L. W. Slanetz, Microbiology 



Microbiology 



For several years, L. W. Slanetz and 

 associates had worked on the develop- 

 ment of a vaccine to be used in dairy 

 cattle against Staphylococcus mastitis. 

 Early in this work, supported in part 

 by Station funds, they had shown that 

 the enzyme ^-hemolysin typically is 

 produced by staphylococci which had 

 been isolated from animals, but was 

 especially distinctive of strains isolated 

 from cases of bovine mastitis. Because 

 of the strong association between this 

 enzyme and staphylococci which 

 cause mastitis, W. R. Chesbro and 

 students purified and studied hemo- 

 lysin, in one aspect of this research 

 which was focused on control of the 

 bacterial infection. They learned that 

 hemolysin destroyed macrophages and 

 tended to degrade the staphylococci 

 cell walls. 



Food containing Staphylococcus 

 aureus is not suitable for human con- 

 sumption. Chesbro developed a 

 simple, sensitive method for extract- 

 ing and measuring staphylococcus 

 nuclease, an enzyme isolated from 

 foods containing Staphylococcus 

 aureus, and applied the technique to 

 foods, such as potato salad and ham 

 which are sometimes implicated in 

 staphylococcus food poisoning. 



Slanetz in 1969 became Director 

 of the newly formed Division of Health 

 Studies and Dean of the School of 

 Health Studies the next year. 



Zoology 



Pasture plants such as alfalfa and 

 Ladino clover contain substances with 

 estrogenic effects which may cause 

 infertility and/or various other repro- 

 ductive problems in several different 



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