{"id":1,"date":"2021-10-21T20:45:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T20:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/domains.cals.ncsu.edu\/foodanimal\/?p=1"},"modified":"2021-11-05T16:20:19","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T16:20:19","slug":"fai-fellowship-the-meeting-of-the-mentors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/news\/fai-fellowship-the-meeting-of-the-mentors\/","title":{"rendered":"FAI Fellowship: The Meeting of the Mentors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jessica Parzygnat grew up around animals. For a time, she thought she might follow in her uncle\u2019s footsteps and become a vet, but after completing her Introduction to Microbiology class at NC State University<\/a> alongside an animal nutrition course as part of her Animal Science<\/a> major, she realized how entwined the two fields are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her first year as a fellow with the NC State Food Animal Initiative<\/a> (FAI), Parzygnat will spend her time around animals and working with bacteria. \u201cI am so thankful that I have this opportunity. It combines my passion for animal science and microbiology,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigating Threats to Human and Animal Health<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"NC State<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Parzygnat describes her project focus as \u201cinvestigating the anti-microbial resistance profiles of pathogens found in broilers that can infect humans and potentially make them sick.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, by isolating and studying three pathogens responsible for making people sick\u2014Salmonella<\/em>, Campylobacter<\/em>, and E. coli<\/em>\u2014she hopes to better understand their resistance to antibiotics. She will accomplish this by collecting fecal and environmental samples from local poultry farms to analyze back in the lab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the long-term and large-scale goal. In the short-term, Parzygnat is visiting the farms to view the facilities, review farm management practices, and gather information via a questionnaire. She hopes these walk-throughs will provide valuable, and more immediate, feedback to farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy assessing where there might be a risk, we can help develop interventions to help farmers to be safe and successful with the production they are doing,\u201d she says. \u201cI see how hard these people are working to make chickens happy and how much they want to have the best farm they can, so I hope the research can directly benefit them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Matter of Urgency <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report<\/a> in 2020 linking a Salmonella outbreak to backyard poultry farms, which caught Parzygnat\u2019s attention. And there is a 2021 outbreak<\/a> she has also been following. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve read that by 2050, anti-microbial resistant pathogens may potentially cause more deaths than cancer. That\u2019s what opened my eyes,\u201d she says. \u201cIt feels like an urgency for me because there are serious implications about our future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CALS + CVM = Loads of Feedback  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Parzygnat is excited for this unique opportunity \u201cbecause it\u2019s intended to improve food animal production in the state of North Carolina through collaborative research.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"NC State<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That collaboration includes four advisors from two different colleges at NC State. Dr. Matt Koci<\/a>, professor of Immunology, Virology and Host-Pathogen Interactions, and Dr. Rob Dunn<\/a>, professor of Applied Ecology, are faculty members within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences<\/a> (CALS). Dr. Sid Thakur<\/a>, professor, director of Global Health for CVM and NC State, and Dr. Luke Borst<\/a>, associate professor of Veterinary Anatomic Pathology, work within the College of Veterinary Medicine<\/a> (CVM). Each mentor brings their own unique background and perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parzygnat says they each look through the project with a different lens, which she admits can be overwhelming due to so much feedback, but it is extremely beneficial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Koci agrees:  \u201cHaving four mentors allows her to learn multiple ways to address the same problem.  If you\u2019re working in just one lab, you see the world through that one prism. She gets to see it through all four.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Win-Win for All<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The mentors recognize the impact this fellowship can have on not only Parzygnat\u2019s future but future partnerships between the colleges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGraduate students are the best glue that binds [primary investigators] together,\u201d Dr. Thakur says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Koci adds, \u201cShe\u2019s helping us stitch together research from the four affiliated labs. There\u2019s so much synergy between CVM and [CALS]. This [project] will hopefully be the springboard to normalize and incentivize collaboration beyond the fellowship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FAI has the capacity to do ground-breaking work, and Dr. Thakur credits the two deans who have supported and worked toward the creation of this platform, bringing the two colleges together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, long-term productive collaborations require outside grants. The data generated from this fellowship could contribute to a strong track record of effective working relationships and accelerate funding for future students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parzygnat\u2019s Future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The fellowship is funded for three years, which Parzygnat calls a blessing. She will be conducting her research as she is working toward her PhD in the Comparative Biomedical Sciences program<\/a> with a concentration in population and global health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for after she earns her PhD, she says she\u2019s hoping to stay in academia, but she wants to \u201ckeep the doors open. I may want to do research, be a professor, and have my own research lab.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jessica Parzygnat’s Food Animal Initiative Fellowship at NC State seamlessly combines her passion for animal science and microbiology and is intended to improve food animal production in the state of North Carolina through collaborative research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":51,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"caption\":\"\",\"displayCategoryID\":7}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[9,11,13,14,17,18,19,20],"displayCategory":{"term_id":7,"name":"People","slug":"people","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodanimal.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}