Growing up in Pennsylvania, Dr. Megan Lighty envisioned a career as an equine veterinarian.
It wasn’t until her freshman year at Pennsylvania State University that she realized she was more interested in working with another species.
She took a part-time research assistant position with a faculty member in the poultry science department and joined the Poultry Science Club.
“I realized I was more interested in infectious diseases and studying how they spread through populations than I was in treating individual animals,” Dr. Lighty said.
From there, she earned her veterinary degree in 2013 from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine and her PhD in biomedical and veterinary sciences in 2015 from Virginia Tech. Two years later, Dr. Lighty became a diplomate of the American College of Poultry Veterinarians, a veterinary specialty organization recognized by the AVMA American Board of Veterinary Specialties.
Her fascination with poultry pathology led her to spending four years as staff veterinarian for the large integrated turkey producer Jennie-O Turkey Store, providing veterinary services to company-owned and contract turkey farms throughout central Minnesota.
In 2020, she accepted her “dream job” as an associate clinical professor in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. She is also avian diagnostic and outreach veterinarian for the university’s Animal Diagnostic Laboratory (ADL). In that role, she works with the commercial poultry industry, researchers, and small-flock poultry clients.
Although she doesn’t have formal teaching appointments, Dr. Lighty serves as an academic adviser for undergraduate students, guest lectures in courses, and hosts students for independent study experiences in avian pathology. She also participates in applied research projects related to disease surveillance and diagnostics.
It’s a career that presents different challenges each day, especially during a time in which highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI, more specifically avian influenza type A H5N1) is widespread in wild birds and causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows with several recent human cases in U.S. dairy and poultry workers.
Since the virus was first identified in commercial poultry facilities in February 2022, the H5N1 outbreaks have been detected in all 50 states—802 commercial flocks and 929 backyard flocks—resulting in the depopulation of more than 175 million turkeys and chickens.
Dr. Lighty has diagnosed multiple cases of H5N1 in Pennsylvania over the past three years. Though the commonwealth hasn’t been affected as much as other states, she has been on high alert since the beginning of the outbreak.
While few treatment options are available for poultry afflicted by this zoonotic disease, Dr. Lighty said that does not mean that she and her ADL colleagues are powerless.
“A lot of my job as a poultry vet involves diagnosing a problem and then figuring out preventive options for future flocks, because there is often very little that we can do to treat the current flock,” Dr. Lighty said.
In fact, the pathology is often the easy part, she said. It’s communicating with people that can be the hardest part. Like when working with backyard flock owners “who may be submitting beloved pets for necropsy to find out why they died.”
She’s also worked with producers who have had to depopulate their entire farm following detection of H5N1.
“The vast majority of producers care about their flocks and want to give them the best possible care,” she said. “Having to tell a client that their flock has a disease that can’t be treated can be very difficult.”
For those interested in this work, she recommended getting experience in as many different aspects of veterinary medicine as possible and poultry production specifically. On-farm production experience is particularly important.
“Having first-hand experience seeing how birds are raised makes me a better diagnostician,” she said. “It also helps me to make practical treatment and management recommendations after I’ve made a diagnosis.”
Source: AVMA
