"We call the smoke episode a silent epidemic, or it's a silent disaster because people aren't worried about losing their lives, per se. But it doesn't have that same dramatic impact as watching a city burn - right? - or watching a forest burn." -Sheryl Magzamen
The Veterinary Health and Education Complex (VHEC) will double the size of the already existing teaching hospital, allowing the school to admit an additional 30 students into its DVM program each year, making the class size around 170 students.
Nearly a year after the project was approved, construction is set to begin on a $230 million upgrade and expansion of the veterinary medicine and education facilities on Colorado State University’s South Campus.
A State of Colorado program that helps pay off student loan debt for veterinarians who practice in under-served areas was expanded by the legislature this spring with additional funding and participant seats. The application period is now open.
The CCTSI is a research partnership between CU Anschutz, CU Boulder, CU Denver and Colorado State University. Grant will enable Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) to turn discoveries into better health.
A core principle of toxicology is that the “dose makes the poison,” but dose—or the density of PM2.5 and other gases in the case of wildfire smoke—is just one factor. Duration and frequency matter too, explains Luke Montrose, an environmental toxicologist at the Colorado State University.
Veterinary medicine is in transition. Pet ownership in the United States is at an all-time high creating a greater demand for services. At the same time, career options for Doctors of Veterinary Medicine are also growing, especially in the areas of public health and translational medicine, which seeks to better connect medical research with clinical treatment.
As a veterinarian specialized in pathology and preventive medicine, it’s impossible for me not to draw connections between the state of the environment and diseases of animals. Over the course of my career I’ve been fortunate to work with everything from pets to livestock and wild animals; I’ve seen the effects of human activity on nonhuman residents of the planet firsthand.
When West Nile virus first came into the state, Larimer County and areas toward the plains along the South Platte River basin quickly became the dominant spot for West Nile, said Brian Foy, a Colorado State University professor who studies insect-borne diseases in his Foy Lab in CSU's Center for Vector Borne Infectious Diseases.
“We all know that Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are among the most common conditions humans can encounter as they age,” said Stephanie McGrath, associate professor of neurology at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “What people don’t realize is that our pets — dogs and cats — can get it, too, and it’s probably also very common.”