Feature: MSU To Open Animal Critical-Care Unit

            MSU’s Veterinary Medicine Center begins work on its second major addition within one year.

           Groundbreaking ceremonies were held January at MSU for a new critical-care unit that will provide much-needed care for horses and other large animals. The Matilda R. Wilson Pegasus Critical Care Center will allow the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine to provide critical care to large animals with infectious diseases, as well as teaching and research opportunities for faculty and students in an approximately 9,000-square-foot facility.

            “Newly emerging infectious diseases are a major threat to horses and farm animals, as well as humans,” says Lonnie King, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. “Neonatal foals are particularly susceptible to these diseases.”

            Once completed, the new center will be home to a number of special features, including a specialized ventilation system that will prevent the spread of infectious diseases; modern manure disposal facilities; 10 individual isolation stalls; and on-site clinical pathology laboratories.

            The center will also house a conference room equipped with video equipment that will not only enhance teaching, but will allow clients to visit their sick animals. “This will give clients access to their animals without having to worry about the spreading of infectious diseases,” says Frederik Derksen, a professor of large animal clinical sciences who has been involved in the project since its inception. The conference room is named in honor of Linda and David Mehney of Grand Rapids who have been longtime supporters of the college.

            The center is named in honor of Matilda R. Wilson, a former member of the MSU Board of Trustees whose foundation donated $5 million to the center. Wilson was on the MSU board from 1931 through 1937.  Pegasus was the name of one of her favorite harness ponies. The donation from the Matilda R. Wilson Fund will cover construction of the facility, as well as endow two “Wilson Scholars” – residents who will care for critically ill animals.

            Wilson left the bulk of her estate to the Matilda R. Wilson Fund, which has supported a number of projects in the College of Veterinary Medicine, including the Matilda R. Wilson Chair, which is held by N. Edward Robinson, a professor in the Dept. of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, and the Meadow Brook Endowed Chair in Farm Animal Health and Well Being, which is held by Lorraine Sordillo-Gandy. In addition, MSU has honored the Wilson family by naming residence halls —Wilson East and Wilson West—and a thoroughfare—Wilson Road—after them.

            The new center will be located in the southwest corner of the existing Veterinary Medical Center, with close proximity to the McPhail Equine Performance Center. It’s the second major addition to the Veterinary Medical Center within the past year.  Last year, work began on the Comparative Oncology Center, a 42,000-square-foot facility that will diagnose and treat veterinary cancers.  Slated to open later this year, the center will house a linear accelerator, which provides radiation treatment for cancer patients, as well as modern exam rooms, holding facilities and offices.

THE VET MED BOOM

            Things are hopping these days at the College of Veterinary Medicine.  Some recent examples:

• The Pegasus Center is the second new major addition at the Veterinary Medical Center.  Construction began last year on the Comparative Oncology Center, a state-of-the-art facility that will diagnose and treat cancer (see Fall 2004, p. 7).  The 42,000-gross-square-foot facility will house a linear accelerator, which provides radiation treatment for cancer patients, as well as modern exam rooms, holding facilities and offices.
• Last year saw the grand opening of the Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health, a 152,000-gross-square-foot facility that is an integral part of the state’s fight against such diseases as bovine tuberculosis and West Nile virus, as well as its efforts to prevent diseases such as chronic wasting disease and foot-and-mouth disease. The center is a $58 million cooperative project between MSU and the state of Michigan’s departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture (see pp. 22-23, Summer 2004).
• The College of Veterinary Medicine is also home to the Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center.  By combining such traditional diagnostic techniques as radiology, ultrasound and arthroscopy with cutting-edge methods such as computerized gait analysis, the facility is one of the nation’s foremost centers for diagnosis and treatment of performance problems in sport horses. The center opened in June 2000.
• In October, Lonnie King, dean of MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences—an honor usually reserved for physicians.  King, a national expert on zoonotic diseases, food safety and veterinary preventive medicine, was one of only two veterinarians selected this year.  He currently is serving on his fourth NAS panel that is reviewing this country’s animal health disease preparedness.