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A $595,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has been awarded to support new research into liver abscesses in beef cattle, a costly and persistent issue in the livestock industry.
Dr. Emilie Baker, assistant professor of animal science in the Department of Agricultural Sciences, will lead this project, which focuses on understanding how liver abscesses affect overall liver function at the molecular level.
Baker, a geneticist, will study the tissue surrounding liver abscesses to determine whether the rest of the liver continues normal metabolic activity or shifts toward immune response functions.
"Instead of the liver doing its normal metabolism work, is it doing more immune work?" Baker said. "I got this idea from cancer studies and other liver disorders, including fibrosis. How far out does that tumor affect function? It's more than you can see with your eyeballs."
Her study is one of 19 projects nationwide focused on animal nutrition, growth and lactation that collectively received approximately $10 million in NIFA funding. Baker hopes the research will uncover key cellular processes that contribute to healing and provide new insight into how abscesses impact animal performance.
"There has been a lot of work in our department in regard to what causes abscesses and how you can control them, but I'm hoping this grant can provide a molecular viewpoint of how an abscess affects overall liver function," she said.
The project builds on the university's long-standing leadership in liver abscess research. Dr. Ty Lawrence, Caviness Davis Distinguished Chair in Meat Science, emphasized the importance of the work.
"By mapping the tissue adjacent to a liver abscess, we are finally moving beyond simply identifying the presence and severity of abscesses to understanding their impact," Lawrence said. "This will allow us to see exactly how these lesions disrupt systemic metabolism, providing a biochemical link between liver pathology and the resulting declines in feed efficiency and animal growth performance."
WT has been at the forefront of live abscess research in feedlot cattle since the 1970s, with continued advancements through major grant-funded projects and collaborative efforts.
This latest award further strengthens ongoing efforts to address critical challenges facing the beef industry through innovative, science-based research.
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