Location: Operations
2023 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1: Develop the workforce needed to for the scientific staff at NBAF through implementation of research projects, training programs and other collaborations.
Approach
There is a shortage of qualified scientists, including the availability of doctors of veterinary medicine (DVM) with a Ph.D degree, to conduct animal health research at the NBAF when the facilities become available in 2022. This will be addressed by specifically training scientists in the following seven core scientific disciplines: pathology, virology, immunology, entomology, epidemiology, microbiology, and computational biology. The objective and desired outcome is a mechanism to ensure a viable and qualified scientific workforce is available to implement a program to recruit and train scientists with expertise in biodefense research, with a focus on foreign and emerging animal diseases, including dangerous zoonotic pathogens. The mechanism for training scientists in biodefense research will be established in collaboration with the guidance of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges. ARS does not presently have high containment facilities (BSL-3E, BSL-3Ag,and BSL-4) to train biodefense research scientists in Manhattan, Kansas. (However, through collaboration with Kansas state University, BSL-3Ag laboratories are available.) Therefore, the research projects needed to obtain a doctoral degree in one of the seven core scientific disciplines listed in the previous section will be conducted at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), Orient Point, New York, and/or the research facilities of collaborators contributing to the implementation of the ARS biodefense research programs.
Progress Report
Objective 1. The team at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) and Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kansas, continues to perform mosquito collections in various distinct areas of Brazil. Samples have been transported to the Sao Paulo State University laboratories in Botucatu, Brazil, and are being processed for pan-arbovirus genetic detection and characterization. Over the past year, complete datasets were collected to construct electropenetrography (EPG) waveform libraries for Culex tarsalis and Culicoides sonorensis.
To identify insect feeding behavior, a protocol was established to synchronize the electrical waveforms and video recordings to associate visible behaviors with the different feeding waveform. The data provided by synchronization and digestion of the insects at specific timepoints during probing identified the waveform associated with ingestion of a blood meal. This data provides the first characterization of the feeding behaviors of a culex mosquito and culicoides biting midges within the skin tissue.
Within this project NBAF researchers created a short course for students to become exposed to research in animals, particularly in biocontainment. So far, our training coordinator has had regular recurring meetings with Texas A&M University’s training specialist for the purposes of planning and preparing the training content. The target audience are individuals who have education in animal care but may not have awareness of animal caretaking for research studies as a career. The course development includes basic biosafety/biocontainment principles, animal husbandry principles, animal welfare and anesthesia principles, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, animal welfare regulations, etc. These two coordinators share the brunt of the work at this time and have coordinated on resources and references so that Texas’s coordinator can make progress on the work. This meets the overall objective of the project which is to increase awareness and expand practical training opportunities for careers within agricultural and biocontainment research with livestock.
This project is also developing a certificate program to begin the first course offerings in the Fall of 2023. The undergraduate and graduate curriculum has been approved at the department, College, and University levels. It is now at the Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education level for approval, at which point it will be assigned a program code. Program marketing material for use at meetings, program information for the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) website, and a short, narrated video describing the Biorisk Management Certificate program has been developed. IUP also recruited biorisk management subject matter experts to develop and present a course for the winter term (2024).
Accomplishments
1. Sample collections viral and vector population diversity. Mosquito collections have been conducted in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For the first round of collections, ARS researchers from the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, in Manhattan, Kansas, visited four municipal parks (green areas from the remaining Atlantic forest around urbanized places), in different parts of the city, to investigate the presence of mosquitoes: Campo de Santana Park (Central region), Lage Park (South region), Quinta da Boa Vista Park (North regions) and Chico Mendes Park (West region). All samples were transported to our lab at Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) in Botucatu and are currently being processed for arboviral detection by Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Illumina sequencing. Information provided by this study will provide critical knowledge on the potential presence of emerging vector-borne pathogens and strengthen the relation between the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility and our international partners.
2. What feeding behaviors of culex mosquitoes look like. ARS researchers from the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, in Manhattan, Kansas, have characterized for the first time feeding waveforms in culex mosquitoes. These data provide an electrical waveform description of the different feeding behaviors that cannot be observed since these behaviors occur in opaque skin of mammalian hosts. This data provides the foundation to compare how infectious pathogens may change the feeding behavior.
3. Animal care for research training plan development. For the Animal Care attendant training program, the training Coordinator at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas, and a Training Content Specialist at Texas A&M University, have met regularly to identify content and references to prepare such content in preparation for execution of a short course covering basic biosafety/biocontainment principles, animal husbandry principles, animal welfare and anesthesia principles, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and animal welfare regulation. This training will provide a critical pipeline of animal care staff that can find working opportunities at the Nation Bio and Agro-Defense Facility or other high containment laboratories.
