The University of Florida Academic Health Center - the most comprehensive academic health center in the Southeast - is dedicated to high-quality programs of education, research, patient care and public service.
The UF College of Dentistry is the only public-funded dental school in Florida and is recognized as one of the top U.S. dental schools for the quality of its educational programs, oral health research enterprise and commitment to patient care and service.
The College of Medicine, the largest of six colleges at the University of Florida Academic Health Center, opened in 1956 with a mission to increase Florida's supply of highly qualified physicians, provide advanced health-care services to Florida residents and foster discovery in health research.
Founded in 1956, the University of Florida College of Nursing is the premier educational institution for nursing in the state of Florida and is ranked in the top 10 percent of all nursing graduate programs nationwide. The UF College of Nursing continually attracts and retains the highest caliber of nursing students and faculty with a passion for science and caring.
Established in 1923, the College of Pharmacy is the oldest college in the UF Academic Health Center. Ranked among the top schools of pharmacy nationally, the college supports research, service and educational programs enhanced with online technologies.
The College of Public Health & Health Professions (PHHP) is dedicated to providing excellent educational programs that prepare graduates to address the multifaceted health needs of populations, communities and individuals.
The UF College of Veterinary Medicine is Florida's only veterinary college and provides many unique educational programs for students and services aimed at helping pets, wildlife and endangered species. We offer a a four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine programs as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Veterinary Medical Sciences.
Co-located with the Shands Jacksonville Hospital, the Jacksonville Health Science Center excels in education, research and patient care that expresses our abiding values of compassion, excellence, professionalism and innovation. Our state-of-the-art medical center serves an urban population of 1 million from north Florida to south Georgia.
The UFCOM-J offers accredited graduate medical education residency and fellowship programs, in addition to non-standard fellowship programs. Clinical rotations in all the major disciplines are provided for UFCOM undergraduate medical students and elective rotations to students from other accredited schools.
The UFHSC-J is a clinical teaching site for the Gainesville-based College of Nursing. Students rotate through the various clinical settings on the campus, and primary care centers and specialty care centers located throughout Jacksonville.
The UF College of Pharmacy-Jacksonville offers a four-year Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) Program completed entirely in Jacksonville. Also offered on campus is an American Society of Health-System Pharmacists-accredited pharmacy residency program at Shands Jacksonville.
University of Florida Health knows how important ongoing medical learning is to health care providers and the community. That is why we provide online Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses for you to complete for CME credits. These courses share the latest in medical knowledge, teach new patient-relationship skills and help providers deal with relevant current issues.
Learn about UF clinical research studies that are seeking volunteers.
A bottlenose dolphin found dead in Florida’s Dixie County was infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, or HPAIV, making it the first cetacean to be found with the virus in America and only the second known case in the world.
The young male dolphin was recovered in March at Horseshoe Beach by the University of Florida’s marine animal rescue team. A collaboration between UF College of Veterinary Medicine researchers and state and federal laboratories identified the unexpected infection with HPAIV, commonly known as bird flu. The virus recovered from the dolphin belonged to clade 2.3.4.4b of the Eurasian H5 viral lineage.
Wild birds have spread H5 clade 2.3.4.4b HPAIV widely in North America and Europe this year. The virus primarily affects wild birds and domesticated poultry but only rarely infects people. Researchers suspect the dolphin likely got infected by interacting with a wild bird killed by HPAIV.
“While obviously the presence of HPAIV is a concern, the key takeaway for us is that additional caution should be taken by those handling or encountering wild dolphins during rescue events or while performing necropsies,” said Mike Walsh, D.V.M., a clinical associate professor with UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine who leads the animal rescue team and performed the dolphin’s necropsy with others.
There has been only one report of H5 clade 2.3.4.4b in people in 2022.
Richard Webby, Ph.D., directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The WHO Center at St. Jude, which analyzes animal flu viruses and their potential risk to human health, will analyze the dolphin tissue samples supplied by the UF team.
“The virus has some features that make further study and follow-up on mammalian cases important, but the virus does not currently contain the features we know are required for transmission between humans and likely other mammalian hosts,” Webby said. “In addition, the recent discovery of HPAIV in a porpoise in Sweden almost certainly suggests that the Florida dolphin finding isn’t a one-off, unique event.”
The UF team did not immediately suspect anything out of the ordinary when they performed a routine necropsy. Tests for common causes of deaths in dolphins turned up negative.
“However, this dolphin had inflammation of the brain and also the tissues surrounding the brain, known as the meninges,” said Robert Ossiboff, D.V.M., Ph.D., an associate professor of veterinary anatomical pathology at UF. “This finding was unusual.”
Andrew Allison, Ph.D., an assistant professor of veterinary virology at UF, studies viruses that normally circulate in wildlife populations, primarily wild birds and mammals. He knew that HPAIV was a rapidly growing concern for wild bird populations in Florida.
“Although avian flu infection had never been documented in a dolphin, the high incidence of the virus in wild birds within the state in the spring — specifically aquatic bird species such as ducks, gulls, terns and herons — suggested that encounters between dolphins and dying or dead birds near the shoreline was not out of the realm of possibility,” he said.
Wild birds that succumb to HPAIV often have neurologic signs with virus found in their brains. Since the dolphin had inflammation of the brain and meninges that could have been caused by a virus, Allison believed that the dolphin could have died from HPAIV infection.
On the basis of these initial suspicions, the UF researchers sent brain and lung samples of the dolphin to the state’s Bronson Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Kissimmee, a nationally accredited facility and a member of the National Animal Health Laboratory network, or NAHLN. This lab is approved for and routinely performs testing for animal pathogens of significant consequence that can pose severe threats to animals and humans. There, suspicions were confirmed, as the samples tested positive for avian flu. As a NAHLN laboratory, avian flu detections are sent on to the National Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for characterization by genetic sequencing to identify the specific strain of avian flu.
UF’s marine animal rescue team is a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Southeast Regional Stranding Network, which authorizes members to assist and investigate stranded marine mammals. The UF rescue team works closely with the stranding network, especially when investigating pathogens with unknown effects in cetaceans.
Media contact: Sarah Carey, careysk@ufl.edu , 352-294-4242
Public Relations Director, College of Veterinary Medicine
Sarah Carey, M.A., A.P.R., is director of communications at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, a job she has held since 1990. Sarah holds a master’s degree in...Read More
Together we discover. Together we teach. Together we care for our patients and our communities. Together we create unstoppable momentum.
The Foundation for The Gator Nation
© 2022 University of Florida Health