animals through evidenced-based studies to reduce disease and increase adoptions, CCAH funded investigators envision ideas that lead to innovative solutions in animal health.

Excellence as a Result of Habit

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle

The school has been recognized for the fourth year in a row as the #1 program in the world in veterinary science by QS World University Rankings. So how is excellence measured? It is my belief that the quality of any organization is built from the character, values, talent, and work ethics of its people. Without the habits of excellence brought to work each day by our faculty, staff, house officers, graduate students, and veterinary students, we would not be recognized as the global leader in veterinary medicine. While our buildings, laboratories, hospitals, and other resources are critical for us to do our work, we would be a far less effective organization if it were not for the quality of our people.

At the heart of what we do is the education of the next generation of veterinarians, research scientists, and veterinary specialists. Our educators work tirelessly to improve our curriculum, bringing outcome-driving, and adult-learning models to spark life-long learning as a habit in our trainees and students. The many hours our teachers and staff put into their lectures, teaching laboratories, notes, and course materials is paid back to them in the success of our graduates, who fill important jobs throughout the world in private practices, industry, and government. We seek to develop leaders in all facets of jobs that are filled by our alumni, and desire to reconnect with them as we delight in their successes.  

Love and Compassion–Essential to Humanity

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” – Dalai Lama

On Valentine’s Day, we celebrate our love for others through gifts, flowers, or other expressions of our feelings. Daily, we may observe acts of love and compassion, but not fully appreciate how important these traits are to our feelings of fulfillment and belonging. We are fortunate to work in an environment that celebrates the human-animal bond, which at its core is a mutually beneficial relationship between animals and people, reflected in emotional, psychological, and physical interactions. Scientific research has verified the physiologic effects on both pet parents and dogs who are bonded. Anyone who has been emotionally touched by their pets understands the depths of our love for animals.

Dean Lairmore surrounded by students at the Knights Landing One Health clinic.

We extend our compassion to our community in a variety of outreach programs such as our student-run Mercer and Knights Landing Clinics. These clinics provide healthcare for pets of those in need, but who lack adequate resources. I recently visited our Knights Landing One Health Clinic on a busy Sunday morning. The clinic was a hub of activity with more than thirty students, volunteers, and clients gathered in the local community center. The compassion and dedication of our students was on full display as they interviewed clients and examined anxious pets on make-shift exam tables. Our students’ desire to serve the underserved of our society is a clear expression of their humanity.

Another form of compassion is expressed for our co-workers in their times of need. We express sympathy towards our co-workers following the loss of a family member or in times of severe stress. In addition, while less obvious, we show we care in small acts of daily kindness. The affirmative effects of kindness are experienced in the giver and to those that witness the act of kindness, spreading good feelings and positively influencing the work environment. As we envision our future, we must acknowledge the importance of compassion in solidifying the bonds between us that bring satisfaction in our work and warmth to our souls.

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