SPOKANE — Researchers at Washington State University are working to prevent diseases from moving from animals to humans, and they will soon have a new state-of-the-art facility to help them.
The school broke ground Friday on the $35 million headquarters for its new School for Global Animal Health. The building was funded with a $25 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The rest came from other donors and through state bonds. “We want this to succeed to the level that it becomes an example for other leading universities,” said Guy Palmer, director of the school and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that about 75 percent of recently emerging infectious diseases in humans are of animal origin. Among those are anthrax, HIV and mad cow.
In 2007, CDC launched a center to study emerging diseases and those that move from animals to humans.
“We can no longer focus exclusively on humans, but must look at the interface of animal, humans, and the environment,” said Dr. Ali Khan, deputy director of the CDC’s center, in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “This approach allows us to prevent and control infectious diseases.”
WSU is focusing directly on that intersection mostly in poor countries, with the goal of preventing the next avian flu or swine flu bacteria from developing and eventually spreading. The new building will house some 100 scientists. “WSU has established itself as a leader in the field of global animal health research, with particular expertise in preventing transmission of animal diseases to humans,” the Gates Foundation said in a press release.
The Gates money is the largest single private grant in the school’s history.
There is lots of research around the world into animal diseases that spread to humans. What WSU scientists will focus on is identifying potential diseases early enough to develop vaccines and practices that can prevent the spread. “Waiting until a child is infected is really too late,” Palmer said.
Changing practices in developing countries, where ownership of animals provides an economic lifeline for many people, will require combining aspects of economics, political science, languages and marketing, among other disciplines that will be within the new school, Palmer said.
In 2008. Palmer reported that WSU researchers have shown that the ability of some pathogens to mutate and re-infect animals that were already infected was leading to greater genetic diversity in pathogens.
That shed light on the evolution of some of the most dangerous pathogens, including those that cause malaria, sleeping sickness and syphilis.
Prevention is the best weapon against such diseases, he said. Palmer noted that the most lethal virus to humans, rabies, is controlled primarily by vaccinating animals, rather than humans.
One initial focus will be the use of antibiotics in animals. They are used to treat salmonella, E.coli and other bacteria, Palmer said. As in humans, bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotics used in animals, and that resistance can spread to humans, he said. “The solution is to give them alternative to antibiotics,” Palmer said
The 62,000-square-foot research building is located near the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, a field in which WSU has long been a national leader, and which helped provide the expertise to develop the new school, Palmer said. It will be completed in early 2012.
A second building is envisioned that will provide secure lab space for test development for diseases such as avian flu and mad cow disease.
Palmer said WSU has been a leader in the study of animal-human diseases for decades, as a result of its well-regarded vet school. The school’s first National Institute of Health grant in the late 1950s was used to train scientists at the veterinary school on human-animals diseases, Palmer said.
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On the Web:
WSU School for Global Animal Health: http://globalhealth.wsu.edu.
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