Zuelke steps in as head of government's animal disease center

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Kurt A. Zuelke, PhD, took over as director of the Department of Agriculture's National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, June 6.

For the past year, Dr. Zuelke, an animal reproductive physiologist, served as the USDA's representative on the President's Science and Technology Council. He spent several years at the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Biotechnology and Germplasm Laboratory in Beltsville, Md.

Dr. Zuelke's recent research focused on discovering and understanding the molecular mechanisms that lead to early embryonic death in swine.

A closer collaboration between the ARS, which oversees the NADC, and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which operates the National Veterinary Services Laboratories and the Center for Veterinary Biologics, is reportedly one of Dr. Zuelke's goals as director.

The National Animal Disease Center conducts basic and applied research on select diseases of economic importance to the U.S. livestock and poultry industries.