Calvin News

A Calvin College biologist has teamed with a local veterinarian to figure out what kinds of good bacteria are normally found in a parakeet. 
Bob Leunk, a Calvin professor of biology and his two student researchers, Ben Koestler and Holly Van Wyk, have partnered on the parakeet research project with Dr. Richard Bennett, a vet in private practice who also treats exotic animals at the John Ball Park Zoo.
Leunk says it’s important to establish what constitutes good or normal bacteria for a parakeet—or any species for a couple of reasons.
“We all have normal flora, and that’s healthy,” he says. “When a veterinarian like Dr. Bennett wants to examine an unhealthy animal, they’d do a smear for bacteria. But if you don’t know what’s normally supposed to be there, how do you know what’s causing an infection?”
That question is also important to veterinarians and parakeet caretakers in the event that they are bitten or scratched while handling the birds, says Leunk.
“What organism might be infecting the wound, and what drugs might be appropriate to treat it?” he asks. 
The research that does exist on the subject, he explains, is 20 years old and not specific to parakeets, containing information about all of the birds in the larger family—including parrots, macaws and love birds—from which the parakeet comes. 
To answer their research question, the team is sampling bacteria from three local populations of parakeets. One is a group of 26 parakeets kept as pets by a single owner. A second test population is the group of birds owned by a local bird purveyor who supplies parakeets to pet stores. The third population lives in an aviary at the John Ball Park Zoo. 
“The birds are outdoor in the summer and inside in the winter,” says Leunk. “It’s quite a natural setting, and the birds are free range within it.”
Vets and animal handlers takes smears from the parakeet’s cloaca, a posterior opening in birds, reptiles and amphibians where the intestinal, urinary and genital tract comes together. Leunk and the students identify the bacteria, using a wide variety of chemical tests and DNA sequencing.
"After we identify the organisms, we test which antibiotics these bacteria are susceptible to,” Leunk says.
Thus far, the team has collected samples from two populations; they will sample the zoo population later this summer.
The students are finding the parakeets well-behaved. 
“They’re pretty hardy and tolerant,” says Van Wyk, 21, a biotechnology and biochemistry major who hopes to pursue a career in medical research. 
She adds that she likes the scope of the project. 
“It’s great to start with a big, vast unknown," she says, "and then clear away and identify it so that it’s not such a mystery any more.” 
Koestler, 22, a biology major with his eye on graduate school in micro- or cellular-biology, enjoys the work itself.
“I like doing a lot of hands-on stuff," he says, "learning a lot of the science behind it.”
Leunk, who will share authorship of an article about the research with the students, is excited about its results.
“It’s a nice summer project,” he says, “because it’s a focused question, and it has practical applications. I think we’re going to supply some important information for Dr. Bennett and other vets.” 
He praises the work of Koestler and Van Wyk. 
“The students have done a wonderful job. Neither of them has had micro-biology in a class, and so in the 10 weeks we’ve had, they learned it from the ground up. They’re really proficient in microbiology in a short time, and they do good work.”
Leunk, who has taught at Calvin for a year after 20 spent in research at Proctor and Gamble, says such summer research projects are where Calvin excels. 
"It’s great to have good courses, and Calvin does that," he says. "But real world research experience is good preparation for what they’ll be doing when they leave here.”