Animal Sciences

ANSC Students and Professor Help Deliver 130-pound Foal, Featured on ABC Baltimore News

stephanj — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:27:11 +0000

ANSC Students and Professor Help Deliver 130-pound Foal, Featured on ABC Baltimore News stephanj Wed, 04/08/2026 - 14:27 /sites/ansc.umd.edu/files/news/2026-04/Foal.jpg

Students in Animal Science’s equine reproductive management class and Dr. Amy Burk discussed the challenges of helping a mare and foal through a difficult labor and delivery with local TV news station WMAR, Baltimore's ABC Channel 2.

Read the story on WMAR ABC News

Watch the WMAR ABC Channel News Clip on YouTube

Equine science students at the University of Maryland sprang into action to help a broodmare deliver a 130-pound foal after experiencing critical complications during birth

NIH Funds "Smart Pill" for Gut Health Monitoring

stephanj — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:24:23 +0000

NIH Funds "Smart Pill" for Gut Health Monitoring stephanj Fri, 04/03/2026 - 15:24 /sites/ansc.umd.edu/files/news/2026-04/SmartPill_1600.jpg

University of Maryland (UMD) researchers will continue to advance their “smart pill” that tracks gut health, with support from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21 grant. Distinguished University Professor Reza Ghodssi (ECE/ISR/Fischell Institute) is the Principal Investigator (PI) and Younggeon Jin (Animal & Avian Sciences), Justin Stine (MATRIX/ENGR), and Pankaj Pasricha (Mayo Clinic) are co-PIs.

The work, which began at the University of Maryland, College Park campus, will now extend to Southern Maryland, into the UMD MATRIX Lab.

“This will greatly expand the research scope of our ingestible capsule work. We are taking a systems approach to improving the reliability of ingestible sensors beyond what we previously thought was possible,” Dr. Ghodssi said. “Establishing trusted measurements is essential to unlocking the next generation of autonomous, closed-loop technologies for the GI tract. We thank the National Institutes of Health for supporting this life-changing work.”

Earlier, Less Invasive Detection

The pill will support those with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD causes inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, but because inflammation is a common symptom of other disorders, diagnosis is complicated. Capsule endoscopy is minimally invasive tool that provides images of the GI tract to simplify diagnosis for patients but doesn’t provide health measurements and is only used reactively, after symptoms appear.

Read full story in UMD Engineering News

ANSC's Dr. Younggeon Jin co-PI on NIH-Funded Project

A ‘Charm’ing Spring Break Surprise

stephanj — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 20:18:22 +0000

A ‘Charm’ing Spring Break Surprise stephanj Fri, 03/20/2026 - 16:18 /sites/ansc.umd.edu/files/news/2026-03/CampusFarm_2026-Foal-Charm_1920.jpg

Instead of digging her toes into the sand during sunset over Spring Break, Katie Sakai ’27 was knee-deep in hay at 2 a.m. to welcome a new foal at the Campus Farm.

Awoken by a call from University of Maryland animal and avian sciences Professor Amy Burk, who teaches the “Equine Reproductive Management” class, Sakai rushed to the barn and arrived just a minute after the filly, called Charm for now, was born on Sunday. The teaching assistant sprang into action to assist Burk, cleaning the foal’s nasal passages, taking her temperature and cleaning out the stall.

“I’m really glad I stayed and was able to help out,” said Sakai, a San Francisco native who decided to forgo her trip home this year. “It worked out really nicely.”

The class provides foaling services for two mares from local farms every spring, usually in April. This year, the broodmares’ due dates fell a little earlier, possibly colliding with Spring Break. Assessing milk calcium and pH usually gives students an idea of how close a horse is to giving birth, but Charm’s mom, thoroughbred Backside Bourbon (nicknamed Bailey), showed none of the typical signs.

She was still more than a week out from her due date when Bailey suddenly started showing signs of agitation, pacing in her stall late last Saturday night. When Burk saw that on the security cameras, she drove to campus as a precaution, thinking there might still be hours to go—but around 1:50 a.m., she sent out an urgent text to the class, telling them a foal was on its way and seeing who could come help.

Read full story in Maryland Today

Karen Shih Dylan Singleton Over UMD's Spring Break, first-time mom Bailey gave birth to a little filly, Charm, with the help of students and Professor Amy Burk of the "Equine Reproductive Management" class. Animal Science Students and Dr. Burk Assist With Late-Night Birth of Foal

ANSC's Dr. Broadbent's "Virology Lab" Awarded $1.99M to Develop Bird Flu Vaccine

stephanj — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 19:41:03 +0000

ANSC's Dr. Broadbent's "Virology Lab" Awarded $1.99M to Develop Bird Flu Vaccine stephanj Mon, 03/09/2026 - 15:41 /sites/ansc.umd.edu/files/news/2026-03/baby-chicks.jpg

Andrew Broadbent, assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences at the University of Maryland College Park, and Lynda Coughlan, associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore have received a $1.99M award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), to develop and test a vaccine to protect chickens against avian influenza H5N1.

