Animal science vs. coronavirus
Photos by Evan Krape March 18, 2021
91原创鈥檚 Department of Animal and Food Sciences deploys coronavirus expertise to test, teach and research COVID-19
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck Delaware a year ago, most people never heard of a coronavirus, let alone the health implications of this nasty adversary. COVID-19 is new, caused by a novel coronavirus not previously seen in humans, but, down at the southern end of the 91原创 campus, a group of staff and faculty knew all about similar diseases in animals. Long before coronavirus was the most despised word on planet Earth, scientists in 91原创鈥檚 Department of Animal and Food Sciences (ANFS) had a long relationship with 2020鈥檚 villain.
As these 91原创 scientists knew all too well, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 鈥 the virus that causes COVID-19 鈥 is only one of many members of this family of viruses.
The department鈥檚 expertise not only helped 91原创 research and test 2020鈥檚 most unwelcome party crasher, but also quickly integrated COVID-19 into its curriculum.
The testing
The department鈥檚 biosafe laboratories and skilled scientists have made the University a premier facility in animal health testing. 91原创鈥檚 Charles C. Allen, Jr. Biotechnology Laboratory in Newark and Lasher Laboratory in Georgetown comprise the 91原创 Poultry Health System (91原创PHS) 鈥 making ANFS part of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network; across the U.S., select institutions like 91原创 offer localized testing for major animal diseases with protocols designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Veterinary Services Laboratory.
So, what does that have to do with human health? Well, ANFS scientists like Provost Robin Morgan, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Dean Calvin Keeler and Senior Scientist Brian Ladman spent decades studying and testing for viruses, including many with human health implications.聽聽
鈥91原创PHS is capable of handling high throughput testing,鈥 said Ladman. 鈥淲e had the training, equipment, infrastructure and the scientists to handle more than 1,000 virus tests each day. And, in the avian world, swabs are usually oral swabs, so it was a natural transition for us to do COVID-19 testing.鈥
After pursuing and receiving national accreditation for human health diagnostic testing through Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), Allen Lab became ground zero for COVID-19 testing of 91原创 employees and students.
It鈥檚 quite a home team of Blue Hens battling against this novel coronavirus, including Ladman, Amy Anderson, Bri Ames, Erin Bernberg, Marcy Murphy and Lauren Sauble. The six staff and faculty members have a collective 119 years of service to the University and a combined 11 91原创 degrees. They鈥檝e conducted more than 30,000 COVID-19 tests since September, turning many tests around in only a few hours.聽
COVID-19 saliva tests are not the only tests that ANFS is conducting. The new Center for Environmental and Wastewater-based Epidemiological Research (CEWER), profiled on 91原创aily in January, includes testing wastewater samples to understand the prevalence of COVID-19 in New Castle County and on the 91原创 campus.
The teaching
Given the hands-on careers in the animal and food sciences, ANFS was determined to maximize live, in-person instruction safely throughout the 2020-2021 academic year. Animal science, animal biosciences, pre-veterinary medicine, and food science majors greatly benefited from the department鈥檚 resolve. The department is teeming with researchers with experience in infectious diseases and microbiology 鈥 an invaluable resource for future laboratory scientists, veterinarians and animal industry professionals.
A tradition for nearly all of ANFS鈥 first-year students is Animal and Food Science Laboratory (ANFS111) 鈥 a roll-up-your-sleeves class where students complete ten types of live laboratories taught by an array of instructors. In his 鈥淥ne Health on the 91原创 Farm鈥 lab, Ryan Arsenault discusses the health connections throughout agriculture 鈥 from the dairy to the chicken barns to wetlands and the apiary. He had students wear the personal protective equipment (PPE) that a normal biosecure chicken farmer would wear 鈥 disposable overalls, gloves, hairnets and boot covers.聽
鈥淲e discussed how farmers have used PPE for decades to limit the spread of disease, long before the world was aware of coronaviruses,鈥 said Arsenault. 鈥淲e also discussed how often chicken and hog farm workers are more biosecure and use more PPE than human health workers.鈥
Arsenault鈥檚 One Health (AGRI224) course teaches students how the health of the environment is intertwined with human health and animal health. He鈥檚 long covered pandemics, bats, animal to human disease transmission and epidemiology. This year he added exclusive lectures on SARS-CoV-2 to help the students understand the biology of the viruses and what is known to date.
鈥淥nce a week, I updated the students on the latest science around the virus, its spread and the vaccines under development,鈥 said Arsenault. 鈥淪tudents came with great questions and really enjoyed our weeklong module on vaccines and vaccine development.鈥
The research
ANFS has several virology researchers, including a few like Keeler who鈥檝e studied coronaviruses for longer than he cares to share. The department boasts expertise in major zoonotic diseases like avian influenza and a history of animal vaccine development, so researchers proudly went to work on COVID-19.
Mark Parcells has focused his research career on molecular virology 鈥 from Marek鈥檚 disease virus to Zika virus to human and animal coronaviruses; he鈥檚 an expert on immune responses, viral infections and vaccinology. The ANFS professor has studied treatments that stimulate the innate immune system in the hopes that it can provide increased resistance to infection. Colleagues at Scripps Research Institute are investigating the crystal structure of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 and whether antibodies generated to this could make the viral infection worse. Together, the researchers found that unlike Zika, vaccination to SARS-CoV-2 does not seem to elicit this antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE).
Working with a human health pharmaceutical company, Parcells has a potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in the pipeline for animal and eventual human testing. He is also making antibodies to the COVID-19 virus using laying hens. By vaccinating these hens with the purified virus protein, the hens will produce antibodies (called IgY) in the yolks of their eggs. The Parcells Lab will then purify these antibodies from the yolks for commercial test development and distribution to researchers.
Future health risks are also under investigation in ANFS. One example comes from Arsenault鈥檚 lab, where he鈥檚 researching antibiotics and antibiotic alternatives.
鈥淎 lot of our department鈥檚 research addresses future human and animal health issues, perhaps issues that will become as important as COVID-19,鈥 said Arsenault. 鈥淎ntibiotic resistant bacteria has the potential to be the next global health issue. We鈥檙e studying how antibiotics work in order to develop better alternatives to antibiotics and hopefully avoid the issue of resistance.鈥
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