Professor Mark Bronsvoort
Personal Chair of Veterinary Epidemiology
Contact details
Address
- Street
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The Roslin Institute
Easter Bush Campus
Midlothian - City
- Post code
- EH25 9RG
Availability
Willingness to take Ph.D. students: Yes
none presently
Background
I am a veterinary epidemiologist working at the Roslin Institute where I lead the Epidemiology, Economics and Risk Assessment (EERA) Group (www.eeragroup.org). We are a mix of veterinarians, statisticans, mathematical modellers, molecular epidemiologists, social scientists, geographers and geneticists working on a number of globally important infectious diseases of livestock and humans including rabies, foot-and-mouth disease, bovine tuberculosis, blue tongue and liver fluke.
After working in general practice as a clinican I spent some time in the tropics where I became interested in ecology which lead me to a research position at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine where I worked as a research assistant managing a drug screening programme for human river blindness in Cameroon. I subsequently studied the epidemiology of foot-and-mouth disease in endemic settings in Africa on a Wellcome Trust Fellowship. In 2003 I move to the University of Edinburgh as a lecturer and worked on a number of large field based studies including the "Infectious Diseases of East Africa" (IDEAL) study and the epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis in Cameroon.
The group is focused on improving methods of surveillance, understanding and predicting transmission and disease spread, mapping diseases and antimicrobial resistance, evaluation of diagnostic tests and developing and support improved disease control strategies both in the United Kingdom and in the tropics particularly sub-Saharan Africa.
Qualifications
2004Master of Science, Sheffield Hallam University Applied Statistics1998Doctor in Philosophy, University of Liverpool The epidemiology of foot-and-mouth disease in the Adamawa Province of Cameroon1998Master of Science, University of California, Davis Preventive Veterinary Medicine1983Bachelor of Veterinary Science, University of Bristol1993Master in Science, University of Wales, Bangor
Professional Qualifications
Diplomate of European College of Veterinary Public Health, DiplECVPH Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, MRCVS
Area of Expertise
Research expertise: Epidemiology, Statistics, Study Design, Infectious Diseases, Tropical Livestock
Career since graduating
I qualified as a vet in 1988 and worked in general practice until 1995 when I started my research career first as an RA at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine managing a tertiary drug screening programme for WHO for three years in Cameroon. This work lead to the discovery that tetracyclines are macrofilaricidal and doxyxyxline is now in human trials in Ghana for the treatment of human riverblindness.
In 1998 I was awarded a four year Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship in Tropical Clinical Epidemiology. This award included 12 months study period at UC Davis, CA, where I gained a Masters in Preventive Veterinary Medicine. In 1999 I moved back to Cameroon to carry out my PhD field work studying the epidemiology of foot-and-mouth disease in an endemic region of Africa. This was the first population based study of FMD in an endemic setting and has lead to a number of peer reviewed publications including the observations that what are viewed as endemic settings may in fact be repeated epidemics of different serotypes of FMD. As part of this project I worked in the World Reference Laboratory for FMD at Pirbright for 18 months including the period of the 2001 FMD outbreak where I was trained in a range of diagnostic tests including virus isolation, ELISA and PCR and provided diagnostic support during the early weeks of the 2001 outbreak.
Following my PhD I worked as a consultant at the Danish EpiLab on a risk assessment for exotic disease introductions to the swine industry in Denmark. This project included consulting widely within the swine industry, government services, port authorities etc to develop qualitative and quantitative risk models for disease introduction.
Since November 2003 I have worked as a lecturer and researcher at Edinburgh. I have been a co-applicant on a number of successful grant applications for major projects both in the UK and Africa as well as wining several smaller grants as PI. I am also active in managing these grants in the field ensuring the smooth progression and quality of the research. In 2007 I started the epidemiology, economics and risk assessment (eera) focus group to develop projects and training in quantitative techniques across campus and raise the profile of epidemiology at the school.
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Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Serological Patterns of Brucellosis, Leptospirosis and Q Fever in Bos indicus Cattle in Cameroon
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Activity: Other activity types › Types of Public engagement and outreach - Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Public Engagement – Festival/Exhibition
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Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Public Engagement – Schools engagement
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Interdisciplinary workshop on peri-urban livestock production
Project: University Awarded Project Funding
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Project: Research
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High resolution Phenotypes - (Namabione)
Project: Research
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Samwel Thumbi leads project in Kenya to tackle tick-borne diseases.
Press/Media: Research
Undergraduate teaching
Course Organiser for Veterinary Public Health rotation for final years.
Teaching VPH, statistics and epidemiology to graduate entries, first, second, fourth and final years.
Course Organizer for the new undergraduate veterinary Evidence Based Veterinary Medicine Course running through years 2-4
Research summary
I currently have a broad portfolio of interests including the epidemiology of foot-and-mouth disease and bovine tuberculosis and using molecular tools to understand transmission and spread at different scales in LMICs.