University of Lethbridge Open House

The Lethbridge branch of HPI was invited to help run a parasite booth at the Lethbridge Research Centre open house on June 29^th, 2017. The open house welcomed members of the public to view the equipment, building, and the research being done with Agriculture Canada. The Goater lab in collaboration with the Colwell lab at LRC were asked to talk about the many parasites we study. Dr. Cam Goater, Dr. Doug Colwell, Dawn Gray and HPI trainees, Leah Brummelhuis, Micky Ahn, Tong Wang and myself were able to share our love for parasites with the people of Lethbridge, including a lot of interested and grossed out children!

We were able to borrow samples from the VetMed faculty of the University of Calgary through HPI, showing off some monster Ascarid worms that the visitors loved. HPI also supplied us with informational posters and an antihelminth resistance game that allowed us to teach both adults and children about emerging drug resistance acquired by parasites. We also had the pleasure of being able to show live Dicrocoelium dendriticum infected zombie ants, found clinging on the tops of flowers, and infected Gammarus shrimp that displayed its parasite as a bright orange dot in their abdomen causing parasite altered photophillic behaviour. The day was engaging and fun, with lots of “eewwwss” and inspired faces that made the event worth all the effort. There were line-ups at our booth to play the resistance game and examine the parasite samples. Hopefully, participants were able to take with them some of our love for the creepy things of the world.

Thank you to Leah Hohman, Jeanie Quach, and Teresa Emmett for their help in organizing the HPI booth and training both Micky Ahn and Tong Wang to run the games.