Vet student, Samantha Haller, is hoping to unravel bovine respiratory disease mysteries

A second-year veterinary student returned to her home state this summer and not only honed her career path, but she is helping combat the No. 1 cause of illness and death in cattle worldwide.

Samantha Haller graduated with a degree in physiology from the University of Wyoming in 2017 and entered the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University. She was accepted this summer into the diagnostic externship program in the UW Department of Veterinary Sciences.

The Cheyenne native has been working in the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory (WSVL) and conducting research into bovine respiratory disease complex (BRD).

He says Haller has been engaged in her project and with other work such as examining diagnostic cases and she assists with necropsies.

The department has hosted veterinary students interested in veterinary diagnostics in externship programs since 1983. Haller entered the externship not knowing if she wanted to specialize or become a general practitioner. She’s figured out she wants to pursue pathology.

Haller says she job shadowed a lot in pre-vet programs and would send away samples from diseased or ill animals, but she would never know the results because she would not be at the facility the next day.

She also says working at the animal shelter in Cheyenne was difficult because she would see animals suffering medically or behaviorally, and not know why.

The WSVL also tests large amounts of live animal samples. In 2019, the WSVL tested well over 100,000 samples from cattle in Wyoming and surrounding states.

BRD accounts for 65 percent to 80 percent of the sickness and 45 percent to 75 percent of the deaths in some feedlots, according to the Beef Cattle Research Council. BRD costs feedlots billions of dollars a year.

O’Toole says BRD is the most important single disease entity worldwide in terms of cattle illness and deaths.

Her research looks at the roles of Histophilus somni and Mycoplasma bovis in past cases.

She is using two methods on these pneumonia cases: PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and immunohistochemistry.

Preserved tissue is archived for 10 years after a diagnostic case is reported.

Histophilus somni and Mycoplasma bovis have been challenging to rank in terms of their importance in pneumonia.

Testing should determine if standard methods are sensitive enough to accurately identify all of the major infectious causes of pneumonia in individual animals.

In addition to her work, Haller has been answering questions from pre-vet students about vet school. She has advice for younger students looking to apply to veterinary schools.

“Don’t let anyone discourage you from applying,” she says. “I heard a lot of (from students) ‘vet schools are so hard to get into.’ It is competitive but, if you are doing the things you’re supposed to be doing, you’ll probably be fine. And, also, just enjoy where you are at in school. I had a great time as an undergrad, and I’m having a great time in vet school.”