Martyrdom, Conjuring, Diablo Triptych

Shanna Nelson, University of Missouri

Creative Corner, Winner

Reese for Real

Julia Hill, University of Georgia

Creative Corner, Winner 

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Merry Kroeger

Foot In Mouth Disease, Honorable Mention

Some of my all-time favorite jokes have been passed down to me by my dad. Others have been told by fellow classmates. Enjoy and laugh!

1) It was bright and early the next morning when Farmer Jones decided to go visit his neighbor, Farmer Brown. You see, a horrendous storm had passed through the night before, (including a tornado), causing a lot of damage to the countryside. Farmer Jones was a bit worried and wanted to make sure his neighbor was alright. So he trekked over to Farmer Brown's house and knocked on the neighbor's front door. Farmer Brown answered.

"That was quite a storm we had last night." said Farmer Jones.

"Yeah it was. Did you have much damage to your barn?" asked Farmer Brown.

"Not bad Farmer Brown. But it could have been worse. How about you? Did you have much damage to your barn?" asked Farmer Jones.

"I don't know. I haven't found it yet!" exclaimed Farmer Brown.

2) Q: What do you call a cow that just had a calf?

A: DE-CALFINATED!

3) My parents worked several summers at a retreat center in Colorado that hosted for families and churches. One of the fun activities offered at the center for the visitors was horseback riding. The following statement was used to describe the trail horses that best fit the needs of the visitors:

"We have horses of all shapes and sizes, folks! We have small horses for small people. We have large horses for large people. We have short horses for short people, and tall horses for tall people. And for people who have never ridden a horse, we have horses that have never been ridden!"  

"It's Not What It Looks Like!"

Blair Dingler, Texas A&M University

Life as a Vet Student, Honorable Mention

As my first year has come to an end, one of my best pieces of advice for future vet students is to find friends as quickly as possible. Spending multiple hours at school learning endless amounts of information is a grueling task, and my friends are definitely the reason I made it out of first year alive. With that said, our friendship hasn’t been smooth sailing from the start. I’m here to tell the story of how social media and iPhones can betray even the most innocent of actions.

After three long days of orientation, all I wanted to do was relax at home. I was hanging out with Heather, whom I had met at a welcome dinner earlier that week and instantly clicked with. I was requesting anyone and everyone in my class to be my friend on Facebook. Shortly after sending Manny (fellow first year) a friend request, he messaged me and told me that he was going to Chimy’s that night with some vet school friends if I wanted to join. Heather and I decided to go and began inviting other people we had met that week. She decided to send a Facebook message to Ben (her first vet school friend) telling him of our evening plans. We were both excited to widen our circle of friends and get to know our classmates better.

We got ready for the night and headed to Chimy’s to meet up with everyone. Ben had never responded to Heather’s message so we assumed he wasn’t attending. Upon arrival, we were surprised to see Ben already there and sitting at a table with Manny and Cameron (first year as well as Manny’s roommate). We all said “Hey!” to one another and started chatting. As I was talking with Manny and Cameron, Heather approached Ben and asked why he hadn’t responded to her message. Ben, who is one of the nicest guys I know, wanted to defend his honor. He hadn’t ignored her message, so he checked his phone to see if he had gotten it. He promptly unlocked his phone with Heather looking over his shoulder, which was a mistake. His phone unlocked to a zoomed in photo of Heather’s face. Zoomed in. On Heather’s face. What he hadn’t remembered is that he had told the guys Heather was coming to Chimy’s. Ben had showed them her profile picture so they would know who she was and had locked his phone with the picture on the screen.

As you can guess, Ben was mortified. When we talked about the incident at a later date, he said he thought his heart stopped beating for a second. Heather, surprised, only uttered a shocked “Oh!” Ben immediately began backtracking, saying,  “It’s not what it looks like! I can explain!” He then proceeded to clarify why a zoomed in picture of her face was the first thing on screen upon unlocking his phone, and they both laughed it off.

Even though I wasn’t directly involved in the situation, it’s still one of my top five favorite stories from first year. It sealed their fate as friends and helped solidify us as a group, but I wouldn’t suggest trying to make friends that way as it can lead to a very awkward encounter. 

Amphibian Microbiomes as Indicators of Individual and Environmental Health

Sarah Leyman, The Ohio State University

Cases/Abstracts, Winner

AMPHIBIAN MICROBIOMES AS INDICATORS OF INDIVIDUAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Sarah Leyman¹, Barbara Wolfe¹, Paula Mouser² 

¹The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, 1900 Coffey Road, Columbus, OH, USA

²The Ohio State University Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodectic Engineering, 2070 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH, USA

Amphibians depend on their cutaneous microbial community as a first line of immune defense against disease. However, very few studies have been performed to characterize the bacterial genera found on the skin of different amphibian species and under different water quality conditions.  The goal of this study was to classify the bacterial genera present on the skin of two Lithobates species living in lakes of highly variant water characteristics on a reclaimed surface mine.  A second objective was to develop a baseline frog microbiome library on the site prior to shale gas exploration in order to monitor microbiome changes in association with environmental disturbance. Northern green frogs (Lithobates clamitans melanota) and American bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeiana) were caught from 10 different lakes on the Wilds in Cumberland, OH.  Skin swabs were collected following a sterile saline solution rinse for bacterial characterization and to test for Batrachochytrium dendrobatiditis (Bd), the etiologic agent of amphibian chytridiomycosis.  Pharyngeal swabs were taken to test for ranavirus, another emerging disease of amphibians, and blood samples were collected to assess the heterophil-lymphocyte ratio as an indicator of stress. Water quality parameters were documented and water samples collected for chemical analysis at the time of frog capture for each site. The DNA was extracted from the bacterial swabs and sequenced using 454 pyro-sequencing.  At least one frog from each site tested was positive for Bd, but no frogs were positive for ranavirus.  Water quality among sites varied with regard to pH (4.10 to 8.66), conductivity (137.5 μS/cm to 3.51 mS/cm), ionic content, and dissolved organic carbon (0.13 mg/L to 11.7 mg/L).  Our study identified over 300 different genera of microbes representing 68 orders present on frogs on this site. Water quality parameters were found to be associated with differential microbial colonization and physiologic parameters.

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