Providing focus and leadershiP for research, education, and knowledge dissemination in

animal-related asPects of Public health

2

Welcome

W e lcome to the 2010 Annual Review for the Centre for Public

Health and Zoonoses! It has been a busy year at the Centre for

Public Health and Zoonoses (CPHAZ), with members involved in a range

of research projects and knowledge dissemination activities - examples

of these are included in this report. We continue to have a large number

of graduate students conducting research in public health. Of particular

note, this year the first cohort of the University of Guelph’s Master of Public

Health program graduated. These former students now are employed

in a variety of human and animal health positions. In December of

this year, renovations began to create CPHAZ laboratories, within the

Ontario Veterinary College. Renovations will be completed in the summer of 2011. We hope that you

find this annual review interesting and look forward to continuing to build our collaborations and to

work together on public health issues at the animal-human-environmental interface.

Sincerely,

Jan M. Sargeant Director, CPHAZ

VisionThrough our engagement in research, education, and knowledge dissemination, members of CPHAZ will identify and solve problems and implement solutions in public health at the human-animal-environmental interface, contribute to rapid response to new and emerging zoonotic diseases, and highlight the societal relevance of veterinary medicine in public health. CPHAZ will create and support productive and effective working relationships between researchers in diverse fields, advance education related to zoonoses and public health and will forge new relationships with human public health activities.

Human Health Government

Public Health Practitioners

Animal Health Government

Public

Veterinarians

Physicians

Research Community

Public Health Community

University of GuelphCPHAZ

Our network of collaborators and end-users

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In 2010...

Public HealtH learning OPPOrtunities

CPHAZ participates in and promotes many opportunities to learn about public health research. For example, CPHAZ sponsored 9 graduate members attendance to the “One Health” themed Canadian Association of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Conference.

In November, CPHAZ co-sponsored the One Health One Model (OHOM) zoonotic disease modeling workshop held in Guelph. This meeting brought together 37 human and animal health modeling professionals for a one day presentation on the different modeling platforms currently being used within the group to model the spread of disease in human and animals. This was followed by a 3 day training course for the modeling platform - AnyLogic.

Every month CPHAZ participates in the Animal Determinants of Emerging Disease: Zoonoses Rounds. This teleconference presents emerging disease research and is a unique information exchange between animal and human health.

In December Jan Sargeant, CPHAZ director, hosted the Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine 2010 Schwabe Symposium “Animal Health Surveillance: From Science to Application” to honour Preben W. Willeberg’s lifetime achievement.

Public HealtH Day

In November, CPHAZ participated in the second annual Master of Public Health “Public Health Day”. Dr. David Mowat, Peel Region’s Medical Officer of Health, was the plenary speaker and the second cohort of MPH students presented their practicum placements and research.

FactsHeets

Samantha Wilson-Clark

We have developed 2 sets of factsheets that are currently available on our website, www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/cphaz. The first discuss zoonotic diseases of wildlife and complement the factsheets on zoonoses of companion animals available through the Worms and Germs Blog at www.wormsandgermsblog.com. The second discuss food safety and specialty foods and are designed for use by local public health inspectors.

sPeaker series

Throughout 2010 we have held our regular seminar series with speakers coming to discuss their research or work in public health.

● Dr. Jane Parmley presented wildlife, health and humans - how the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre relates to public health

● Dr. Donald Campbell spoke to us about his work at the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.

● Dr. Kate Hodgson (University of Toronto) spoke to us about her one health model for integrating family and veterinary medicine.

● Samantha Wilson-Clark gave us an overview of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Canadian Field Epidemiology Program.

● Dr. Sheila Keay discussed one health and its relevance to Canadian Veterinarians.

● Sean Stockwell presented his research on crate tracking in the New York Live Bird Markets.

● Dr. Kate Snedeker spoke about life as a post-doctoral fellow and her research on Verotoxigenic E. coli.

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CPHAZ continues to host lunch seminars for graduate student members. These lunches give the students the opportunity to network with public health practitioners and academic or government researchers and learn about opportunities in various areas of public health.

blake graHam FellOwsHiP

The Blake Graham fellowship is awarded to veterinarians working on graduate research in the area of public health and emerging zoonotic disease. The first recipients of this fellowship, Drs. Simon Otto, Erin Leonard and Dianna Wolfe are now are varying stages of their research and we are proud to give an update on their research progress.

