The National Mastitis Council (NMC) named Andrew Sommer, University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a 2024 Scholar. Sommer along with seven other graduate students won an expense-paid trip to attend the 63rd NMC Annual Meeting. The meeting is scheduled for Jan. 29-Feb. 1 in Dallas. This program strives to support the development of future udder health, milking management and milk quality specialists.
Sommer’s research seeks to understand the role of biting Stomoxys calcitrans (stable fly) in the transmission of mastitis-causing bacteria. Flies have long been implicated as potential vectors of bovine mastitis-causing bacteria due to their close association with raw manure and soiled bedding, which sustain large fly populations and serve as a reservoir for opportunistic bacterial pathogens. His research uses sequencing and traditional microbiological techniques to characterize biting fly-associated microbial communities and to determine the associated incidence of mastitis pathogen carriage.
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