Pre-Veterinary Symposium

Another animal related event I attended was the Penn State Pre-Vet Symposium. As the Symposium Chair for Pre-Vet Club at Penn State, my role was to plan an event for high school students to be exposed to the field of veterinary medicine. This day event hosted over 130 high school students from all across the country and included lectures from veterinarians and wet labs.

One aspect of the day that related directly to our class was a lecture entitled Government Practice by Bridget Urrita. Her talk focused the government's role in controlling zoonotic diseases. The starting activity had the students exchange fluid in vials that turned pink when "infected." This allowed students to follow the spread of disease. A second task involved putting on biosecure suits that minimize contamination. During an outbreak, officials wear these suits to prevent spread. Each student then walked under UV light to see if they had allowed any of the "disease" to come in contact with their suit. Almost every student had a least one point of contamination, illustration how fast zoonotic diseases can spread.


Above are pictures from the lecture. The first picture shows all of the students in their suits. The second picture is me holding the UV light looking for contamination. The third picture also shows the biosecurity suits.

This event was a lot of fun! Everyone seemed to truly enjoy it and the students all learned valuable information. The exercises proved to show how easy it was to spread diseases and all of the steps that officials take to try and prevent contamination.

This lecture related to our class on the risks of pets on human health. Zoonotic disease are diseases and infections naturally transmitted between vertebrates and man. Examples include rabies, parasites, and salmonella.  Salmonella is a common bacterial disease in which 40,000 cases are reported each year!  When the feces of infected animals contaminates food like chicken, eggs, and byproduct treats, people and animals can get sick. The lecture in the Pre-Vet Symposium illustraties how easy it is for this contamination to occur. Overall, this animal related event directly relates to our class material.