The ongoing outbreak of H5N1 bird flu is widely considered to be the most significant animal health event in U.S. history, having infected more than 170 million poultry, disrupted the food supply and led to increased costs for farmers and high egg prices for consumers. A safe, effective vaccine that can protect birds, humans and other animals against the spread of the disease would be a major breakthrough in protecting food security and animal and human health.

There are currently a number of poultry vaccines available in different countries, but each have drawbacks for managing the rapidly evolving H5 viruses. Some don’t stimulate strong cellular immunity, some protect well against one strain but not emerging variants, and some are harder to update quickly when new strains appear. That’s why researchers are exploring improved or more flexible types of vaccines that can generate broader, longer-lasting, and more adaptable protection as H5 viruses continue to change.

Read full story in AGNR News

Delmarva's CBS News WBOC Broadcast Featuring Dr. Broadbent

Kimbra Cutlip Edwin Remsberg The Funding Extends Successful Research Supported by An MPower Seed Grant

Intergenerational Impacts from Maternal Obesity on Breast Cancer Discusses at the 2025 Mary Shorb Lecture in Nutrition

stephanj — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 17:49:25 +0000

Intergenerational Impacts from Maternal Obesity on Breast Cancer Discusses at the 2025 Mary Shorb Lecture in Nutrition stephanj Tue, 11/18/2025 - 12:49 /sites/ansc.umd.edu/files/news/2025-11/Shorb%202025-16x9_MG_8597.jpg

Cancer research has come a long way in the past few decades, as have identifying genetic and environmental variables that predispose individuals to the growth and spread of tumors.

On Friday, November 7, the 2025 Mary Shorb Lecture in Nutrition was jointly presented by the departments of Animal and Avian Sciences and Nutrition and Food Science with the keynote titled “Gut dysbiosis as a mediator of increased breast cancer in female offspring born to obese mothers” presented by Dr. Leena Hilakivi-Clarke.

Dr. Hilakivi-Clark is an internationally recognized leader in women’s health and cancer prevention research with over three decades of scientific innovation and academic leadership at the University of Minnesota. With a career spanning the National Institutes of Health, Georgetown University Medical Center, and now the Hormel Institute and the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, her work has influenced our understanding of how diet, environment, and the gut microbiome influence breast cancer risk across lifetimes and generations. As a prolific scholar, mentor, and advocate for faculty development, Dr. Hilakivi-Clarke continues to advance transformative research that has resulted in more than 180 publications and the training of nearly 90 emerging scientists.

At various points in her research, Dr. Hilakivi-Clarke has examined exposure to volatile organic compounds, vehicle emissions, a specific class of contraceptives and obesity as influencers on breast cancer development. This has led her to what she describes as a two-step hypothesis of tumor formation with exposures in utero and into adult life.

It is diet and gut microbiomes that have been the focus of more recent work and the generational impacts of maternal obesity. Through a series of studies with mice, Dr. Hilakivi-Clarke and her team saw a clear increase in breast cancer rates tracked to the F3, or third, generation. Their study group was fed a high-fat/obesity-inducing diet compared to a control group. Then, both groups' offspring were fed normal diets and tracked for breast cancer development after carcinogenic exposure. Breast cancer rates were notably higher in the study group’s offspring. The study was repeated to a second generation, or grand offspring, and then a third generation, or great-grand offspring, with fairly clear increases in cancer rates with the only variable being the great-granddam’s obesity.

Dr. Hilakivi-Clarke and her team began investigating the gut microbiome as part of this intergenerational linkage beyond genetics. They performed microbiome swaps through fecal transplants between the study and control groups’ offspring and observed increased cancer rates in the following generation. What they observed was increased breast cancer rates in the second-generation offspring following the maternal fecal transplants from the obese study group into the offspring of the first-generation control group.

Diet clearly plays an integral role in overall health and especially through pregnancy. Dr. Hilakivi-Clarke’s team is also looking into key aspects of diet and nutrient intake. High dietary fiber seems to have shown tumor reduction through some of their studies. During the Q/A time at the end of the lecture, Dr. Hilakivi-Clarke highlighted benefits of fiber that breaks down into short chain fatty acids like that in many fruits, vegetables and greens. Salad, anyone?

Mary Shorb

The Lecture series is named for Mary Shaw Shorb who received her B.S. in Biology from the College of Idaho (1928) and her Sc.D. in Immunology from Johns Hopkins University (1933). In 1942, she took her first research position at the Bureau of Home Economics and Human Nutrition of the USDA at Beltsville. Two years later, she transferred to the Bureau of Dairy Industry (USDA) where she was tasked with culturing Lactobacillus lactis Dorner (LDD), which was being used to make various fermented Dairy products. The media used to grow LDD required liver extract, which led Dr. Shorb to hypothesize that LDD could be used as a rapid biological assay to identify the anti-pernicious anemia factor identified in liver, for which Minot and Murphy shared the 1934 Nobel Prize in medicine.

