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KC region's vet schools rank among best in class Kansas City Business Journal When Jim Males thinks about strong animal science schools, he thinks about the Midwest -- about schools such as Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, Iowa State University and the University of Missouri. "They're considered by most of us as in the top 10 in the country," said Jim Males, a head of the animal sciences department at Oregon State University and former president of the American Society of Animal Science. Males said Oklahoma State, K-State and Iowa State especially are known for having large and strong undergraduate programs in animal science. That's partly because of the prominence of animal agriculture in a broad radius around Kansas City, he said. Meghan Wulster-Radcliff, the executive director of the American Society of Animal Sciences, agreed. She said universities such as K-State and Missouri have beneficial locations in the center of the nation's livestock industry. And the programs at these universities range from K-State's animal food research program to Missouri's reproductive physiology program. Several of these universities have spent millions of dollars in recent years developing research centers that emphasize animal science. A new $54 million Biosecurity Research Institute is scheduled for completion in the fall at K-State. The 34,000-square-foot food safety and security institute will be a Biosafety Level 3 facility, the second-highest security level for biological research determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. Scientists there will study diseases that affect humans and livestock and the national food supply. K-State is also in the midst of a five-year, $11 million grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health that designated the school's veterinary college as a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence. The university is using the money to study diseases ranging from cystic fibrosis to neonatal pig diarrhea. In July, the University of Missouri completed an $8.3 million, 15,000-square-foot National Swine Resource & Research Center, which will be operational for the fall semester. Research conducted at the center will focus on disease diagnosis, identification and prevention in pigs. Swine are physiologically similar to humans, so research conducted at the facility will be applicable to human medical research, too, said John Dodam, association dean for academic affairs at Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine. In March, researchers from the center gained national attention for producing pigs that generate omega-3 fatty acids, a substance that reduces the risk of heart disease. K-State and Missouri are also in contention for a 500,000-square-foot, $450 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. A location near the Biosecurity Research Institute and College of Veterinary Medicine at K-State and one near Missouri's College of Veterinary Medicine are among 18 sites the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is considering. To the south, Oklahoma State University's Center for Veterinary Health Sciences in 2003 received a seven-year, $40 million contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to research emerging diseases in animals. The school was the nation's only veterinary college to receive such a contract, which is one of the largest ever in Oklahoma, said Michael Lorenz, dean of the university's Center for Veterinary Health Services. To the north, Iowa State University boasts the oldest public veterinary college in the country. It also has the Institute for International Cooperation in Animal Biologics, which has trained hundreds of scientists from throughout the world in the proper production of vaccines, said Donald Draper, associate dean for academic and student affairs at the veterinary college. Iowa State is also in the midst of developing the Iowa Center for Advanced Neurotoxicology in its College of Veterinary Medicine. More than $865,000 in grants from the National Institutes of Health will finance studies there on animal toxicology, which is applicable to chemical terrorism and food contamination. The veterinary schools at Missouri, K-State, Iowa State and Oklahoma State are among 30 veterinary colleges in the country accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges. In fiscal year 2003-2004, they ranked fifth, 14th, 17th, and 21st, respectively, in amounts of financing received from the National Institutes of Health. "Almost anybody in animal science would identify these universities as being among the strongest in the country," said David Buchanan, professor of animal science at Oklahoma State and a former president of the American Society of Animal Science. Maynard Hogberg, his colleague at Iowa State University and the current president of the American Society of Animal Science, said the Midwest has the strongest and largest animal science following in the country during yearly meetings. Schools such as Ohio State University and Texas A&M University may boast two of the largest and most heavily financed animal science programs in the country, he said, but the concentration and collective strength of schools within a 300-mile radius of Kansas City make it hub for animal science. "The whole Midwest region has been and will continue to be a strong point of animal science research," he said. |
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