Hohenboken Gets Fulbright Award to Travel to Turkey to Teach Animal Genetics

BLACKSBURG, Va., Nov. 30, 2001 -- William D. Hohenboken, retired professor of animal and poultry sciences, has received a Fulbright award to teach animal genetics and the critical interpretation of scientific literature at Cukurova University in Adana, Turkey.

"I've never been to Turkey, but it's a place I've always wanted to go," Hohenboken said. "In looking for a [Fulbright] award, I looked for agriculture programs that fit my expertise, but I was also looking for a geographic area that we were excited about."

Hohenboken and his wife, Lynda, will spend spring semester 2002 at the university, which, with a 20,000 students is slightly smaller than Virginia Tech. Cukurova University is located on the coastal plain enclosed by the Atlas Mountains in southern Turkey near its border with Syria.

Hohenboken taught applied genetics for meat animals from the time he joined the faculty at Virginia Tech in 1987 to his retirement last summer. The course provided practical tools to be used in genetic improvement of meat animals, including a discussion of problems such as in-breeding as well as the inappropriate uses of selection. He plans to adapt that course to the agriculture of Turkey while emphasizing the international aspects of the industry.

He also plans to teach a course on the critical analysis of scientific literatures as it applies to animal science. That course will allow students to evaluate scholarly articles, analyze experimental designs, and determine the validity reported results.

Hohenboken is working with the faculty at Cukurova University to tailor the proposals for both courses to the needs of the university's students.

He also hopes to lecture on research he conducted with Dennis Blodgett, a toxicologist with the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, into the genetic differences among animals in susceptibility to toxins commonly found in forage grasses. The research, using mice as a model, involved selecting lines for greater susceptibility and greater resistance to the toxins.

The research, which Hohenboken said provides parallels for the cattle industry, found the resistant mice had higher activity of certain liver enzymes than did the susceptible mice. Also, the reproductive rate of susceptible mice was more severely depressed by the effect of the toxins than was reproduction of resistant mice.

Hohenboken said the Fulbright Award allows him to continue academic involvement in his retirement.

For the time being, he said his main research has involved reading about Turkey.

"It's an entirely new culture to us," he said. "We love to travel, and we've traveled quite a bit, but never to this region of the world. We hope to spend a couple of weeks after the academic term ends to travel around Turkey."