The Arthur S. Flemming Awards, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious awards for government service given from outside the government, is honoring Dr. Aspen M. Workman, who led a team that produced the first gene-edited calf with resistance to bovine viral diarrhea virus.

 BVDV costs the US cattle industry more than $2 billion each year. Workman’s research represents a key advance in protecting livestock from endemic diseases and ensuring healthy and economically viable food systems and food security.

Bovine viral diarrhea virus, a contagious and virulent disease, is one of the biggest challenges confronting the nation’s $86.1 billion cattle industry.

While a BVDV vaccine exists, it is not fully effective in controlling the virus. In a breakthrough discovery, US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service microbiologist Workman led a team that produced the first gene-edited calf with resistance to BVDV. Making a targeted change to the virus receptor, Workman’s team produced a healthy calf that withstood a BVDV challenge, demonstrating for the first time that gene editing can reduce or potentially eliminate BVDV disease in cattle.

This milestone in livestock breeding technology shows the potential for using gene editing to create and introduce other edited traits to enhance animal welfare, increase the long-term sustainability of livestock production, and reduce antibiotic use in beef and dairy cattle.

Workman’s research represents a key advance in safeguarding livestock from endemic diseases and ensuring healthy and economically viable food systems and food security.

2024 marks the 75th anniversary of this award, named after the late Arthur Sherwood Flemming, who served seven presidential administrations of both parties, was president of three higher-education institutions, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was an advocate for social and racial equity, among his many other accomplishments.  

Workman is among 12 public servants being honored for their accomplishments in science and leadership fields that have benefited the nation. The award ceremony for the 2023 Flemming Award recipients will take place on Nov. 13, 2024, at the 2024 Academy Fall Meeting.

 Source: Arthur S. Flemming Awards Commission