VERONA, Wis. (September 11, 2008) — The National Mastitis Research Foundation board of directors selected four graduate students – Rick Watters, Jennifer McCarron, Patrícia Yoshida Faccioli and Wilma Steeneveld – as recipients in NMC’s Scholars program. These students share a common interest – controlling mastitis and improving milk quality. The program’s purpose is to provide funding for recipients to attend the NMC 48th Annual Meeting, Jan. 25-28, 2008, in Charlotte, N.C., and encourage their involvement in NMC activities.
Watters is pursuing a doctorate degree at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y. He received a bachelor’s degree in dairy science and agronomy, and master’s degree in dairy science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An enthusiastic student and teacher, his current research focuses on the pre-milking routine and how efficiencies in milking can be achieved by manipulating this process. Watters hopes to develop the “gold standard” pre-milking routine for today’s high-producing dairy herds. His research evaluates the importance of forestripping or not forestripping, and the optimal lag time for tactile stimulation until milking unit attachment.
McCarron, an Atlantic Veterinary College master’s degree student, also earned her doctor of veterinary degree from Atlantic Veterinary College, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. She received her bachelor’s degree from Nova Scotia Agricultural College. McCarron’s interest in controlling mastitis and improving milk quality lies in the experiences she gained during her bovine ambulatory service residency program. She describes her research in on-farm diagnostics of mastitis as very practical and stimulates genuine interest from producers and veterinarians. Her research project’s goal is to reduce antibiotic use in Canada for treating mastitis by allowing producers to make treatment decisions based on milk culture results.
Steeneveld is pursuing her doctorate degree from Utrecht University, in The Netherlands. Previously, she earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in animal sciences, with specializations in animal breeding, genetics and business economics at Wageningen University. Steeneveld’s current research uses on-farm data and decision support models to improve udder health on farms with automatic milking systems. This research will contribute to developing detection models to control mastitis on dairy farms with these systems. Additionally, she will develop decision support models on what to do with detected cases of clinical mastitis.
Faccioli, São Paulo, Brazil, a Universidade Estadual Paulista master’s degree student in veterinary medicine, is conducting research on molecular detection of Staphylococcus aureus in bulk milk tanks of bovine herds, under refrigerated and room temperature conditions. Her research objectives include evaluating the sensitivity of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) assay and comparing with microbiological techniques to detect Staph. aureus in bulk milk; detecting enterotoxigenic Staph. aureus strains by researching staphylococcal enterotoxin encoding genes sea, seb, sec and sed; and detecting the staphylococcal enterotoxins A, B, C and D.
NMC (formerly the National Mastitis Council) is a not-for-profit professional organization devoted to reducing mastitis and enhancing milk quality. NMC promotes research and provides information to the dairy industry on udder health, milking management, milk quality and milk safety. Founded in 1961, NMC now has close to 2,000 members in more than 40 countries throughout the world. NMC is headquartered in Verona, Wis.
