Oklahoma City Zoo announces campaign for new veterinary hospital
The Oklahoma City Zoo sent out this press release about plans to raise $4.5 million capital campaign to build a new veterinary hospital. (You’ll be able to watch some animal surgeries. Gross.)
The Oklahoma Zoological Society announced the Commitment to Care capital campaign, a $4.5 million dollar fundraising campaign coupled with $4.5 million from the Oklahoma City Zoo to build a new veterinary hospital at the Oklahoma City Zoo. A new veterinary hospital is critical to protect and care for animals in the Oklahoma City Zoo and will be named the Joan Kirkpatrick Animal Hospital in honor of the late Joan Kirkpatrick, an avid animal lover and strong zoo supporter.
“We have adopted a bold vision that will showcase the very best treatment of the unique and fascinating wild animals entrusted to our care. The new Joan Kirkpatrick Animal Hospital is the first priority in our 10 year master plan and it is a pleasure to work together with the Oklahoma Zoological Society and our community to make this happen,” Dwight Scott, CEO/Director of the Oklahoma City Zoo said.
The current Joan Kirkpatrick Animal Health and Welfare Complex, located behind-the-scenes, has served admirably for the last 32 years. Yet at the last accrediting visit by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums the Zoo was cautioned that the current facility compromises the world class standards the Zoo strives to uphold.
“Technology has improved quite a bit in medicine since the last hospital was built. We have really outgrown our current facility and there are actually a few things we are limited in doing which hinders us a little bit in providing the enhanced quality of care that we know we can provide,” said Dr. Jennifer D’Agostino, Director of Veterinary Services. “Right now we can’t take certain animals to the hospital because they’re too big or we don’t have the space or the equipment.”
The new Joan Kirkpatrick Animal Hospital will provide veterinary staff the tools and space needed to provide the very best treatment to the wild animals entrusted to the Oklahoma City Zoo’s care. The new animal hospital will be located on Zoo grounds, will allow access to visitors and give them an unprecedented look into a suite where exams, surgeries, medications and treatment procedures are taking place. This new state-of-the-art animal hospital will ensure the Oklahoma City Zoo remains one of the nation’s leading authorities in zoological animal care and demonstrates the Zoo’s Commitment to Care.
Dana McCrory, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Zoological Society stated, “Since the day it was founded, the Oklahoma Zoological Society has worked hard to fulfill its mission to support and promote the Oklahoma City Zoo. This partnership between the Oklahoma City Zoo and the Oklahoma Zoological Society truly showcases how the public and private sectors can work together for the greatest common good. We invite everyone to be a part of this campaign, whether through a traditional or non-traditional gift, there are many ways to show your Commitment to Care!”
To make a donation to the Commitment to Care campaign visit zoofriends.com/commitment-to-care or call 405-425-0611.
OZS was created in 1954 to support and promote the Oklahoma City Zoo and its four purposes of education, conservation, zoological research and recreation. OZS does this through membership drives, fund-raising, capital campaigns, marketing, special events and public relations.
OSU Veterinary Center workers honored for inventions
Here’s some exciting info about two animal folks honored for their work diseases:
The Oklahoma State University Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) recognized 23 inductees during its inaugural induction ceremony earlier this month. Among those honored were Drs. Sahlu Ayalew and Katherine Kocan of OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.
Sahlu Ayalew, Ph.D., Assistant Research Professor, is part of a Veterinary Pathobiology team that studies Mannheimia haemolytica, a bacterium that is one of the causative agents of bovine respiratory disease (BRD). The team’s goal is to develop protective vaccines against this bacterium. BRD costs the beef industry more than a billion dollars per year. The team’s research involves, identifying immunogenic proteins of M. haemolytica by immunoproteomic methods, mapping regions (epitopes) of candidate proteins and genetically engineering single vaccines (chimeric or multivalent vaccines) that contain immunodominant epitopes from several proteins. Over the past few years, the team has secured two U.S. patents and the work is ongoing.
Katherine Kocan, Ph.D., OSU Regents Professor, Walter Sitlington Endowed Chair in Food Animal Research and Fellow, Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, is known internationally for her work with ticks and tick-borne diseases. She leads a team that partnered with researchers at the University of Minnesota to develop a cell culture system (the first in vitro system of growing the pathogen outside of a tick or cow) for Anaplasma marginale (the organism that causes bovine anaplasmosis, a tick-borne disease of cattle). The patent involves the method of growing the rickettsia, Anaplasma marginale, in cultured tick cells and for the use of antigens generated from this system in vaccine formulations.
According to the NAI’s information, the academy ‘supports the systematic application of organized knowledge and information that can generate technology and produce creative solutions to existing problems. Inventors are the discoverers and creators of these solutions and, as such, are key contributors to the advancement of technology.’
“OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences is proud to have such forward thinking researchers,” says Dr. Jean Sander, dean of the veterinary center. “New technologies or inventions play a key role in the economic development of the world and the veterinary center’s researchers make an important contribution to that system.”
National Bite Prevention Week
National Bite Prevention Week kicks off today. Check out this video from a really wonderful group called Prevent the Bite.
Even orangutans say Thunder Up!
Toba, an orangutan at the Oklahoma City Zoo, is making this face because she found out Metta World Peace is coming to town. I feel that way, too, Toba. I feel that way, too.
