Dr. Jessie Isabelle Price

Brief

     Dr. Price (1930-2015), the "Duck Doctor," was an eminent veterinary microbiologist and an authority on avian diseases, particularly those affecting ducks and other waterfowl.  She conducted extensive research on parasites, infections, viruses, and microbial diseases that impacted these birds and developed vaccines to protect them against a spectrum of diseases.¹ Dr. Price's vaccines have been used by duck, turkey, and pigeon farmers across North America.

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Roots & Origins

     Price was an only child, born and raised in Montrose, Pennsylvania by her mother, Teresa Price.  She attended public schools in Montrose, a predominantly white town. "I was the only Black in my class...there was a Black male student three years ahead of me, and a Black female three years behind me and that was it".² Her drive for academic excellence came from strong encouragement and support at home and school - notably from her mother, her Math and History teachers, and her principal.³ She graduated from Montrose high school and was accepted to Cornell University but she felt she needed additional academic skills to thrive under the rigors of the University. To this end, Price and her mother moved to Ithaca, New York so she could attend an additional year of high school. There she took Advanced Math, English, French, and German courses. This move also had the added benefit of giving her residency in New York which meant her tuition would be waived (because of her residency and high school grades/performance).  She was only responsible for her living expenses, books, and a few other fees.⁴

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College & Mentorship

     Price initially wanted to become a physician, but that endeavor was financially unrealistic. Veterinary Microbiology, however, piqued her interest and so she chose it as her major.  She graduated in 1953 with a degree in Microbiology from the College of Agriculture at Cornell University.  From 1953-1956 she worked as a laboratory technician at the Poultry Disease Research Farm of the New York State Veterinary College at Cornell University.⁵  Dr. Dorsey Bruner, one of her professors who had significantly influenced her during her undergraduate studies, continued to mentor her on her academic and career path.  During her three years as a laboratory tech, Dr. Bruner encouraged her continue her studies and apply to grad school. With his support, she earned a research assistantships for graduate studies from 1956-1959. In, 1958, she earned her M.S. in veterinary bacteriology, pathology, and parasitology from the New York State Veterinary College at Cornell University while Dr. Bruner served as her thesis advisor.⁶ Price’s thesis was entitled “Morphological and Cultural Studies of Pleuropneumonia-like Organisms and Their Variants Isolated from Chicken”.

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    Dr. Bruner further encouraged Price to pursue her Ph.D. and served as her dissertation advisor. In 1959 she earned her Ph.D. Her dissertation, Studies on Pasteurella antipestifer Infection in White Pekins Ducklings, was published in the Journal of Avian Diseases.⁷
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Career‍

     From 1959-1977 she worked as a research specialist at the Cornell University Duck Research Laboratory in Eastport, Long Island and became an authority on avian diseases, particularly those that impact waterfowl.⁸ At the Long Island laboratory, Dr. Price researched the identification and control of bacterial diseases in commercial white Pekin ducklings. At the start of her research, Long Island was the primary producer of edible waterfowl, [but] farmers were losing approximately thirty percent of their animals to bacterial diseases during their eight-week growth period.⁹ This was costing Long Island producers approximately $250,000 in annual losses.¹⁰ Her breakthrough came when she “discovered a method for isolating and reproducing the pasteurella anatipesitfer organism that causes respiratory disease in ducklings.”¹¹ She used this method of isolation and reproduction to inject the disease into selected ducks for experimental purposes.¹² Building on this work, she developed the first injectable vaccine and began conducting field studies on thousands of vaccinated and unvaccinated ducklings, collecting cultures, and conducting daily autopsies throughout the eight week duckling growth period.¹³ Through this methodolgoy, she discovered the "birds were dying, in many instances, from Pasteurella multocida, Eschedrichia coli, and duck hepatitis".¹⁴

     In 1966 Price traveled to Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia), after receiving a travel grant from the National Science Foundation, to present her research at the Ninth International Congress for Microbiology.¹⁵

    Around 1974, Price had developed three commercially used vaccines. Her Pasteurella multocida and Pasteurella anatipestifer vaccines were both used by duck farmers on Long Island and throughout the Midwest and Canada, with the Pasteurella multocida vaccine also being adopted by commercial turkey growers. Her Salmonella typhimurium vaccine was used by a commercial pigeon farmer.¹⁶‍

     In addition to her work at the Research Laboratory, Price taught microbiology at the Mitchell College Branch Of Long Island University in Westhampton Beach between 1963 and 1969. She then taught earth sciences at Southhampton College of Long Island University in Southampton, New York between 1969 and 1976.¹⁷

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     In 1977, Price left the lab and accepted a position as a research microbiologist with the National Wildlife Health Center of the National Biological Service in Madison, Wisconsin where she continued to work in the world of avian disease. Among her many studies, she worked on avian botulism in Utah and worked on an avian cholera vaccine for use in free-ranging wild bird species.¹⁸ She also collaborated with the UK based Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust on avian tuberculosis.¹⁹

Following Dr. Bruner's example of mentorship, Price served as a research advisor and graduate committee member for three students enrolled in the United States Forest and Wildlife Service/National Biological Service Cooperative Education Program, and was active in several scientific organizations including the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Association for Women in Science, the American Society for Microbiology, and and served one year as the president of the Sigma Delta Epsilon Graduate Women in Science Organization (1974-1975).²⁰ ‍‍

Transition     

Price died November 12, 2015 in Madison, Wisconsin, at the age of 85 from Lewy Body Disease/Alzheimer's.²¹ She was described by her friends as kind, generous, and a bright lighnd, while she spent much of her life in a laboratory, she was also a photographer, a Westminster Kennel Club prize winning dog owner, and a lover of music and travel.²²

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Publications and Presentations