Dr. Simon Otto is planning to defend his PhD in April 2011. His research focused on the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in human isolates of Campylobacter from Saskatchewan. Simon is now a veterinary epidemiologist with the Alberta Government, working on the Alberta Veterinary Surveillance Network for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Erin Leonard is planning to defend her PhD in the Spring of 2011. Her research examined the prevalence and risk factors for Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Giardia in pet dogs, as well as the presence of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella and generic Escherichia coli (E. coli) recovered from pet dogs. Erin recently started a job with the Public Health Agency of Canada as a veterinary epidemiologist with the Environmental Health Division, working on their One Health project.

Dianna Wolfe is working on her PhD investigating the state of knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) activities in the Canadian food safety sector. She has completed a survey and focus groups to evaluate microbial food safety researchers activities in KTE and barriers for expanding these activities.

EcoHEaltH club The Ecohealth club is a Central Veterinary Student Association-accredited group aiming to promote student awareness regarding complex health issues. The club brings students together from multiple disciplines and backgrounds through speaker events, student-led discussions and other programming (e.g. documentary screenings). The major focus of the group is the exploration of the diverse and complex relationships between ecosystems, society, and the health and well-being of animals and humans. If you are interested in receiving information on future Ecohealth Club events, or assisting in planning and organizing events, please e-mail ehc@uoguelph.ca.

graduate students

masters OF Public HealtH graDuates

The first cohort of eight Master of Public Health students graduated in June 2010. Three are continuing on with further education while the others are beginning their careers in agencies such as the Public Health Agency of Canada, Cancer Care Ontario, the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, and the Aga Khan Foundation. The second cohort of fifteen students are scheduled to graduate in 2011.

5Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses

student members

Andrea Aliaga-LeytonHeba AtallaSharon BauerMollie CampbellHelena GrgicAlessia GuthrieElizabeth HillyerVictoria KeeganBehrouz KhashayarJoanna McPhersonCarlos Medina

Gordon MitchellMai PhamKristen ReynoldsLisa ScottMegan SiwickySarah TottonJames ValcourCsaba VargaLee WisenerArman YazdanpanahXianhua Yin

Graduated Members

CPHAZ provides graduate students from many departments with networking opportunities inside and outside OVC through facilitating seminars and conferences on relevant topics in public health. Many students request to remain members after their graduation to continue to learn about opportunities and events.

Cody AndersonEmily BradySarah CroteauBlanaid DonnellyDanielle DumoulinZeinab El-MasriLogan FlockhartDebby GregoryMatt JoosseNousheen KanjiRob KoziarskiKatie MacDonaldTrace MacKayAmber MackieGabriella MalliaLindsay MesserschmidtPaige SchellYolanda SheppardMegan ShewfeltJulie StonemanMalcolm WeirCynthia Woeller

Master of Public Health

Julia Blanco-Chavez

Clinical Studies

Nathan BainChristopher Charles

Biomedical Sciences

Samantha AllenMaureen AndersonKuldeep ChatthaAndres DiazHolly DoddsDevon MetcalfHakimeh MohammadiEric PringleAlexandra ReidJason Stull Kathleen Thompson

Pathobiology

Janet AlsopGillian AltonKathryn BromleyOliver BucherNatalia CernicchiaroAnne DeckertMeredith FairesAshley FarrarShiona GlassSheri HarperNoureen KanjiNathan LachowskyErin LeonardMichael Anthony LevyLauren MacDonaldPasha MarcynukColleen MurphyFlorence MutuaVi NguyenTyler O’NeillTerri O’SullivanSimon OttoAliya PardhanSarah ParkerTara PearsonWendy PonsTheresa ProcterEvan SchneiderStephanie SetoCyril StephenJacqueline StevensonAndrea ThomasKate ThomasNorma VarelaLisa WaddellDianna WolfeIan Young

Population Medicine

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by CPHAZ members encompasses a number of key thematic areas in animal-related aspects of public health. In the past five years,

CPHAZ members have published close to 600 scientific papers within these areas.

