UF veterinary researcher honored

Mary Brown, Ph.D., of the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, has received the Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee’s highest award, the Golden Tortoise, for her research into the cause of a disease responsible for a die-off of that species in the American Southwest.

Brown was the first to identify Mycoplasma agassizii as the organism responsible for upper respiratory tract disease, a discovery she made in 1990. The disease has decimated desert tortoise populations at the Desert Tortoise Research Natural Area and elsewhere in the western Mojave Desert.

Brown’s research team is involved in defining the pathogenic mechanisms by which mycoplasmas cause respiratory and urogenital infections in a number of host species, including rodents, reptiles, food animals and humans.

Her team is evaluating Florida gopher tortoises, the prevalence of disease spread in these populations, and the possible effects on the environment and human health.