MEDIA TIPSHEET: Colorado State University Experts Available to Talk About Current Flu Outbreak

Note to Editors: The following is a media tip sheet that includes information about experts and resources at Colorado State University. The contact information for experts is intended to provide resources to reporters and editors and is not intended as contact information for the public. To arrange interviews, please contact the person listed with each topic.

Current Flu Outbreak and the U.S. Animal Population: Colorado State University veterinarians can discuss the current flu outbreak on the US animal population. They can help the public understand why there is no current health risk to people from pigs in the US, the current safety of the US food supply, how the flu virus impacts pigs and how it may be transmitted between humans and pigs in rare cases, and how this current outbreak has not been tied to a transmission from pig, but why it’s still being call ‘swine flu.’ They also can discuss clinical signs in animals, biosecurity around animals and how influenza viruses that impact animals can also impact humans. To speak to these experts, who are professors in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, contact Dell Rae Moellenberg at (970) 491-6009 or DellRae.Moellenberg@colostate.edu.

Response to the Current Outbreak: Colorado State University immunology and pathology professor Gerald Callahan is also an expert in helping the public understand complex scientific issues. He is available to talk about how this outbreak of H1N1 — swine flu — compares to notable past flu outbreaks or pandemics; the appropriateness of the response of media, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization; and the basic biology of the virus and precautions people should take. To speak with Callahan, please contact Dell Rae Moellenberg at 970-491-6009 or DellRae.Moellenberg@colostate.edu.

Food Safety: Colorado State University food safety expert Marisa Bunning can discuss the current safety of food in the United States. This includes addressing questions about how the current flu cannot be contracted by eating pork and that the flu is not being passed through food imported into the United States from Mexico. To speak with Bunning, please contact Dell Rae Moellenberg at (970) 491-6009 or DellRae.Moellenberg@colostate.edu.

International travel: Jim Cooney, vice provost for International Affairs, and Martha Denney, director of International Education, can talk in general about the impact of outbreaks such as swine flu on students, faculty and staff who have international projects and travel. Before joining Colorado State in 2006, Cooney served as executive director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University – the largest research center in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard. Prior to that, he served as the dean of international programs and a lecturer in public policy for Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. To speak with Cooney or Denney, contact Emily Wilmsen at (970) 491-2336 or Emily.Wilmsen@colostate.edu.

-30-