Dr. Patrick Boerlin and collaborators investigate the molecular epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from animals and zoonotic agents. Major projects include: antimicrobial resistance in agents of bovine mastitis, E. coli from urinary tract infections in dogs and bacteria in Western Canadian beef cattle. Dr. Boerlin also conducts research comparing Salmonella Enteritidis from chicken and humans in Ontario.

Dr. Karen Morrison is currently working on several projects related to public health and environmental change, including work on watersheds as settings for health and well-being, outbreaks of toxic cyanobacteria in Canadian waters, burden of illness studies in the Caribbean and ecohealth capacity building in South East Asia with Veterinarians without Borders. In the MPH program, she is working to integrate the One Health concept into the public health communication curriculum.

Dr. Andrew Papadopoulos is conducting work to investigate policy and policy communities in the retail food safety sector. His recent studies have evaluated policy actions and their impact on public trust during a food safety crisis.

Dr. Andrew Peregrine is involved in a number of studies evaluating gastrointestinal parasites in sheep with a focus on overwintering gastrointestinal nematodes and anthelmintic resistance. Dr. Peregrine is also investigating producer perceptions of food-borne and zoonotic diseases associated with sheep and goat dairy farms and products.

Dr. John Prescott’s laboratory continues to investigate the basis of virulence in Clostridium perfringens. Working with colleagues Glenn Songer at Iowa State University, Joshua Gong, PhD student Dion Lepp and Research Associate Veleria Parreira, they have shown that isolates from chickens that cause necrotic enteritis have three regions of DNA associated with the ability of these strains to cause disease.

Leptospirosis is an area of Dr. Olaf Berke’s research. His lab studies leptospirosis in dogs in Ontario and in Muskrats in Lower Saxony. Drs. Olaf Berke, Zvonimir Poljak and David Pearl are investigating Echinococcus multilocularis in muskrats in Lower Saxony. Dr. Berke is also consulting for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and sheep industry on the National Scrapie Prevalence Study for Canada.

Dr. Hugh Cai (Animal Health Laboratory) presented at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ Animal Health Forum on his research molecular typing of Giardia duodenalis in Ontario pets.

Member research

ReseaRch

7Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses

Meredith Faires, a PhD student (co-advisors: Drs. David Pearl and Scott Weese) is conducting surveillance of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile at the molecular, patient, environment, and hospital levels in addition to the application of innovative and practical techniques to enhance traditional surveillance of these pathogens within the hospital setting.

Dr. Tracy MacKay, a Masters of Public Health student, completed a practicum placement with Grey Bruce Public Health developing an enhanced Lyme disease surveillance strategy and investigating the benefits of increased collaboration between public health and veterinarians to strengthen the public health infrastructure in disease surveillance, health protection and promotion.

Dr. Paula Menzies and her MSc student Shannon Meadows, are studying the prevalence of Q fever in Ontario sheep flocks, goat herds and their farm workers. This research will help to gain knowledge of the extent of Q fever in small ruminants and their producers in Ontario and of the risk factors associated with infection.

Post Doctoral Fellow Dr. Victoria Ng is exploring the prioritization of zoonotic diseases in Canada. Her research has involved focus groups to identify important criteria for prioritization and a large scale analysis to identify the relative importance of these criteria to derive a scoring system for zoonoses. This ongoing study will include participants from the public as well as human and animal health professionals.

Dr. Jason Stull’s PhD research (advisor Dr. Scott Weese) is focused on zoonotic disease transmission between people and domestic pets. Surveys will capture animal-related attitudes and practices in immunocompetent and compromised households in Canada. In addition, the prevalence of selected zoonotic pathogens will be determined for pregnant women and pets. To estimate the zoonotic risk posed by dog bites, scratches, and licks, the presence and diversity of potential zoonotic pathogens in the oral cavity of healthy dogs will be determined.

