USD Magazine, Summer 2001

three pathologists in her office, reaches vet– erinary courses at the university and uncov– ers new diseases. She discovered a virus chat destroys pigeons' white blood cells, and another char causes deer co bleed out through cheir intestinal trace and accumulate fluid in their lungs. "Sometimes a disease has been there for a while, but nobody has recognized it," Woods explains. "Every once in a while we come across something new. Ir's exciting." T he deer virus killed a few thousand black-rail deer in northern Cali fo rnia from August 1993 co April 1994, and it also has been identified in white-rail deer in Wyoming and Canada. T he pigeon virus, called a circovirus, has been reporeed throughout Europe, Africa, Canada and Aumalia since Woods discovered it in 1990. Woods is hoping co receive grants co work on ways to prevent che diseases from spreading. "In her field , it's considered che goal to discover one new disease, but Leslie already has discovered two," says chemistry Professor Patricia Traylor, who says Woods is an inspiration when she returns co campus to talk co under– graduate students. "She is one of our scars." As she keeps up her vigil against foor-and– mouch disease, Woods and her colleagues are working with ocher agencies on prevention plans and determining what co do if the virus enters rhe country. Current plans call fo r a quarantine of the infected ranch or farm, rhe purchase and slaugh ter of che ani– mals, and continued resting fo r che disease on nearby plots of land. "Because of the economic impact foo r– and-mouch disease would have on chis coun– try if introduced," Woods says, "veterinarians and livestock owners know chat sometimes it's best to lose some animals rather chan calke the risk of nor having chem checked our. "

"We've got our eyes open all the time because we can't miss this" ~ s panic over foot-and-mouth disease in 1-\Europe crossed rhe Adantic co rhe United Scares, nervous Cali fo rnia ranchers curned to Leslie Woods. Woods spends her days performing necropsies - autopsies on animals - to determine how and why they died. She is pare detective and pare border pacrol agent, the state's first defense against rogue animal diseases. Lately, she's looking fo r signs of foo r-and-mourh , a fas t-spreading disease she hopes she never sees. "We've go t our eyes open all che rime because we just can't miss chis," says Woods. "T har's one of our biggest fears. We've gor to be on the ball every single rime." Foo r-and-mouth disease, which hasn't hie rhe United Scares bur has swept through Grear Bricain, is a highly contagious virus char causes ulcers on cloven an imals' tongues and hooves, and leads to starvation, lameness

or decreased milk production in cows. To combat che spread of the disease, which does nor affect humans, Europeans slaughtered and burned thousands of carde, sheep and pigs. Since humans can be carriers, visitors to the United Scares from contaminated areas were required to have their shoes and ocher parcels d isinfected. California ranchers and fi eld veterinarians have Hooded Woods' laboratory at the University of California, Davis with samples from animals char died from similar symptoms, hoping her necropsies and blood and tissue rests will show foor-and-mouch wasn't che cause. So fa r, Woods feels confident rhe culprit in these cases is one of several common look– alike diseases. T here's blue tongue vi rus in sheep, bovine diarrhea virus in carde or bovine herpes, which causes blisters on a cow's udder and reers. Califo rni a has sent 44 of these look-alike cases to rhe United Scares Department of Agriculrure's Plum Island facili ty near the New York coast, which over– sees all fore ign animal diseases. When she's nor busy defending che scare against animal affli ctions, Woods, one of

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