Fearneyhough Named Associate Director of Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab

COLLEGE STATION – The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has appointed Dr. Malcomb G. “Gayne” Fearneyhough as associate director of the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. Fearneyhough has served as head of diagnostic services for the agency since 2002, coordinating testing and results generated from various laboratory functions. Additionally, he served as agency interim director prior to the appointment of Dr. Tammy Beckham in April.

“This is an exciting opportunity,” Fearneyhough said. “I’m looking forward to helping lead this lab and continue its history of excellence in diagnostic and surveillance activities throughout Texas and abroad.”

Fearneyhough earned his doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Texas A&M in 1977. As a veterinarian for the Texas Department of Health, he directed the Oral Rabies Vaccination Program in the 1990s, leading a program developed to control a new strain of the rabies virus which entered South Texas in 1988 and moved rapidly in both coyotes and domestic dogs. The virus caused the loss of two human lives and resulted in more than 2,400 people receiving rabies vaccines after a possible exposure to the virus.

The successful program, which eliminated the virus from Texas, targeted wildlife species and employed the aerial delivery of more than 13 million doses of an orally active rabies vaccine over a 200,000-square-mile area of South and Central Texas.

The Texas Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory is one of the busiest full-service diagnostic facilities in the world, handling more than 220,000 cases a year. At two major locations in College Station and Amarillo, it conducts diagnostic testing for thousands of veterinary hospitals and clinics across the country.

Two smaller labs in Center and Gonzales provide disease surveillance and diagnostic testing for the poultry industry.

The Texas lab is one of 12 core member laboratories in the country that comprise the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, providing surveillance and response to high-consequence animal diseases.

About the Texas A&M System: The Texas A&M System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation. Through a statewide network of nine universities, seven state agencies and a comprehensive health science center, the system educates more than 106,000 students and makes more than 15 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year. Externally funded research brings in almost $627 million every year and helps drive the state’s economy.

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