After being bumped from her position at USDA in 1946 by the returning veteran who had held the position prior to the war, Dr. Shorb was given laboratory space and an unpaid appointment in the Poultry Husbandry Department of the University of Maryland. With an initial grant from Merck & Company, she developed an LDD bioassay to quantify the concentration of anti-pernicious factor in liver extracts. This assay allowed her collaborators at Merck & Company to rapidly purify and crystalize the substance they named vitamin B-12, which was rapidly proven to be therapeutically effective for pernicious anemia. She and her collaborator, Dr. Karl Folkers (Merck) were corecipients of the Mead-Johnson Award of the American Institute of Nutrition in 1949 for this work. In 1970, two years before Dr. Shorb’s retirement from the University of Maryland, Merck & Company donated $10,000 to establish a Shorb Lectureship in Nutrition to honor and perpetuate her legacy.

Jonathan Stephanoff Jonathan Stephanoff Dr. Adele Turzillo (right) presents the 2025 Mary Shorb Lecture in Nutrition plaque to Dr. Leena Hilakivi-Clarke (left) following her lecture.

Celebrating Dr. Monica VanKlompenberg: Excellence in Teaching and a Fond Farewell

stephanj — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 20:34:34 +0000

Celebrating Dr. Monica VanKlompenberg: Excellence in Teaching and a Fond Farewell stephanj Mon, 11/17/2025 - 15:34 /sites/ansc.umd.edu/files/news/2025-11/DrVK-Convocation%20New_16x9.jpg

As the fall semester began, the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences celebrated senior lecturer Dr. Monica VanKlompenberg for receiving the Provost’s Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty in teaching. As the semester winds down, ANSC extends best wishes as Dr. VanKlompenberg embarks on a new professional chapter at The Ohio State University as a Professional Practice Assistant Professor in Animal Sciences.

At the University of Maryland’s annual convocation ceremony on September 17, 2025, Dr. VanKlompenberg was recognized for her outstanding contributions in innovative teaching, having brought about “near-transformational change in many of the department’s lower-division and core courses,” according to ANSC Chair Adele Turzillo, and former chair Tom Porter who described her as “dedicated, innovative and committed to effective teaching.”

This recognition caps off an extraordinary nine-year tenure at the University of Maryland marked by creative curriculum development, hands-on learning innovation, and an enduring commitment to student success. Since joining the department in 2016, Dr. VanKlompenberg, or Dr. VK as she is better known to her students, has been a driving force in shaping the undergraduate experience. She spearheaded the creation or redevelopment of 13 different courses and mentored countless students through internships, clubs, and career exploration opportunities.

Among her many contributions, Dr. VK is especially proud of her work transforming Applied Animal Physiology (ANSC212) into an interactive student-driven course, and launching Anatomy and Physiology of Domestic Animals (ANSC201) in Fall 2025, which now serves as a cornerstone of the undergraduate program. She also designed and taught Goat Management (ANSC247), which helped start ANSC’s dairy goat herd, giving students a unique hands-on opportunity to engage with another production animal.

As former student Sullivan Haine ’24 put it, “As her student, I experienced firsthand the care that [Dr. VK] puts into her courses, materials, and teaching so that the maximum number of students succeed.”

Beyond the classroom, Dr. VanKlompenberg co-led beef cattle spring break experiential trips with Racheal Slattery and developed and coordinated the Animal Science Internship Program, including creating and teaching ANSC359, which now runs year-round. Through that work, she has mentored students pursuing experiences on campus, across the country and abroad, and has enjoyed watching a fair number of their internships evolve into full-time careers. This work also allowed her to bring alumni, government and industry stakeholders to campus for career events. She has been an integral part of the Block and Bridle student organization at UMD and the Maryland Day livestock show. Dr. VanKlompenberg created the Animal Science Internship Newsletter and a departmental LinkedIn group to connect students with alumni and industry professionals, helping bridge the gap between classroom learning and career readiness.

When asked what she values most from her time at Maryland, Dr. VanKlompenberg doesn’t hesitate: it’s the students. “When I get those emails from former students who share their accomplishments and joys or tell me how something we did in class helped them later on, it’s incredibly rewarding,” she said. “Watching them grow into successful professionals has been the best part.”

Her next role at Ohio State will begin in January and Dr. VanKlompenberg will continue to blend her passions for teaching and student mentorship, while adding new opportunities for innovative teaching and original research. She looks forward to similar teaching and advising roles and having more opportunities for engagement with undergraduate and graduate students.

