Dean's Grand Rounds

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

8 AM

Auditorium

In December 2022, the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine was instrumental in diagnosing and treating several horses in Louisiana infected with a suspected toxin. The investigation revealed a much wider problem, as the culprit was alfalfa cubes infected with Clostridium botulinum type C, which causes botulism. The quick resolution of this issue would not have been possible without the combined efforts of farm owners and staff, LSU Vet Med, LADDL, LDAF, UC Davis, and the FDA.

Rose Baker, BVMS, DACVIM (LAIM), assistant professor of equine medicine, and Jonathan Roberts, DVM, director of the commercial feed program with LDAF, will discuss how they worked together to discover what was harming these horses.

Dr. Rose Baker

Rose Baker is a native of Virginia and is currently an assistant professor of equine medicine at the Louisiana State University, School of Veterinary Medicine.  She completed her undergraduate education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland before moving to the United Kingdom to attend vet school at the University of Glasgow, School of Veterinary Medicine, where she graduated in 2012. She moved back to the United State and completed an equine rotating internship in 2013 at North Carolina State University, then moved to Oregon to undertake a large animal clinical fellowship at Oregon State University. She stayed at OSU to undertake a large animal internal medicine residency and a masters of Comparative Health Sciences which she completed in 2017.  She started her current position here after completing her residency and at LSU her clinical responsibilities in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital are divided between the hospital-based equine medicine service and the primary care ambulatory service.

Dr. Jonathan Roberts

Jonathan L. Roberts, DVM, MS, is a Veterinarian and Director of the Feed Program Division within the Office of Animal Health & Food Safety under the Louisiana State Department of Agriculture & Forestry (LDAF). In addition to his appointment at LDAF, Dr. Roberts serves as an Assistant Professor (Gratis) for the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center (LSU AgCenter) Extension Service. Prior to earning a DVM degree from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in January 2008, Dr. Roberts received his BS and MS degree from Louisiana State University within the School of Animal Sciences. His graduate career was devoted to Reproductive Physiology and Biotechnology under Boyd Professor, Dr. Robert Godke. As a LDAF Regulatory Veterinarian and Director of the Feed Program Division, Dr. Roberts has applied his knowledge and experiences to food animal regulation, reportable diseases, foreign animal diseases, zoonotic diseases, biosecurity, animal food regulation and veterinary field investigations. He has been trained in USDA APHIS Program Diseases and as a Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostician (FADD) at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. As an Assistant Professor (Gratis) with the LSU AgCenter, Dr. Roberts collaborates on research involving cattle, captive cervids, native wildlife and feral swine. In addition to his LSU AgCenter appointment, he also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the LSU Bob R. Jones Wildlife Institute. Prior to his career with LDAF, Dr. Roberts was the owner and private practitioner at Country Roads Veterinary Services, an Equine/Livestock ambulatory practice based in Zachary, LA. As a private practitioner, Dr. Roberts has provided veterinary services for livestock, captive wildlife, exotic hoof-stock and has provided veterinary services for the LSU AgCenter Bob R. Jones Idlewild Research Station since 2008, which houses beef cattle, captive White-tailed Deer and Red Deer.