UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A new summer internship, which will be available to undergraduate students with a veterinary research interest, is the most recent in a series of collaborations spanning a century-old partnership between Penn State and South China Agricultural University.
The veterinary research program will be led by Huaguang Lu, a clinical professor in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences and avian virologist at Penn State's Animal Diagnostic Lab. Students in the program will travel for five to six weeks over the summer to South China Agricultural University (SCAU) in Guangdong and participate in research at Guangxi Veterinary Research Institute (GVRI) in Guangxi.
Since 2014, Lu has collaborated with GVRI to host an international summer internship program to provide students with the opportunity to explore and gain international experience related to their professional career development, as well as experience in conducting independent studies and assignments in animal disease research and investigation, diagnostic development, and disease control strategies. Beginning in the summer of 2018, he also will administer a course in laboratory diagnostics for emerging and highly pathogenic animal viral diseases at SCAU.
The course will teach students about the new and important animal diseases currently affecting animal industries. Expanding the program to include courses at SCAU is an opportunity for Chinese and American students to learn more about the different challenges and advantages each country faces with regard to veterinary studies, Lu explained.
"When I travel to China I'm able to demonstrate to students and other veterinary researchers there some of the latest laboratory technology and techniques. On the other hand, as scientists and research collaborators, we are able to see the different problems and situations that are present in China — for example, the fact that they have a huge amount of poultry production on such a large scale leads to newly-emerging poultry disease problems that we do not see in the United States."