The Verocai Parasitology Lab proudly represented at the 30th International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP 2025) this August in Curitiba, Brazil! This was a global gathering of veterinary parasitologists that meets every two years. Our team presented five exciting projects, including:

Dr. Tiana Sanders – Molecular Characterization of Spirometra Isolates across the USA (Poster)

Maureen Kelly – High Seroprevalence of Selected Vector-Borne Pathogens in Dogs from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands (Oral)

Ian Daniel – An open-source MALDI-TOF MS Reference Database for the Identification of Major Tick Vectors in North America (Oral)

Dr. Gui Verocai – two oral presentations covering

• High Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Parasites of Dogs from Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, including the Zoonotic Ancylostoma ceylanicum and

• Comparative Performance of the Novel, Point-of-Care Pluslife MiniDock Dirofilaria immitis/Dirofilaria repens Detection Test with the Modified Knott’s test in Dogs

Beyond the scientific sessions, our team experienced Curitiba’s remarkable blend of innovation and nature, from its stunning botanical gardens to its pioneering urban wildlife parks featuring capybaras. The eco-friendly conference venue provided the perfect setting for advancing veterinary parasitology research.

This conference energized us with new collaborations and fresh insights that will shape our research for years to come. We’re already looking forward to WAAVP 2027 in Berlin, Germany!

The Verocai Lab participated in the Triennial Symposium of the American Heartworm Society in Fort Worth, Texas from September 4-7th.

Four of our members attended and shared our research findings through 2 oral presentations and 4 posters! 

Both Dr. Gui Verocai and Dr. Pabasara Weerarathne were invited speakers and gave an oral presentation and participated in a round table around heartworm diagnostics. Maureen Kelly presented 3 posters on both her heartworm and Onchocerca lupi research, and Dr. Tiana Sanders presented a poster on molecular diagnostics targeting the Wolbachia endosymbiont, which was awarded the 3^rd place in the student poster presentation competition.

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Undergraduate students from both the Verocai and Saleh Lab took place in this years Student Research Week at Texas A&M University! We are very proud of Andre Duarte and Alexa Tapia for their wonderful contributions at SRW and being excellent ambassadors to our thriving labs. See below for more pictures of the event and their research that they presented!

Evaluation of Zoetis Vetscan Imagyst for Detection of Spirometra spp. in Feline and Canine Fecal Samples

Andre I. Duarte, Meriam N. Saleh, Alexa K. Mendoza, Joe L. Luksovsky, Guilherme G. Verocai

Probe-Based Real-Time Qualitative PCR (qPCR) Targeting Wolbachia in Combination with Other Standard Diagnostic Tests for Detection of Dirofilaria immitis

Alexa K. Tapia, Maureen A. Kelly, Tiana L. Sanders, Mary Schech, Emily Orr, Pabasara Weerarathne, Hassan Hakimi, Guilherme G. Verocai

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Dr. Verocai participated in the Fall meeting of the National Center for Veterinary Parasitology (NCVP) in Stillwater, Oklahoma from October 8-10^th. Since 2022, Dr. Verocai serves as a member of the NCVP’s Academic Advisory Board, along with other faculty at Oklahoma State University, Cornell University, University of Guelph, Iowa State University, and Colorado State University. During the annual fall meeting, academic members, industry board members and residents participate in various activities, including a grant review panel, resident’s research updates and training sessions, discussion of other pertinent businesses, and social activities.

The mission of the NCVP is further the discipline of veterinary parasitology by bringing together partners from academia and industry to address emerging issues. In addition, the NCVP serves the veterinary profession by developing future leaders in veterinary parasitology and by supporting diagnostic and consulting services.

To date, the NCVP has funded residency training for 15 residents at 10 universities totaling over $3,000,000 in support of advanced training in veterinary parasitology (including 2 past TAMU residents!). After this cycle, the grant program has disbursed over $1,000,000 to fund veterinary parasitology research at 28 academic institutions across the US and Canada (including various TAMU projects!).

The six NCVP industry sponsors are, in alphabetical order: Antech Diagnostics, Boehringer Ingelheim, Elanco Animal Health, IDEXX, Merck Animal Health, and Zoetis.

This summer the Verocai Lab traveled to Atlanta, GA for the 69th Annual American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists Meeting. Verocai Lab brought a variety of diverse parasitology work to share and all attending lab members gave outstanding oral presentations this year! We are very proud of our whole team and we had an amazing time reconnecting with our colleagues in the field! Take a look below to see all the original research (and fun!) the Verocai Lab was involved in.

Oral Presentation:

Ian Daniel (PhD Student): High prevalence of vector-borne pathogens identified among dogs in Chad, determined using a targeted next generation sequencing approach

Cora Garcia (Veterinary Student): Assessing the prevalence of Cryptosporidium and Giradia in captive and wild-caught snakes from Texas

Hassan Hakimi (Post-Doctoral): Assessing the reactivity of TRX and DUF148 antigens for detection of Guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis) infection in dogs

Kaylee Kipp (PhD Student): The wild side of bison nemabiome: species diversity and composition in US conservation herds

Maureen Kelly (PhD Student): Prevalence of zoonotic Onchocerca lupi in shelter dogs of an endemic region of the southwestern United States

Matthew Kulpa (PhD Student): Waiting in the wings: How recent arthropod sampling alters our understanding of vector-parasite assemblages of the northern Nearctic

Alex Mendoza (Veterinary Student): Molecular phylogenetic relationships Ornithodoros turicata collected throughout Texas

Tiana Sanders (PhD Student): SpiroDiversity: Molecular characterization of Spirometra isolates across the United States of America

Awards:

Young Investigator Travel Award – Ian Daniel, Cora Garcia, Kaylee Kipp, Maureen Kelly, Matthew Kulpa, Alex Mendoza, and Tiana Sanders

AAVP 2024!

