Cooperative Extension Service Communications and Technology Department 3354 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071 (307) 766-2540 • fax (307) 766-3998 • www.uwyo.edu

 

For Immediate Release

 

Contact: Robert Waggener, Editor

Phone: (307) 766-3571

E-mail: robertw@uwyo.edu

 

Date: June 15, 2006

 

New UW faculty member will supervise WSVL’s virology unit

                Nicky Bratanich, new assistant professor in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Veterinary Sciences, will supervise the virology, diagnostic serology and electron microscopy sections of the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory (WSVL).

            Bratanich’s strong research and molecular diagnostic background will help clients of the WSVL by providing fast turnaround tests, said Donal O’Toole, head of the College of Agriculture’s veterinary sciences department, which manages the WSVL.

            “It is now quicker and more specific to hunt for short, specific DNA sequences unique to particular viruses rather than trying to grow them, some of which are fastidious and difficult to grow,” O’Toole said.

            This will typically result in three- to four-day turnaround times rather than two to four weeks for diseases like canine distemper and canine influenza, O’Toole emphasized.

            “Pet owners and veterinarians need results fast if the information is to be of value in the clinic and to the animal,” he said.

            In addition to running tests for WSVL clients, Bratanich will spend time researching viral genes involved in neurovirulence using alphaherpesviruses as a model. The viruses in this subfamily can cause chicken pox, shingles, cold sores and genital herpes in humans; pseudorabies virus in pigs; and herpesvirus 1 in bovine animals.

            Bratanich comes to UW from the University of Buenos Aires’ School of Veterinary Science in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she was a professor in the Department of Virology from 2002 to 2006.

            She was an assistant professor at North Dakota State University and a research associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Saskatchewan.

            The native Argentinean earned a doctor of veterinary medicine from the University of Buenos Aires in 1979 and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1992.

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