By: Emily Resau, Emily Sheng, Madeline Johnson, and Lindsay Hanks

For animal science this week, we have been visiting the Virginia-Maryland College of
Veterinary Medicine on campus. At the vet school, we met with veterinarians, current students, and technicians. They gave us tours of the facility and an opportunity to learn more about veterinary medicine.

Clinical Practice
On Tuesday, we practiced in the clinical skills room. The clinical skills room is a
classroom that contains different stations that have various aspects of veterinary surgery, such as IV catheter placement and injections. The vet students demonstrated small animal CPR, large animal palpation, and clinical instrument handling.
Our favorite station was placing the catheters and practicing intramuscular injections. At
the catheter station, the vet student first gave us a demonstration of placing a catheter. It is first placed by inserting the needle in the vein, and when a flash of blood (for practice, blood is substituted by red food coloring) is visible, then you pull out the needle. Quickly following that, you insert a plug into the catheter to block the flow of blood. At the intramuscular injection station, we practiced inserting needles into the muscular areas the imitation dog they provided.
In order to insert an intramuscular needle, the vet first locates the muscle that is going to be injected. Next, the protective cover is removed from the syringe. Then, with the bevel in sight of the one who is injecting the needle, the shaft is inserted into the muscle at a ninety degree angle until all that is seen is the hub. The vet then pulls back the syringe to check for blood. If there is no signs that the needle has hit a blood vessel, then the vet pushes the syringe quickly to insert the vaccine/ medicine and pulls out of the muscle. If blood does appear, then the needle is removed and a new site is found.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VQK7tqystg this is a short video about placing a catheter into a dog.

By: Lillian Cai, Piper Goodman, Carley Knight, Rose Rasty

Did you know in most developing countries children go blind because of vitamin a deficiency? What if I told you there is currently a food that could prevent the millions of deaths that occur from this, but it’s not being utilized due to public backlash? This food is called “Golden Rice”, named for its slightly yellowish tint.

Rice is a huge staple in many culture’s cuisines, from Asian to African dishes. This is likely why it was targeted as the crop to combat vitamin A deficiency. Genetically modifying this crop to produce vitamin A, which is something so prevalently eaten, would be a very effective way to reduce the illness and mortalities associated with this deficiency. Rice, as we know it, is white or  brown. However, “Golden Rice” is genetically modified to produce the beta-carotene vitamin making it visibly unique and high in the vitamin A nutrient so many people lack naturally in their diets that we, in America consume from eggs, carrots, leafy greens, sweet potatoes or other vitamin rich foods. You might ask, why this huge epidemic is not being resolved with such a simple solution we have already created? It’s because of the controversy surrounding the use of GMOs in major crop production which has created “bad press” for this crop that lead to it not being grown anywhere for commercial use. This includes the belief that GMOs are unnatural, harmful, or economically unviable. In particular many worry companies such as Monsanto are monopolizing the production of such crops. However, this is not the case. Golden Rice is a feasible solution to an ongoing issue,with no proven signs of harmful effects.

The use of Golden rice could substantially reduce rates of vitamin A deficiency in developing countries. Throughout our studies of GMOs, courtesy of Governor’s School,  we have learned how harmless and effective they are. The issues surrounding GMOs are mostly misconceptions. It is up to us as individuals and the next generations of agricultural producers & scientists to expose the real truth behind GMOs and their utility for cases such as vitamin A deficiency, and eventually global hunger.

Further Reading:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/03/07/173611461/in-a-grain-of-golden-rice-a-world-of-controversy-over-gmo-foods

http://www.goldenrice.org/

By: LeeAnn Perritt, Mackenzie Beavers, Rachana Subbanna, and Ishita Garg

The Biological Systems Engineering Department at Virginia Tech  is one of the most well respected in the country. BSE is defined as combining all types of science in order to solve problems in biological systems. One of their current projects is the stREAM Lab which brings scientist and educators together to develop a research facility that will give undergraduate and graduate students world class opportunities to study water quality and watersheds.

As students began their next activity in BSE, they approached a large cube-like frame and 4 different boxes of sediments underneath. Quizzical, they watched as a control knob was turned and water began to spray from the suspended nozzle. The students were told that this was a rainfall simulator, and the boxes contained different materials that were possible runoff culprits. The purpose of the simulator, explained by PhD student Qualla Ketchum, was to observe the runoff amounts from 4 different mediums: straw, dyed mulch, soil, and grass. First, the students were asked to predict the amount of runoff that each medium would produce. After the simulation ran for about 25 to 30 minutes, it was observed that runoff was produced from the mud container first in a murky brown color. The next container that produced runoff was the mulch, which at first yielded brown water but at subsequent attempts became clearer. The chemical residue left from the dyed mulch proved to be more harmful at first due to h 0c   gher pollutant concentration, but as time went by and more samples were collected, the water samples contained less pigmentation. Straw and grass were more absorbent,and therefore were the best mediums for runoff prevention.

Following this display, Engineering Major students ventured to the stREAM lab, where many PhD students conduct their research. Students waded into the water to witness the measurements of downstream velocity with university technology and aided with the turbidity test. In this test, students observed initial stream turbidity, then after kicking up rocks and stirring sediment, noted the diminished water quality in relation to high turbidity levels. Getting into the stream was the highlight of the day, due to the intense heat, around 95 degrees.. woaH.

http://bse.vt.edu/about/facilities/StREAM_Lab.html    

By: Katherine French, Carmen Mew, Jessica Yu, Claire Seibel, Candace Miu

This week, Governor’s School students split into their majors for two classes a day. Each afternoon, Agricultural Economics students participated in a business management activity led by Professor Curt Stevenson. Students were divided into groups of three to four, with each group representing one “fishing company.” Companies consisted of a skipper, an accountant, and negotiator(s). These roles had different responsibilities including buying and selling boats, determining where to fish, and keeping some boats docked.

In the fishing simulation, negotiations and strategies were utilized to ensure the highest amount of profit. Auctions and trades for ships among different companies were held, requiring calculated and risky choices. All of these decisions were accompanied by set expenses that may have led the company into debt, requiring them to use interest-carrying loans. Each round of decisions was equivalent to one year of fishing, and at the end of each year, companies’ decisions were inputted into a computer program that determined how many fish each company caught based on weather conditions. Afterwards, Professor Stevenson calculated assets and bank balances, ranking each company accordingly. The ultimate goal of the game was to posses the highest amount of assets at the end of the “ten year” period. However, before reaching that 10 year mark, the companies experienced multiple abrupt challenges.

                    Photographs taken by Katherine French

As they received the results from the eighth year, many students were surprised to discover that the companies had negative assets and bank balances! Each company incurred substantial losses for seemingly no apparent reason. Then, Professor Stevenson explained what had happened: they had depleted all of the area’s fish in just seven years. He introduced the term “overcapitalization,” which means the number of ships in the fishing fleet surpassed the sustainable capacity. Another factor contributing to the depletion was that the fish were public resources (no regulations allocated a specific amount to any one company), so there were no incentives to participate in conservation, leading to a complete exhaustion of the water.

In addition to having fun as theoretical fishing company leaders, Ag Econ students were able to learn about the difficulty that is sustainable resource management, a problem that economists frequently address today. One might even say, they learned to not be so shellfish!

To explore the simulation, follow this link!

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/simulations/fishbanks/Pages/fish-banks.aspx