Panel Discussion and Roundtable
James DeMartini
Colorado State University
Dr. James DeMartini is an ACVP board certified Veterinary Pathologist. He graduated with DVM and PhD degrees from the University of California Davis and was employed as a professor for 31 years in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. His PhD research and subsequent studies while on sabbatical leave in Kenya involved East Coast fever, a tick-borne disease of cattle caused by the protozoan parasite, Theileria parva. Most of his career involved research on detection, pathogenesis, and control of viral diseases of ruminants, particularly retroviral infections of small ruminants (maedi-visna and ovine pulmonary carcinoma) and a herpesviral disease of cattle (malignant catarrhal fever). Together with other veterinary scientists he has also studied several diseases of sheep, cattle alpaca, and wildlife in Peru and Kenya. Research in his laboratory was funded by the US Agency for International Development, the US National Institutes of Health and US Department of Agriculture grants, among others. Over the years, many DVM/PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and research associates were engaged in the research.
Patricia Conrad
University of California Davis
Dr. Patricia Conrad DVM, PhD is the Associate Dean for Global Programs at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis and Co-Director of the One Health Center of Expertise: Water, Animals, Food and Society in the systemwide (10 campus) UC Global Health Institute. Dr. Conrad is a veterinarian and professor of parasitology whose research is focused on the transmission of protozoal parasites between wildlife, humans and domestic animals. She received her DVM degree from Colorado State University and PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. After doing post-doctoral research on the molecular epidemiology of tick-transmitted diseases at the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases in Nairobi, Kenya, she joined the faculty of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Conrad has published over 220 scientific papers and book chapters in the fields of emerging infectious diseases, parasitology, ecology of fecally-transmitted waterborne pathogens and One Health; emphasizing the value of collaborative research and education that considers the interconnectedness of humans, animals and environmental change worldwide. She is the recipient of the Carl J. Norden Distinguished Teaching Award, Pfizer Award for Research Excellence, the Oscar W. Schalm and Norman E. Levine Lectureships and an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship. Dr. Conrad was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formally IOM) in 2011 and awarded a Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology in 2012.
David Ndreereh
Kenya Wildlife Service
Dr. David Ndeereh is a veterinary surgeon with more than 15 years successful background in wildlife veterinary practice and management of wild animals kept under captive situations. His career goal is to accept new challenges as an avenue of enhancing his career and thereby dedicating himself to enhancing conservation of wildlife as a national heritage in Kenya.Dr. Ndeereh is currently pursuing PhD Studies at the University of Nairobi. He obtained his MSc and Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) degrees from the same University in 1999 and 1995 respectively.
Richard Bowen
Colorado State University
Dr. Richard Bowen is Veterinary Microbiologist. He graduated with DVM and PhD degrees from the Colorado State University and is currently a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. His PhD research and early career research focused on bovine reproduction and reproductive diseases, but for roughly 15 years he has concentrated on infectious disease, particularly zoonotic disease. He has devoted considerable attention to arbovirus-induced diseases, including West Nile, Japanese encephalitis and chikungunya viruses to characterized pathogenesis in a broad range of species. Recently, he has spent effort defining the course of infection in dromedary camels infected with MERS coronavirus and evaluating vaccine candidates to project camels from this virus. He is also collaborating with collaborators at the University of Nairobi to isolate MERS coronaviruses from Kenyan camels. Dr. Bowen has a number of projects dealing with international veterinary medicine. Essentially all of his work is collaborative in nature, and he has had a continuous stream of veterinary and PhD students over the years who have been involved in all aspects of his research.
Paul Mireji
Yale University and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Inst.
