An ISU junior spent his summer gaining insight into the world of veterinary medicine by investigating the causes of death for animals at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Todd Bell, junior in veterinary medicine, completed a 12-month internship by working in the zoo’s Veterinary Pathology Department labs, which works to keep the zoo animals up to par. “The veterinary department treats anything that gets sick in the zoo,” Bell said. The main focus of Bell’s work in D.C. was to perform necropsies, which are routine postmortem examinations to help determine the cause of an animal’s death. He performed these examinations on several types of reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. “I would lay the animal out and see what was wrong on the surface, then cut the animal open, and examine all the internal structures,” Bell said. “From there I would put tissue samples in a special fixative under the microscope, and sit down with a veterinarian pathologist to examine it.” His findings from the necropsies help zoo personnel prevent similar deaths among the other animals. “We did necropsies on anything that died at the zoo to make sure it didn’t happen again,” Bell said. Bell first heard about the internship at the National Zoo through information he collected at the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians Conference he attended last year. He considered many zoos before deciding to apply at the National Zoo. “There are only six zoos in the country with pathology programs, and the National Zoo is one of the most prestigious,” Bell said. As part of his internship, Bell was required to make a presentation of the most interesting case he worked on to the zoo’s veterinarian staff. For this presentation, he highlighted his part in an in-depth study into the death of an East African bongo, a type of antelope. “[The bongo] was a very exotic species, and it was hard to tell what it actually died of,” Bell said. “We thought it was tuberculosis, but it ended up being something else.” The bongo’s actual cause of death was aspergilosis and mycobacteriosis. Had it been tuberculosis, Bell said, those working in the labs would have been tested to see if they had contracted the disease as well. Bell will make another presentation on the East African bongo Sept. 17 at the annual Zoo and Wildlife Pathology Workshop during the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians Conference in New Orleans. “I’ve made some great contacts this summer and I hope this experience will provide me with a springboard into a veterinary medicine career,” he said.