Both Texas A&M and the University of Missouri have acclaimed
veterinary colleges, and the two schools have frequently
collaborated on work involving animals. A current project could
have a huge impact on the beef industry. James Womack, the W.P.
Luse Endowed and Distinguished Professor in Texas A&M’s College
of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, has partnered with
Missouri colleague Jerry Taylor to work on a five-year grant to
study bovine respiratory disease, commonly called BRD. It is a
$9.2 million project to find ways to prevent the disease and
funding comes from the Department of Agriculture’s National
Institute of Food and Agriculture. For cattle owners, BRD is
major threat – it is the leading cause of disease in beef and
dairy cattle and it annually causes losses approaching $1
billion in the cattle industry. “It’s a disease that can really
be devastating for ranchers,” Womack says of the project. “It
can sometimes be fatal, but the overall lack of production from
cattle that have the disease i