Story about Suarez's research

Presidential Award for ARS Veterinary Medical Officer

Agricultural Research Service scientist David L. Suarez received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) at a ceremony today in Washington, D.C.

Suarez’s selection was based on research explaining how chickens and turkeys contract avian influenza, as well as contributions to several new types of vaccines for treating avian influenza.

Suarez is a veterinary medical officer at ARS’ Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, Athens, Ga. ARS is the chief scientific research agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Since joining ARS in 1995, Suarez has assisted, at the request of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with studies of a new strain of influenza (H5N1) that appeared in chicken and human populations of Hong Kong in 1997.

Suarez has also served on the Live Bird Market working group, which is involved with eradication efforts in the northeastern United States, and has developed a rapid influenza detection system for use there.

He has also developed a rapid diagnostic test, using standard molecular genetics technology, that can be used for quick influenza subtyping by diagnostic laboratories that do not work routinely on influenza viruses. The test is being used in live bird markets in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and in the northeastern United States.

Suarez continues to investigate why these viruses crossed species boundaries from poultry to human--important research for the poultry industry and human health.