Nine billion chickens are hatched every year in the U.S. Roy Curtiss and his colleagues came up with the idea of spray vaccinations, virtually eliminating the threat of salmonella for about one penny a chick. Always interested in genetics, Curtiss began became fascinated with pathogens and and has taught about them in various fields, including biology and dentistry. He eventually became a professor of veterinary science at the University of Florida and holds almost 50 patents.

TRANSCRIPT:

Intro: 0:20

Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade, the podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. The museum is named after James Robert Cade who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We'll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them. We'll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work, and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace.

Richard Miles: 0:37

Vaccinating chickens. No, that's not the name of some new indie band, but it is what may be keeping us from getting sick and here to explain this morning is Dr. Roy Curtis, a professor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. Welcome, Dr. Curtis.

Dr. Roy Curtiss: 0:51

Glad to be here.

Richard Miles: 0:52

Okay, so it makes total sense, but I never actually have thought about giving vaccines to chickens before and I know it's, it's been around a while. It's not exactly a new thing, but tell us doctor, how does it work? Giving vaccines to chickens? Do they get a lollipop afterwards and a superhero bandaid or what is going on there?

Dr. Roy Curtiss: 1:09

Afraid not. There's no reward other than staying healthy, which of course is a pretty good reward. But chickens get immunized actually before they hatch against a virus that causes cancer, which can be devastating and that's totally controlled. And then after they come out of the shell, they're sprayed with a vaccine that protects them against bedbugs, like salmonella or viruses like bronchitis that cause devastating problems and inhibit the growth of the chickens. So before they get to the farm, they're already immunized and vaccinated.

Richard Miles: 1:41

Yes. How did this idea come about? What's sort of the history of figuring this out? I mean it seems obvious now, but all good inventions later on seem obvious. But before they were invented, they weren't so obvious. So that's why their inventions,

Dr. Roy Curtiss: 1:53

That's true. You recognize that you have viruses and bacteria that caused disease. Thirty - forty years ago. We didn't understand what the mechanism was. So the first thing to do is to figure out how do they cause disease, how do they infect, whether it's a chicken or us and what do they do to cause the symptoms that we get, whether it's diarrhea or a runny nose or whatever. Once we know that we can then begin if we understand something about the genetics to modify the virus or modify the bacteria so that it no longer causes disease, but it can still invade into a host animal like a chicken or us and cause the production of an immune response. Just like kids get vaccinated against measles, mumps, they get an inactivated virus and after a few months they develop a response so that they're no longer susceptible to infection and they're protected for life. Which is wonderful.

Richard Miles: 2:50

Let's talk about the practical application, I guess. I