{"id":53,"date":"2026-04-20T16:03:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/?p=53"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:29:22","slug":"meet-tori-fite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/2026\/04\/20\/meet-tori-fite\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Tori Fite"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BioResource Research Major, Sustainable Ecosystems Option <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BioResource Research (BRR) is a broad major, with 13  <\/s>options available to customize each student\u2019s academic experience. Through this and future posts I hope to shed some light on just a few of the many paths students can take towards earning a research-focused B.S. degree, and help highlight some of the incredible work being done by students in the program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This first post is autobiographical and structured as an informal interview. More interviews with other BRR students will follow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image of Tori Fite hand feeding a California Myotis (Myotis californicus<\/em>) at Chintimini Wildlife Center <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Question: So Tori, what can you tell me about yourself and what drew you to the major?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I have had a passion for wildlife, but especially bats, for my whole life. After taking a large break from my degree over the course of the pandemic, I returned to OSU excited and ready to get back on track. Wanda Crannell [BRR advisor]<\/a> has been such a huge help in navigating my return and I could not imagine another major with such incredible support.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I am preparing for graduate school, the experiences this major offers in planning a research project, working with a mentor, and developing my science communication skills (to name a few) have all been vital stepping stones in making me a more competitive applicant and competent scientist.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question: Can you tell me a bit about your project and what you would like the average person to understand about your research?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbsolutely;\u00a0my project is looking at\u00a0possibly detecting\u00a0Canine Distemper Virus<\/a> in\u00a0Pacific Northwest\u00a0bats. This virus has never been documented in\u00a0any of the five species I tested, despite being transmissible between mammals, making this a novel test for the species in question.\u00a0Canine Distemper\u00a0can cause neurological symptoms,\u00a0like\u00a0what we would see in a rabid\u00a0animal,\u00a0and\u00a0is often fatal in\u00a0those that are infected.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As my project involves testing bats that were negative for rabies, the big question was \u2018if not rabid, why are these bats coming in contact with people or pets when they should naturally avoid them?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I did not find Canine Distemper in any of my bat samples, there may still be other diseases leading to these unusual behaviors that we simply haven’t tested for yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image of Tori Fite checking in a bat\u00a0(shipped in a Minecraft lunch box)\u00a0for rabies testing at the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Lab\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Question: What do the next steps in continuing this work look like? Is this something you are interested in continuing yourself?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe obvious next step is expanding the variety of diseases being tested for and trying to rule out more things at least, if not confirm another disease entirely. The scope of that type of project can quickly get out of control though, as bats are a vector for many, many diseases.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another perspective may be to look at the actual behaviors of the bats, leading to testing in the first place. ‘Cat caught’ was the most common reason that bats were submitted to the OSU Veterinary Diagnostics Lab<\/a> for rabies testing, which is where I obtained the samples for my project. So, these samples may represent cases where the bats were perfectly healthy (albeit unlucky). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I would love to do more digging into this topic, my future plans are looking more towards graduate school and the opportunities in wildlife management beyond only disease research. I look forward to seeing how the research in bat diseases develops further, and will certainly be keeping up on the literature.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question: Do you have any advice for students considering or recently joining the major?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is absolutely worth your time to meet with multiple faculty and find the best fit for the kind of project you want to do. Once you have a project, keep chipping away at it a little at a time. The thesis requirements may seem daunting, but spending just a little time each week working on it will save you a lot of stress down the line. Rome wasn\u2019t built in a day and all that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the light at the end of the tunnel; you are going to make a top-notch graduate student at the end of it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

As I wrap up this autobiographical interview, I have reflected on the amount of work I have put into creating this project, and the pride I feel is very genuine. This is one of the very few undergraduate majors at OSU that are centered around student research and the production of a thesis, and it is no small feat, but the opportunities available through BRR and beyond make it all worth it in my opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tori is a BioResource Research student who is studying whether bats can carry Canine Distemper Virus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,3],"tags":[18,17,9,16,15],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brr-students","category-research","tag-bats","tag-caninedistemper","tag-sustainable-ecosystems","tag-undergradresearch","tag-vetmed","missing-thumbnail"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}