Improving the health and abundance of Louisiana wildlife through research to add to the enjoyment of nature in Sportsman’s Paradise and beyond.

The mission of the Bob R. Jones Wildlife Institute is to develop solutions for problems that affect the health and abundance of Louisiana wildlife and to disseminate the application of these solutions through scientific publications, education, and public outreach. Areas of research that will produce information for use to improve the health and abundance of Louisiana game animals include preventive medicine, nutrient and niche improvement, and reproductive biology. The role and mission of the Bob R. Jones Wildlife Institute are consistent with those of the LSU AgCenter which seek to provide preeminent research, education, and extension programs in human and animal health.

Maintain a research-based program aimed at developing solutions for the parasites and pathogens of wildlife. The parasites and pathogens that affect game animals can be maintained within reservoir animals (e.g. cattle as reservoirs of the pathogenic bluetongue viruses of deer) and parasites and pathogens that affect man and other animals can be maintained within reservoir game animals (e.g. the agents of human ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis are found in deer reservoirs). Therefore, the Bob R. Jones Wildlife Institute will maintain a comprehensive research program to broadly develop solutions for problems affecting animal health.

Maintain a research program which focuses on the improvement of environments to promote wildlife health and abundance. Man, companion animals, livestock, game animals, and other wildlife all share certain environments and have interconnected lives; improvement of game animal environments may lead to parallel benefits for other animals in those niches.

Maintain a research program on the reproductive biology of wildlife to generate information that can be used to establish methods to proliferate animals with characteristics that are beneficial for animal health and value.

The research program first will be focused on preventive medicine to maintain and increase whitetail deer, and reproductive biology to establish methods to mammals with desired characters. A second phase would include projects on niche management for both whitetail deer and upland birds.

The Bob R. Jones Wildlife Research Institute was formed to further research in the management of wildlife interests at and near the Bob R. Jones-Idlewild Research Station at Clinton, Louisiana. The primary interest of the Institute is to focus on problems and seek solutions to those problems that limit, confound or decrease the ability of wildlife to flourish in the Florida parishes. Some of these problems are local and some have regional and national implications. Wildlife research has been a core component of the research station since its beginnings in 1958. Current research includes work on deer herd health (both wild and captive), upland game-bird management and restoration, forest management for wildlife and environmental manipulation for wildlife. The goal of the organization is to provide science based information wildlife enthusiasts, private landowners, corporate landowners and others in the area wildlife and habitat management. The mission is to used applied scientific methodology to solve problems faced by wildlife managers and other interested parties in the state of Louisiana.

The Institute bears the name of Bob Jones, who was a large landowner in East Feliciana Parish was instrumental in bringing electricity to the rural parishes in the 1940s. For more than 50 years, students and faculty in LSU’s wildlife, fisheries, and forestry programs used Jones’ land to conduct research. Mr. Jones was instrumental in the allocation of the land where the Bob R. Jones-Idlewild Research Station is located to the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. The Bob R. Jones Wildlife Research Institute is the unit of the LSU AgCenter which houses the Pennington Chair for Wildlife Research.

Bob Jones was a large landowner in East Feliciana Parish and friend of Earl K. Long. Mr. Jones was instrumental in bringing electricity to the rural parishes in the 1940s. For more than 50 years, students and faculty in LSU’s wildlife, fisheries, and forestry programs used Jones’ land to conduct research. Mr. Jones was instrumental in the allocation of the land where the Bob R. Jones-Idlewild Research Station where the Institute is located to the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center.

Bob Jones was one of the leading developers of commercial Brahman and Braford cattle in Louisiana. He was a president of the American Brahman Breeders Association and was active in the Louisiana Cattleman’s Association. For 43 years, he sat on the board of directors of Dixie Electric Membership Corp., which he was a founding member and past president. Mr. Jones also was on the board of directors of Clinton Bank and Trust Co. for more than 50 years.

Jones was a tireless worker who was dedicated to his many interests. Farming, banking, and public life were his hobbies. According to his daughter, Bob liked family, God, Dixie Electric, and Clinton Bank and Trust, but not necessarily in that order.

The Bob R. Jones Wildlife Research Institute is the unit of the LSU AgCenter which houses the Pennington Chair for Wildlife Research. The Chair was created by a donation of $600,000 provided by the Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation http://www.penningtonfamilyfoundation.org and a match of $400,000 funds from the Louisiana Board of Regents. The Chair is currently occupied by Lane Foil.

The Pennington Chair for Wildlife Research serves as the scientific director of the Bob R. Jones Wildlife Research Institute and conducts research in his specialty area within the scope of the mission of the Institute. Foil’s area of research is on vector-borne diseases and the direct impact of arthropods on animal health. Current projects include 1) describing the vectors of EHDV and BTV within different habitats and mechanisms of transmission of these orbiviruses 2) development of a vaccine that will provide protection for deer against tick infestations. Near future projects include 1) Development of a vaccine that will provide protection for deer against exposure to EHDV through the natural vector. 2) Describing the mechanisms of transmission of the agents of chronic wasting disease. 3) Developing a fire ant management program aimed at protection of nesting game birds.

Dr. Lane D. Foil was born in 1949 and received his BS in biology from Auburn University in 1971. He received a Master’s degree in Preventive Medicine with a Minor in Medical Microbiology from the University of Mississippi Medical School in 1975 under the supervision of Dr. Hugh L. Keegan, working on the effects of brown recluse spider venom on vertebrates. He attended Mississippi State University for his PhD where he studied Medical Entomology with a minor in Biochemistry under the direction B.R. Norment. His research was on the effects of brown recluse spider venom on invertebrates. After receiving his doctorate in 1978, Dr. Foil continued his research in medical entomology on mosquitoes and toxicology of organophosphates at Mississippi State.

He accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Veterinary Entomology with LSU and the LSU AgCenter in 1979, advancing to Associate and then Full Professor in 1989. Lane is currently an editor of the Journal of Medical Entomology and has served on numerous committees of professional societies as well as institutional and departmental importance. Lane has received 8 awards including the First Mississippi Corporation Award for Outstanding Research, Ken Tipton Team Research Award for Outstanding Research, ESA Recognition Award in Entomology, Southeastern Branch, and Doyle Chambers Award for Excellence in Research. He has secured approximately $4 million in external funding and has authored or co-authored 11 book chapters, 135 refereed journal articles, and numerous proceedings, state and extension publications. Lane has 2 patents and has 3 patents pending.

Dr. Foil’s program focuses on vector-borne diseases and the direct impact of arthropods on animal health. Arthropod studies are usually designed around two-factor (host and arthropod) or three-factor (host, parasite, and vector) complexes. The emphasis of the program is to provide information that can be used to interrupt or reduce the impact of two and three factor "disease."

The mission of Dr. Foil’s program in the Bob R. Jones Wildlife Institute is to develop solutions for problems that affect the health and abundance of Louisiana wildlife and to disseminate the application of these solutions through scientific publications, education, and public outreach. Specifically, he has established and will maintain a research-based program aimed at developing solutions for the parasites and pathogens of wildlife as part of goals of the Institute to improve the health and abundance of Louisiana wildlife through research to add to the enjoyment of nature in Sportsman’s Paradise.

Lane enjoys fishing off shore and he and his crew have held two State records (Mako-765 pounds; blackfin tuna-37.6 pounds). Lane also enjoys inshore fishing as well as duck hunting. Lane has trained hunting Labrador retrievers for over 25 years including two Hunter Retriever champions.