Andrea Thomas, a MSc student, and advisor Dr. David Pearl, in the Population Medicine Department, investigated the potential use of abattoir data from provincially-inspected abattoirs in Ontario for disease surveillance in grower-finisher hogs. This research has implications for the incorporation of these data into a syndromic disease surveillance system for swine in Ontario, currently under development at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Ian Young, a PhD (co-advisor Dr. Scott McEwen) student investigated the attitude and knowledge of producers (of broiler chicken and dairy cattle) in food safety and industry food safety programs/production practices. This could lead to a better understanding and implementation of on-farm food safety programs as well as establish a baseline for production information.

member research

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faculty members

Paula barataPsychology

Public Health Policy

Herman boermansBiomedical ScienceFood Safety, Risk

Assessment

Valerie DavidsonEngineering

Food Safety, Risk Assessment

Gordon HaywardEngineering

Zoonoses: Wildlife & Surveillance

David KeltonPopulation Medicine

Water Safety, Environment,

Zoonoses: Livestock

ian K barkerPathobiology

Risk Assessment, Zoonoses: Wildlife

& Surveillance

Hugh caiAnimal Health Lab

Food Safety, Zoonoses: Livestock

Rob DeardonMathematics & Statistics

Risk Assessment

bruce HunterPathobiology

Zoonoses: Livestock & Wildlife

Ken lesliePopulation Medicine

Water & Food Safety, Zoonoses: Livestock

John R bartaPathobiology

Zoonoses: Livestock & Wildlife

David calvertComputing & Info Science

Surveillance & Disease Outbreak

Robert M JacobsPathobiology

Comparative Medicine

Kerry lissemorePopulation MedicineZoonoses: Livestock

chris bauchMathematics & Statistics

Public Health Policy, Synthesis Research

Doug campbellCanadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre

Zoonoses: Wildlife

candace JohnsonPolitical Sciences

Public Health Policy

bonnie MallardPathobiology

Comparative Medicine

olaf berkePopulation MedicineSynthesis Research, Zoonoses: Wildlife

& Companion

catherine carstairsHistory

Food Safety, Environment, Public

Health Policy

Michele GuerinPopulation Medicine

Food Safety

Robert FriendshipPopulation Medicine

Antimicrobial Resistance, Zoonoses:

Livestock

andria JonesPopulation MedicineZoonoses: Wildlife,

Companion & Sporting

Grant MaxieAnimal Health Lab

Zoonoses

Patrick boerlinPathobiologyFood Safety,

Antimicrobial Resistance

Jason coePopulation Medicine

Marc HabashEnvironmental Biology

Water Safety, Environmental,

Antimicrobial Resistance

azad K KaushikMolecular and Cellular

Biology

brian McbrideAnimal & Poultry Science

Food Safety, Environment

Jim FairlesAnimal Health Lab

Zoonoses

9Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses

faculty members

beverly McEwenAnimal Health Lab

Antimicrobial Resistance, Zoonoses:

Surveillance

andrew PapadopoulosPopulation MedicinePublic Health Policy

Patricia shewenPathobiology

Zoonoses: Livestock

ashley WhitemanCentre for Public Health

and ZoonosesProgram Coordinator

Paula MenziesPopulation MedicineZoonoses: Livestock

& Surveillance, Antimicrobial Resistance

Jane ParmleyCanadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre

Zoonoses: Surveillance and Disease Outbreak

Durda slavicAnimal Health Lab

Zoonoses

Janet WoodMolecular and Cellular

BiologyWater & Food Safety

Maria del Rocio amezcua

Population Medicine

Karen MorrisonPopulation MedicineEnvironmental **

David PearlPopulation Medicine

Antimicrobial Resistance, Zoonoses

Henry StaempfliClinical Studies

Zoonoses: Livestock, Companion and Sporting

sarah WoottonPathobiology

Prithy R. babuPathobiology

lucy M MuthariaMolecular and Cellular

BiologyFood Safety

Zvonimir PoljakPopulation Medicine

Food Safety,

Patricia turnerPathobiologyFood Safety

abdolvahab FarzanPopulation Medicine

Eva nagyPathobiology

Jan sargeantPopulation Medicine

Water & Food Safety, Synthesis Research

David Waltner-toewsPopulation Medicine

Water & Food Safety, Environment, Zoonoses

Victoria ngPopulation Medicine

Davor ojkicAnimal Health Lab

Zoonoses: Surveillance and Disease Outbreak

shayan sharifPathobiologyFood Safety

Keith WarrinerFood SciencesFood Safety

Kate snedekerPopulation Medicine

POst DOctOral FellOw members

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We have been very busy throughout 2010 working to design our new research facility. This facility is the product of a one million dollar grant from Canada Foundation for Innovation, with matching funds from the Ontario Research Fund. Construction is currently under way and the facility is on track to open in the Summer of 2011. The renovated facility will include wet laboratories for bacterial and molecular characterization, computer laboratories for disease modeling and surveillance research as well as a zoonotic disease isolate sample bank and space for field collection equipment storage. Below is a summary of some of the infrastructure that will be available:

General culture facilities will provide basic equipment as well as a Sensititre MIC system to determine antimicrobial resistance. The laboratory design will facilitate multiuser collaborative efforts by virtue of a large and functional conventional microbiology laboratory and separate cell culture facilities. Two different cell culture rooms will be created, one for clean procedures and the other for infected cell lines.

