Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus is one of the most infectious viral diseases in the world. FMD virus affects all cloven-hooved animals and there have been outbreaks all over the world except for in North America. While FMD virus doesn’t necessarily cause fatality in animals, it causes severe milk production losses and can leave affected individuals severely weakened and debilitated. This is particularly problematic for people who keep livestock as it can affect their livelihoods and economic welfare. Our guest this week is Cambrey Knapp, a 2nd year PhD student in Comparative Health Science who is studying wildlife-livestock interactions related to FMD virus around Kruger National Park in South Africa. African buffalo within Kruger National Park harbor FMD virus and it can spillover to livestock that are kept in the surrounding areas outside of the park. Cambrey’s research is investigating which viral lineages of FMD virus are most prone to spillover and the temporal aspects of transmission by looking at historic and contemporary African buffalo and cattle samples.
Curious to know how helicopters factor in to the whole story? Tune in to our interview with Cambrey this Sunday (June 2nd) at 7 pm PST on KBVR 88.7 FM. If you miss the live show, you can check out the interview wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere else!
Somewhere, in a local government meeting, an idea is
proposed, a policy brief is written, some voting occurs, paperwork is pushed
around, money is allocated, and a new highway is built.
In the same region, some bighorn sheep are off trekking in search of their favorite grasses to eat. They come upon a road they can’t cross that wasn’t there before. The sheep stay put and eat the same old grass they were already eating.
Bighorn sheep iImage from Defenders of Wildlife.
When policymakers decided to build this road, it’s
unclear whether they considered the consequences of this type of habitat
fragmentation on the tiny ecosystems of bacteria that live inside of each
bighorn sheep. More importantly, whether they knew their decision might lead to
unforeseen consequences for bighorn population health.
We take for granted how intertwined policy and science really are.
Claire Couch is a 5th year PhD candidate in the department of
Integrative Biology, studying wildlife disease ecology, but she’s also the
president of a new Science & Policy Club at Oregon State University.
Advised by Anna Jolles in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Claire
studies the bacteria that live in the guts of large animals like African
buffalo, rocky mountain elk, and bighorn sheep. She’s interested in how the gut
microbiome can contribute to disease resistance, but separate from her PhD
research, she’s interested in how policy can be informed by science, and how
science can be impacted by policy.
Claire says she’s always been interested in ecosystem health and fascinated by ecosystem dynamics between big scale (a region the sheep lives in) and small scale (the bacteria living in the gut) ecosystems. Through her research, she’s been exposed to diverse conservation issues for different wildlife species. For example, management and policy shapes where wildlife can reside, and where they are determines the factors that shape the gut microbiome. It became apparent to Claire that most scientists are not typically trained to understand and partake in policy, including herself, even though is it’s critical to all of our research pursuits.
(Left to right) Jane Lubchenco, Karen McLeod and Steve Lundeberg at OSU science policy panel discussion.
Claire started looking for ways to learn more and to become more engaged in science policy, but wasn’t finding exactly what she was looking for. OSU has some science-policy courses and clubs, but they are typically very specific to one type of science. So although she didn’t feel qualified to take the lead on this, she created what she was looking for: a science policy space that is more inclusive and general, with an emphasis on career development and general policy literacy.
In the first year since this group started, they’ve already packed in several activities including: meetings with OSU faculty who are closely tied to policy, a seminar about how to communicate about controversial topics, a panel talk about how scientists can communicate with the press, a talk from a government agency research organization scientist, and a meeting with House Rep. Peter DeFazio. Finally, the group has an open-source data panel coming up.
House Rep Peter Defazio speaking with OSU Science Policy club. Image from gazettetimes
Claire wants to help scientists make their work relevant, but she hasn’t
been doing it all alone. There are currently a few other club officers, and as
Claire writes her dissertation, she’s looking to pass on club leadership. In
the future, she hopes to see the club become more engaged with the non-OSU
community members around us, host bigger events in collaboration with other groups
on campus, and start up a mentoring program in which club members would be
mentored by policy professionals.
To hear more about this policy club and Claire’s
research and future plans, tune in to KBVR 88.7 FM or stream online March
1, 2020 at 7 P.M.
