Thomas E. Besser
Thomas
E. Besser, DVM, PhD, DACVM
Professor
tbesser@vetmed.wsu.edu
509-335-6075
509-335-6086
My research focus is the epidemiology of zoonotic bacterial agents in
their domestic animal reservoirs. I’m particularly interested in those
agents that cause human food-borne diseases. The long-term goal of my
research is the development of practical measures to reduce the prevalence
of these agents in the animal reservoir as a means of reducing the risk of
human disease.
While a great deal is known about how these agents act within the human
host to cause disease, much less is known about their behavior in the animal
reservoir(s) populations, which they typically colonize without evident
signs of disease. If factors that influence the prevalence and dissemination
of these agents can be identified, these factors might be manipulated to
reduce human exposures to these dangerous agents.
I’m specifically interested in the role of clonal dissemination in the
epidemiology of non-typhoid Salmonella and thermophilic Campylobacters, the
interaction between the E. coli O157:H7 and their animal hosts and the
environment and the relationship between antimicrobial resistance in
Campylobacter and Salmonella bacteria and the use of antimicrobial drugs in
animal husbandry.
Publications