Separate rooms will be available for different procedures including initial sample handling, pulsed field gel electrophoresis, DNA/RNA extraction, and PCR running room. The available equipment includes high throughput, instrumentation such as the MagnaPure DNA/RNA extraction system, LightCycler 480 systems and microarray equipment. The Roche Flex Jr and Qiagen Pyromark Q96 ID systems will also be available for short and long base pair sequencing.

Two complementary computer laboratories are part of the new infrastructure. One of the laboratories will be located in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and will focus on infectious disease modeling. The other computer laboratory, located in the new CPHAZ lab area, will focus on quantitative analysis of molecular data and surveillance data. Specialty software will be available in both laboratories.

The new facilities will include cryostorage to allow researchers to begin to build a bank of zoonotic disease isolates and samples. Isolates of zoonotic disease agents can be used to identify virulence factors, conduct molecular studies, develop and validate diagnostic tests, and develop vaccines. This information in turn provides improved diagnostics for field applications and provides the foundation for the conceptualization of new applied research studies. The CPHAZ isolate bank will be a central resource of isolates and samples, with standardized sources and epidemiological

data collection. As isolates are characterized by new methodological testing, the continued adding of this information to the isolate database will create, over time, a unique and innovative resource that can be used to address new research questions.

Research Laboratories

11Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses

Steering Committee

cPHaZ steering cOmmitteeOur steering committee members represent a range of interests and expertise in animal-related aspects of public health. Their participation and dedication to CPHAZ is fundamental to our success as part of the public health community.

Andrew Peregrine is an associate professor of parasitology in the Department of Pathobiology. His research interests include the epidemiology of parasitic infections and development of parasite control programs to reduce drug resistance.

CAte dewey is a professor of epidemiology and the Chair of the Department of Population Medicine. Her research interests are in the area of swine production medicine, including field studies of both zoonotic and production-limiting diseases.

SCott weeSe is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathobiology. His research interests focus on multi-drug resistant bacteria (particularly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), bacterial gastrointestinal disease, and transmission of infectious agents between animals and humans.

SCott MCewen is a Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Population Medicine, and conducts research on zoonotic foodborne pathogens, notably E. coli 0157 and Salmonella, and on antimicrobial drug resistance.

John PreSCott is a Professor in the Department of Pathobiology and conducts research on the pathogenesis of Rhodococcus equi in foals, leptospira in dogs, control of necrotic enteritis in chickens, and antimicrobial use and resistance.

ClAire JArdine, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathobiology, is our newest member of the steering committee. Her research interests include rodent and vector borne zoonotic diseases, the ecology of zoonotic diseases in wild animal populations and wildlife health.

aWaRDsThe American College of Veterinary Pathologists recognized the outstanding contributions that Dr. Ian Barker (former CPHAZ steering committee member) has made by honouring him with

the Harold W. Casey Award for Sustained Excellence in the Teaching of Veterinary Pathology.

The new CPHAZ facility will be open for use by CPHAZ members, their graduate students and collaborators. We encourage cross-disciplinary research and look forward to research in public health and the prevention and control of zoonotic diseases coming out of this facility. We are purely a research facility and not a diagnostic service (**any diagnostic services needed will be directed to the Animal Health Laboratory). If you are interested in the CPHAZ facility for your research please contact us at cphaz@uoguelph.ca.

Centre for PubliC HealtH and Zoonoses

researCH laboratories

centre for Public health and Zoonosesmacnabb house

ontario veterinary collegeuniversity of guelPh

guelPh, ontarion1g 2w1

cPhaZ@uoguelPh.cafor more information visit us at www.ovc.uoguelPh.ca/cPhaZ