Dr. Jessie Isabelle Price was a pioneering veterinary microbiologist known for creating methods to control microbial diseases in waterfowl. She earned her bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and her Ph.D. in veterinary microbiology at Cornell University where her dissertation was on bacterial infections in white Pekin ducklings. As a research specialist at Cornell’s duck research laboratory in Long Island, she continued her dissertation research focusing on reproducing and studying microbial diseases in hopes of decreasing duck mortality. By 1974, she successfully created two vaccines that were used commercially in Long Island, the Midwest, and Canada. In 1977, she became a research microbiologist at the National Wildlife Health Center of the National Biological Service, where she studied the interactions between disease and the environment in waterfowl. Her research led to a greater understanding of avian cholera and prevented future outbreaks.
Dr. Jessie Isabelle Price, PhD
Microbiologist