Faculty Spotlights
When Jarra Jagne, D.V.M. ’90, was growing up in her native country of The Gambia, she was exposed to its rural areas and large populations of livestock during summer vacations accompanying her father on work trips. This fostered a fascination for animals, later heightened by an encounter with the famous James Herriot book, All Creatures Great and Small, which fueled her veterinary calling. “I imagined myself as a James Herriot in Gambia’s rural savanna saving the lives of cows, sheep, goats, and chickens,” says Jagne…
A new free modeling tool is enabling researchers, farmers and food processors to assess how changes in the ways a dairy farm is managed would influence its environmental impact, energy use and economics. The Ruminant Farm Systems (RuFaS) modeling tool, developed by Cornell researchers and collaborators across academia, industry, government and nonprofits, is available at no cost for open-source collaboration. Cornell researchers created the scaffolding for the model and worked with collaborators to integrate Cornell and other dairy farm research on factors like animal feed, crop growth and milk production. The model predicts outcomes such as production costs, resource use and greenhouse gas emissions…
Well over 100 individuals experienced soulful foods, dance performances, music and happy chatter at the Juneteenth Celebration hosted by the Southside Community Center…Lara Parrilla, a Cornell professor and community manager at Cayuga Health, said she enjoyed engaging with the community at Juneteenth and has been attending the celebration for the past 18 years. She set up a tent in collaboration with Tompkins County Whole Health to share resources for access to high-quality healthcare and distribute results from a community survey. “I’m really interested in understanding different community members’ experiences with our healthcare system and any barriers they might be experiencing,” Parrilla said.
Lately, Shannon LaDeau and her colleagues have had unwelcome visitors at their office in New York’s Hudson Valley: ticks, crawling up the building and trying to get through doors. “Which is kind of alarming,” said Dr. LaDeau, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies who studies the arachnids and the pathogens they carry. As winters get warmer, ticks of several kinds are flourishing. Deer ticks, known for transmitting Lyme disease, are moving farther north. The longhorned tick, which came from overseas, has gained a foothold on the East Coast and begun moving west. Gulf Coast ticks have made it to states like Connecticut and Indiana. The lone star tick, which can make people allergic to…
When cats get sick with H5N1 avian influenza, they get severely ill, and up to 70% of affected cats will die. But little is known about how the virus spreads among cats, whether they serve as a vector to other animals or humans and how common infections are in community cat populations. The Cornell Feline Health Center (CFHC) in the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is starting an initiative to answer those questions, first through a pilot project in New York state. “This initiative reflects our commitment to addressing urgent public and animal health risks through translational research,” said CFHC director Dr. Bruce Kornreich, D.V.M. ’92, Ph.D. ’05…
Myanmar’s history of prolonged conflict has led to the forced displacement and resettlement of generations of refugees to the U.S., including upstate New York. Since relocating, these refugees’ relationship to fishing has likewise shifted, from angling for food and nutrition in rural regions of Myanmar to being a means for maintaining social connections, recreation, time outdoors and emotional well-being. Still, refugees in New York experience barriers to fishing, such as language disparities, lack of time, unfamiliar regulations and discrimination, described in a paper published in the June issue of Geoforum, released early online. The paper draws from interviews to examine the importance of access to environmental resources…
Climate change is directly impacting the landscape of infectious diseases, especially mosquito-borne viruses. Guided by the needs of our partners, this project aims to 1) reconstruct a historical Zika outbreak (2015-2017) in Latin America and the Caribbean to understand the dynamics of disease spread in the region; 2) estimate evolutionary patterns of spread and the effective reproductive number for both Zika and Dengue; and 3) develop early warning signals for the next outbreaks of Zika and Dengue to understand how lags in spread and connectivity between countries affect disease dynamics, with a goal…
Fish and seafood can be a more environmentally friendly protein choice than other animal foods like beef, pork, and chicken. But you need to choose carefully. Not all fish are sustainable. And it’s more complicated than opting for certain species over others, because the sustainability and nutritional value of fish is affected by a host of factors. So, we asked the experts to school us in seafood. Here’s what they had to say…
If there was one thing we learned from COVID, it was the need for rapid, accurate, point-of-care testing to help contain the virus before it had spread silently to many others. It was years before we had these effective tools and could properly apply them in real time to real patients. Today, the same problem exists in animals for H5N1 bird flu, where the virus spreads through flocks before we know that even a single bird is infected…
State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today announced the inaugural faculty member awardees of the Chancellor’s Horizon Award for Faculty Research and Scholarship. The honor awards early-career faculty research and scholarly achievements across SUNY’s colleges and universities. “SUNY is known for its exceptional research and scholarship, and the faculty members who earned this recognition are at the forefront of their fields,” SUNY Chancellor King said. “Our inaugural Horizon awardees have already made a profound impact in their fields of study early in their careers, and by highlighting them we hope to inspire even more achievements in the years to come…
To ready New York State communities for the rapidly evolving impacts of climate change, we created a Climate Disaster Health Policy Lab. This novel framework integrates analysis of community needs with product delivery in one center, enabling preparation and accelerating response. We partner with organizations having statewide impact (county- and state-level public health, emergency management, and Cooperative Extension staff), focusing on climate disasters with significant health impacts (e.g., extreme heat, cold, wildfire smoke). The project bridges the gap between researchers and practitioners, positioning Cornell Public Health as a leader in the climate and disaster space, while improving the lives of New Yorkers…
Two CARPHA Member States are now better equipped to monitor water quality and prevent water-related health threats, thanks to the donation of multi-parameter water quality testing meters and the piloting of a new Water-Related Infectious Disease (WRID) Surveillance Manual, developed through a collaboration between the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and Cornell University’s Master of Public Health Program. The mission, conducted from March 31st to April 4th, 2025, focused on strengthening technical capacity in Barbados and Grenada, where representatives from CARPHA and Cornell University formally handed over water quality monitoring equipment to Chief Medical Officers in both CARPHA…