Born and raised in Amarillo, Dr. Robert Deotte understands the power and expanse of the beef industry in the Panhandle. It is the reason why Dr. Deotte has recently started a study to find a way to create a more efficient disposal system for animal carcasses across the high plains.

The professor said that he became an environmental engineer as a result of his interests in fluid mechanics.  After some encouragement from his college professors, Deotte said his progression into this line of work was really just natural.

“There wasn’t a lot of leading. It just sort of happened!” he said.Since that point, Dr. Deotte has gone on to work on many endeavors, including human diseases that can be spread through air pathogens. Upon moving back to the Panhandle and becoming a WTAMU faculty member, he redirected his studies to animals. Deotte said he felt in the beef capital of the world, animal research was the most productive research to conduct.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Service (APHIS-PS) recently contracted Deotte to create an efficient and usable plan for animal carcass removal. This is an incredibly important study because widespread animal disease can have serious environmental implications.

Through his research, Dr. Deotte is trying to create a way to work with widespread disease containment while minimizing the opportunity for it to spread. He will use this research to create an efficiency system will be beneficial to the beef industry.

The USDA awarded Deotte $522,522 to carry out the study titled, “Animal Disease Outbreak Emergency Logistical Response Infrastructure – Texas Region.”  The results of this study will be used all over the United States.

“We are hoping to provide enough information to the USDA to create a usable and safe way to remove carcasses,” said Doette.