AAVP Colleagues and Friends!

Kaylee and Tiana

Ian’s Presentation

Maureen’s Presentation

Hassan’s Presentation

Kaylee’s Presentation

Matthew’s Presentation

AAVP Colleagues and Friends!

AAVP Colleagues and Friends!

Ian and Kaylee

Verocail lab (minus Gui!)

Dr. Verocai recently went to Philadelphia as an invited speaker of the One Health in Action (OHiA) initiative at University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (PennVet). The hosts were a Verocai Lab alumni, former NCVP resident and postdoc, Dr. Caroline Sobotyk, who is now the Assistant Professor of Clinical Parasitology at PennVet, and Dr. Stephen Cole, Assistant Professor of Clinical Microbiology. This two-day visit had a packed itinerary including a trip to the New Bolton Center (NBC) located in Kennett Square. There, Dr. Verocai gave a seminar titled “Helminth parasites of North American ungulates: from biodiversity to drug resistance” directed to wildlife- and large animal-oriented faculty. The seminar shared results from Verocai Lab projects focusing on parasites of the North American Bison. This included gastrointestinal nematodes and resistance to benzimidazole anthelmintics led by Kaylee Kipp (PhD Student) and our findings on a previously uncharacterized species of the lungworm genus Dictyocaulus, led by Hannah Danks (4th year vet student), who started working in the lab as a 1st year vet student apart of VMSRTP and continued to be involved for many semesters after. In addition, Dr. Verocai had the opportunity to meet with various OHiA faculty members, those involved with the Wildlife Futures Program, and tour through the Large Animal Hospital and PADLS, the Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System. Back in Solar Eclipsed(!) Philly, Dr. Verocai met with Dr. Jenni Punt, Professor and Associate Dean of One Health, and participated in a Panel Discussion on “Zoonotic parasitic diseases and the impact of globalization and climate change on parasite transmissions” with vet student members of the One Health Club and the Parasitology Club.

The second day included a breakfast with vet students, a tour of PennVet’s Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital and the Microbiology/Parasitology Diagnostic Laboratories, and meeting with renowned researchers in Parasitology. To close this fruitful visit, Dr. Verocai delivered another seminar – “Zoonotic Helminths in Action in the US and Abroad”. This One Health-focused presentation highlighted our contributions to the knowledge on a few zoonotic helminths emerging in the US. Among these are our findings on the Onchocerca lupi led by Maureen Kelly (PhD Student), the eye-worm Thelazia callipaeda, and the rat lungworm, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which are the result of collaborative projects with different academic institutions. The second part of the seminar emphasized our involvement and contributions to the Guinea Worm Eradication Program, funded by The Carter Center, in which we focus on the discovery of diagnostic biomarkers and optimizing diagnostic tools for detection of Dracunculus medinensis infection in animal hosts. Much of our successes come from the outstanding work of Dr. Hassan Hakimi (postdoc) and the joint effort of the entire lab, including past and current members.

One Health, One Parasitology…

As always, The Verocai Lab strives to have a strong presence at Texas A&M and in the local community. So, we were thrilled to have three amazing talks at this year’s 2024 VMBS Trainee Research Symposium. Not only did each student give a informative, well-delivered talk about their own research area, but our very own Maureen Kelly won best oral presentation! Join us in congratulating Maureen, Kaylee, and Mary for representing Verocai Lab and unbelievable scientists.

Maureen Kelly (PhD student): Vector-borne pathogens in dogs of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands

Kaylee Kipp (PhD student): Low-level detection of benzimidazole drug resistance in wild conservation bison herds co-grazing cattle using nemabiome sequencing

Mary Schech (Veterinary student): Wolbachia-detection via qPCR as an alternative molecular and classical heartworm microfilariae detection test

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This summer the Verocai Lab returned to Lexington, KY for the 68th annual American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists Meeting. Not only did Verocai Lab bring a variety of diverse parasitology work to share, many lab members were the recipients of prestigious awards and scholarships! We are very proud of our whole team and had an amazing time reconnecting with our colleagues in the field! Take a look below for all the details on the amazing work by the lab.

Oral Presentation:

Poster Presentation:

Awards:

The Verocai Lab Team

Maureen giving her award-winning work on heartworm detection

Former superstar lab member Carol!

Colleagues Dr. Andrew Peregrine and Dr. John Gilleard

Matt giving his presentation on the cryptic parasites of cervids

Refueling and ready to learn!

Congratulations to Kaylee for giving a great talk at the Texas Bison Association (TBA) annual conference in Waco, Texas! Kaylee presented management strategies and how they relate to controlling parasite populations in ranched bison. She also wrote an article on the topic that was published in the TBA 2023 journal magazine! Great job, Kaylee!

To read Kaylee’s article in the 2023 TBA magazine, click the link below!

Texas Bison Association 2023 Journal Magazine

Hassan Hakimi and Kaylee Kipp both entered the poster/oral competition at this year’s VMBS Research Trainee Symposium and both were awarded distinguished awards including: the People’s Choice for Best Flash Talk (Kaylee Kipp), and 3rd place best poster (Hassan Hakimi). Please join us in congratulating their hard work and great science communication skills! Great job guys!