U.S. Public Health Service honors 19 veterinarians

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Dr. Spires
Capt. Charlotte Spires
Dr. O'Carroll
Lt. Andrew O'Carroll

The U.S. Public Health Service honored 19 veterinary officers whose work has helped protect people from disease.

The service's Veterinary Zika Response Team received the 2016 PHS Veterinary Responder of the Year Award. The team's 17 award winners are Lt. Cmdr. Laura Adams, Cmdr. Stacey Bosch, Capt. Bryan Buss, Lt. Cmdr. Danielle Buttke, Capt. Kris Carter, Capt. Randolph Daley, Lt. Cmdr. Lizette Durand, Lt. Cmdr. Laura Edison, Lt. Cmdr. Mark Freedman, Capt. Renee Funk, Cmdr. Christa Hale, Cmdr. Stacy Holzbauer, Capt. Jennifer McQuiston, Capt. Hugh Mainzer, Capt. Daniel O'Leary, Lt. Cmdr. Ann Schmitz, and Capt. Tracee Treadwell.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent public health experts to South America and Central America, U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific, and U.S. states with local virus transmission. The agency also worked with U.S. government entities and international partners to control spread of the Zika virus.

Capt. Charlotte Spires, chief veterinary medical officer for the National Veterinary Response Team in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, received the 2017 James H. Steele One Health Outstanding Public Health Service Veterinary Career Award. She was honored for 22 years of service, including working as executive director and designated federal official for two Department of Health and Human Services advisory committees: the National Preparedness and Response Science Board and the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters, the latter of which she established.

Dr. Spires also was the Food and Drug Administration's lead coordinator and epidemiologist during a deadly national outbreak in September 2011 of Listeria monocytogenes from cantaloupe. As director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine's Division of Epidemiology, she led a team that provided scientific and technical expertise during the agency's withdrawal of approvals for fluoroquinolone administration to poultry.

Information from the PHS details her work as an academic, mentor, and leader for entities such as the National Commissioned Officers Association and Commissioned Corps Women's Issues Advisory Board.

Lt. Andrew O'Carroll, medical regulatory reviewer at the FDA Office of Vaccine Research and Review, received the 2017 Junior PHS Veterinary Officer of the Year Award. He was honored for providing national leadership in the veterinary profession. He has helped protect human health by reviewing preclinical toxicology studies of vaccines for use in humans, developing curriculum and presentations intended for use in training civilian supervisors of PHS officers, volunteering with the AVMA and the PHS Veterinary Professional Advisory Committee, and mentoring veterinary students and veterinarians who are interested in joining the Commissioned Corps.