As she reflects on her time in the department, Dr. VanKlompenberg expresses gratitude for her colleagues and students, and confidence that ongoing programs like the goat management and internship initiatives are “in good hands.”

The Department of Animal and Avian Sciences extends heartfelt thanks to Dr. VanKlompenberg for her years of leadership, energy, and care for students. Her creativity, collegiality, and commitment to hands-on, student-centered learning have left a lasting mark at UMD. We wish her all the best as she embarks on this exciting new chapter at Ohio State.

Jonathan Stephanoff Stephanie Cordle Dr. Monica VanKlompenberg at UMD's 2025 Fall Convocation being honored as one of the Provost’s Excellence in Teaching awardees.

$935K USDA Grant Funds Research to Improve Safety of Food Grown on Crop-Livestock Farms

stephanj — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:28:28 +0000

$935K USDA Grant Funds Research to Improve Safety of Food Grown on Crop-Livestock Farms stephanj Wed, 09/24/2025 - 11:28 /sites/ansc.umd.edu/files/news/2025-09/remsberg_13060555528-chickens_16x9.jpg

While most American food is no longer grown on farms where chickens scratch the soil next to beds of lush vegetables, traditional "integrated crop-livestock" (ICLF) farms are making a comeback, in part because fresh food from farmers’ markets and co-ops is rising in popularity.

But an older style of agriculture is bringing with it new threats: Antimicrobial resistance and bacterial infections on small farms are also on the rise.

Now, through a new $935,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a University of Maryland team will set out to improve the safety and quality of pasture food products grown in small ICLFs.

“Many of the folks working on the farm are not properly trained,” said Debrabata Biswas, project director on the grant. For instance, “some chicken processors are not following proper safety procedures like hand washing, changing clothes or boots, or washing with the right kind of water to kill the pathogens, and then they are going back to the produce farm and harvesting spinach or lettuce.”

Read full story in Maryland Today

Graham Binder Edwin Remsberg ANSC's Dr. Biswas and his team to visit farms, sample pathogens and develop new washes and best-practices

Cardoso Lab Group Attends Annual American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) Meeting, Presents Research and Receives Recognition

stephanj — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:02:22 +0000

Cardoso Lab Group Attends Annual American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) Meeting, Presents Research and Receives Recognition stephanj Wed, 07/02/2025 - 11:02 /sites/ansc.umd.edu/files/news/2025-07/ADSA-2025_1600.jpg

The Cardoso Lab traveled on June 22-25, 2025, to Louisville, KY for the Annual American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) Meeting full of presentations, networking, idea pitch competitions, and awards.

Master student Niraj Suresh gave an oral presentation on his work titled, “Assessing Feeding Management Practices on Maryland Dairy Farms: Identifying the need and opportunities” and an oral presentation titled, “Monitoring Total Mixed Ration to Assess Mycotoxin and Clostridium Contamination on Maryland Dairy Farms.” Master student Hannah Burchard presented a poster on her work titled, “Conventional Corn Versus Short-stature Corn: Evaluating the effect of organic acids on fermentation profile and silage stability” and an oral presentation titled “Nutritional effects of organic acids and physical properties of short-stature corn.”

Their work demonstrated the goals of the lab to work with farmers to investigate challenges, identify and create strategies to improve animal welfare, and increase animal production and forage quality. Both students were able to connect with professionals within the dairy industry, other students, and professors to learn about the field and communicate their own research.

Also, during their time at ADSA, Niraj and Hannah both participated as finalists in The Sciencing Challenge hosted by Evonik and RP Nutrients, which gives an opportunity for students to pitch innovative ideas that would promote the development of the dairy industry. The competition also pushes students to strengthen their communication skills and combine research and practical application while meeting industry experts. Suresh and Burchard presented on their idea for an app and web-based platform to better connect dairy farmers with each other and professionals within the industry.

Their platform “Cow-Moo-Nity” would be a place where farmers could find newsletters and publications with the most relevant and recent research. They could also find a chat forum where they could post questions, ideas, or suggestions to connect with other farmers or industry experts. Additionally, an AI Chatbot would be available to ask questions or give recommendations and would then pull from reputable sources to deliver advice to farmers. Among six other universities including University of Wisconsin-Madison, The Ohio State University, and UC Davis, Suresh and Burchard received second place with Cow-Moo-Nity. They shared the podium with University of Florida receiving third and Cornell University receiving first. Suresh and Burchard had a great time meeting all the other students, hearing the other creative ideas, and participating in this pitch experience.

The Cardoso Lab greatly enjoyed their time at the ADSA 2025 Conference and look forward to going again next year!

Hannah Burchard Hannah Burchard (left) and Niraj Suresh (right) pitch their Ag-focused networking platform “Cow-Moo-Nity” at the 2025 ADSA Meeting as part of The Sciencing Challenge.