Tip of the Iceberg
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) continues to be a devastating disease to the U.S. poultry industry.
Two recent outbreaks have led to the death of hundreds of millions of birds with a total cost in the U.S. alone in the billions of dollars.
What’s scary is that HPAI is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to poultry infectious diseases.
That’s where the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Iowa State University’s (ISU) College of Veterinary Medicine comes on the scene where a nascent poultry medicine program has been established with a single focus.
“Our mandate from our leadership was clear,” said Dr. Yuko Sato, associate professor and poultry extension veterinarian. “We had access to highly specialized veterinary diagnostics infrastructure and expertise, and we should use that to build a nationally recognized poultry medicine program to serve the unaddressed needs of the poultry industry.”
Sato is joined in ISU’s program by Dr. Mohamed El-Gazzar, associate professor, and Dr. Silvia Carnaccini, assistant professor. The trio focuses on day-to-day endemic diseases that affect the poultry industry. Over the past 10 years, these faculty experts have built a program in tight communication with poultry veterinarians across the country.
“We pride ourselves on being responsive to the diagnostic needs of the industry,” El-Gazzar said. “Our program was built on more than just testing and results produced in our diagnostic lab.”
The ISU poultry team utilizes a complete professional service model to address gaps in the field of poultry medicine, which include the accurate and timely identification and characterization of disease; recognizing and addressing gaps in the abilities and knowledge of the disease; and delivering newly generated knowledge through extension and other outreach activities.
“By adopting this model, our poultry medicine program has grown both in size and impact,” Carnaccini said. “These research projects that are directly addressing chronic and emerging needs has also allowed us to significantly grow our team.”
In addition to the three core faculty members, the team consists of five PhD students and three postdocs. It has also resulted in a three-fold increase in the number of poultry cases submitted to the Iowa State diagnostic lab as well as a seven-fold increase in the number of poultry test offerings.
The team has also been awarded a number of research grants that focus on the many, understudied poultry infectious diseases.
“Every case and every test is equivalent to poultry flock and a poultry producers somewhere being served,” El-Gazzar said. “By focusing on the underserved and poorly understood poultry diseases, we are able to affect the biggest difference in people’s lives. But the need is greater than we have ever imagined. We are barely scratching the surface.
“It is just the tip of the iceberg.”
June 2026