Veterinary college alumni are at forefront of effort to contain avian flu and its impacts
Virginia Tech reports on how alumni from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine are on the front lines in the battle to control the impacts of the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak, spread by a strain of the H5N1 virus, that has resulted in the deaths of more than 58 million birds in the U.S. since the first case was discovered in February 2022. Fidelis Hegngi and Christina Loiacono — who both graduated in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine class at Virginia Tech in 1994 – are two highly ranking officials working on the outbreak in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “The 2015 [avian flu] outbreak is what we used to say was the worst,” said Hegngi, a senior staff veterinarian in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) who has been at work on national avian flu policy for almost two decades. “Now, ’22-'23 is the largest highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak ever recorded in the United States and arguably the most significant animal health event in U.S. history, ever.”
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