Dr. Paul Mireji graduated with Bsc. Biochemistry, MSc. Tropical Entomology and PhD Biochemistry from Egerton University, University of Zimbabwe and Kenyatta University respectively. His research theses were focused on ecology and molecular biology of Anopheles mosquito and tsetse fly vectors and were funded by German Academic exchange Program (DAAD) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)- Fogarty (USA). He performed his postdoctoral trainings in bioinformatics and functional genomics of the two vectors at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Greece) and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (UK). He lectured in Biochemistry for several years at Egerton University and Technical University of Kenya. He is currently a faculty at the Yale School of Public Health, CT, USA and Biotechnology Research Institute – Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Institute where his research is focused on ecology, bioinformatics and functional genomics of the two vectors (Anopheles and tsetse flies), with funding support from several NIH and Grand challenges Canada grants. Together with other scientist he has been involved in the sequencing, annotations and characterization of genomes of major tsetse fly vectors and related species and deciphering implications of the information in vector control. He is also involved in building local capacity in vector control through postgraduate (Msc /PhD) trainings, and short skill building workshops targeting staff and students directly involved in vector control.
Ken Olson
Colorado State University
Dr. Kenneth Olson is an arbovirologist and vector biologist. He graduated with a PhD degree from Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO USA) and has been employed as a professor for 20 years in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at CSU. He directed the Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Lab (AIDL) at CSU from 2004-2014. He received funding from NIH and the Bill and Melinda Foundation during this time. His research group has generated dengue virus (DENV) resistant genetically modified mosquitoes, extensively studied RNAi antiviral pathway responses in mosquito cells and vectors, and has a continuing interest in understanding arbovirus-vector interactions leading to arbovirus transmission. He has published extensively on these subjects (116 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters) and has presented work at numerous national and international meetings. His group has used NexGen sequencing approaches to identify virus-specific small RNAs generated in mosquitoes during arbovirus infections and has collaborated with various researchers to determine transcriptomes of DENV infected vs uninfected mosquito vectors. His lab has conducted a large number of vector competence studies for DENV, chikungunya virus and other arboviruses. He has access to extensive BSL2 and BSL3 insectary space. His lab routinely works with Aedes, Culex, and Anopheles species of mosquitoes in characterizing vector-virus interactions with arboviruses and has pioneered the development and use of recombinant arboviruses for expressing markers of infection in mosquitoes and animal models. He has provided training for both US and foreign investigators in the manipulation of arboviral pathogens in the mosquito vector .
Jan Geu Grootenhuis
Wildlife Veterinarian
Dr. Jan G. Grootenhuis is a veterinarian graduated from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. He worked briefly at the University of Zaria in Nigeria. He is interested in the rich and diverse wild animal populations of Africa. His PhD is on theileriosis of wild Bovidae with special reference to the Eland at the University of Utrecht. He establishes with his colleagues and with support from a grant made available by WOTRO (a Dutch foundation for research in the tropics) an animal facility for breeding disease-free wild animals for research at the Veterinary Research Laboratory in Kabete, Kenya. He worked closely with many colleagues in Muguga, Kabete and ILRAD in Kenya and internationally. He worked from 1971 till 1993 at the Veterinary Research Laboratory in Kabete, under FAO, IDRC-CIDA and ILRAD. During this time he is actively involved in training Kenyan veterinarians up to MSc and PhD level in conjunction with Universities in Canada, England and the Netherlands. He works for 3 years as a wildlife director at Game Ranching Ltd and and until 2000 as a staff member of Vétérinaires sans Frontieres (Switzerland) in North Eastern Province of Kenya. Thereafter he sets up a development programme in the Loita Division of Narok district to support the livelihood of the Loita Maasai people while managing their diverse ecosystem with forests, wildlife and livestock and during this time he gets involved in tourism. He lives with his wife in Nairobi, Kenya.
Abstract
In two panel sessions and a roundtable discussion, historical, currently used, and novel strategies for minimizing disease impact within the ecosystem will be considered. Panelists will describe and compare use of such... [ view full abstract ]
Authors
- James DeMartini (Colorado State University)
- Patricia Conrad (University of California Davis)
- David Ndreereh (Kenya Wildlife Service)
- Richard Bowen (Colorado State University)
- Paul Mireji (Yale University and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Inst.)
- Ken Olson (Colorado State University)
- Jan Geu Grootenhuis (Wildlife Veterinarian)
Topic Area
Topics: Human Wildlife Conflict
Session
OS-B1 » Minimizing the Impact of Disease within the Ecosystem I: Assessing Pathogens in the Environment and Control of Invertebrate Vectors of Disease (14:00 - Monday, 11th January, Kirinyaga 1)
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