Feature Story

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Individuals involved with tourism development in their communities or those just getting started can learn how to bolster their efforts by attending the Alabama-Mississippi Rural Tourism Conference Oct. 28-29 at the Holiday Inn in Columbus.

The conference is part of a continuing partnership among the Mississippi State University Extension Service, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and the Tennessee Tombigbee Tourism Association to promote tourism development in Alabama and Mississippi.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Daniel Rivera joined the Mississippi State University team that supports the state’s livestock industry when he accepted a position in September with the MSU Extension Service.

Rivera is the Extension livestock specialist for the southwest district and works from the Central Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Raymond. He is a member of MSU’s Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – The North Mississippi Research and Extension Center will have new leadership beginning Nov. 1 from a longtime Mississippi State University agricultural economist.

Melissa Mixon, interim director of MSU’s Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, announced on Oct. 9 that Cary “Bill” Herndon will assume the post, pending College Board approval.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi is joining other states in an effort to bring attention to renovation safety concerns during National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, Oct. 19-25.

Jane Clary, Mississippi State University’s Extension Service health specialist, said the Mississippi State Department of Health reports that hundreds of children are poisoned each year by lead, which can cause a variety of health problems, including brain damage and even death.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi State University professor Ed Martin spent nearly 40 years teaching landscape architecture students to use plants to create great outdoor spaces, and he felt others should understand this principle, too.

Soon after arriving at MSU in 1956, Martin began a partnership with the Garden Clubs of Mississippi to educate people about the function of the landscape. He started a design seminar open to the public.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Young people who desire a career in animal health but do not want to pursue a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree now have an alternative at Mississippi State University.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Veterinarian and ABC-TV “Good Morning America” contributor Dr. Marty Becker will bring his popular brand of wit and animal wisdom to Mississippi State University as keynote speaker for the College of Veterinary Medicine’s first ever Nestlé-Purina Human-Animal Bond Lecture Series Oct. 20-24.

"We are thrilled to have Dr. Becker as our keynote speaker,” said Dr. Jennifer Burgess, chair of the lecture series. “We have put together a week-long event that has appeal for anyone who has pets or whose life is touched by animals on farms, at zoos or in the wild.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Researchers may have found the secret to controlling a tiny insect that robs Mississippi landowners of an estimated 12 million cubic feet of pine forest each year.

Though only an eighth of an inch long, the Southern pine beetle is a big pest and difficult to contain. Scientists at Mississippi State University's Forest and Wildlife Research Center, along with colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, have made a breakthrough with the discovery of an antibiotic-producing bacterium.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi’s 4-H program will take part in the organization’s first National Youth Science Day on Oct. 11 at the Mississippi Trade Mart during the State Fair in Jackson.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A physically active Greenwood woman is working from a wheelchair today rather than on horseback a year into her battle with West Nile virus that left her with polio-like symptoms and partial paralysis.

Leann Hines contracted the virus in August 2007 and came down with West Nile virus polio syndrome, which caused asymmetrical paralysis.

“I was almost totally paralyzed,” Hines said. “If not for a really good neurologist in Jackson, I probably would not have survived.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi drivers know to look out year-round for deer trying to cross roads, but fall brings another driving challenge when farm machinery joins the vehicles on the road.

Herb Willcutt, agricultural engineer with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the state averages 125 collisions a year involving motorists and farm machinery.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Fox News Channel personality Steve Doocy will be the featured guest Oct. 12 for a department of food science, nutrition and health promotion fundraiser at Mississippi State.

Taking place at the Barnes & Noble at Mississippi State Bookstore, the 11 a.m.-2 p.m. program begins with a reception featuring various creative appetizers by Chef Roland Parny, university coordinator of culinary research and development. The attendance fee is $75.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi State University forestry students are combining the modern technology of computer laptops and flash drives with traditional saws, mallets and squares to learn the time-honored craft of timber framing.

Students who took the “Wood in Design and Engineering” course offered this spring experienced a hands-on laboratory in this art.

Once a popular construction method, the craft of timber framing dates back to 6220 B.C. In the early 1900s, Sears and similar retailers sold thousands of timber frame homes through mail-order catalogs.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- The College of Veterinary Medicine's ambulatory service is catching on as a win-win opportunity for Mississippi State University students and owners of large animals in the Starkville area and beyond.

Dr. David Christiansen, assistant professor in the Department of Pathobiology and Population Medicine, is spearheading the mobile service, which got under way in the fall of 2007. A fully equipped truck is available to take veterinarians and students off campus for routine or emergency care of horses, cattle, small ruminants and swine.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A former landscape architecture professor at Mississippi State University who influenced many professionals in the business today is coming back to campus to participate in a program he began in 1955.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Pet owners who discover their small animals have cancer have more hope than they would have had just a decade ago.

Mississippi State University's College of Veterinary Medicine has been part of a nationwide explosion in the study of oncology in dogs and cats. Veterinarians, who in years past could provide only a shoulder to cry on, now have many treatment options to offer pet owners.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A yearling quarter horse that was treated less than a year ago at Mississippi State University went on to become a world champion in August.

Veterinarians at MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine treated 20-month-old Touch My Imagination, or Ty, for a severe respiratory problem. He was named the world champion yearling quarter horse stallion Aug. 26 at the Bayer Select World Show in Amarillo, Texas. His owner is Connie Lee of Weatherford, Texas, formerly of Barton, Miss.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Quitman native John Michael Riley became an agricultural economist because he wanted to help solve problems producers face.

Through his involvement as a youth with 4-H, the National FFA Organization and the Mississippi Junior Cattlemen’s Association, Riley interacted with individuals dependent upon agriculture, and that interaction led to his desire to pursue his current profession.

By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi is a great lure for people who study butterflies and moths because of the unique habitats in the state and the Lepidoptera collection contained within Mississippi State University's renowned entomological museum.

The collecting opportunities and the museum significantly influenced The Lepidopterists' Society, an international association of professional researchers and amateur enthusiasts, to hold its 59th annual meeting in Mississippi for the first time this summer.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Wildlife watching, fee fishing, fee hunting and horse trail riding as outdoor recreational businesses will be discussed at a Sept. 30 workshop at Richardson’s Tree Farm in Brookhaven.