Research Details
Our research aims to develop and apply precision diagnostics to support effective and sustainable parasite control in livestock, companion animals and humans.
The main focus on our lab is to develop and apply novel molecular approaches to parasite diagnostics and surveillance. We have specific interests in drug resistance diagnostics and using diagnostics to support more evidence-based and sustainable parasite control.
Parasite control in domestic animals and humans has been based on the preventive use of anti-parasitic drugs for many years. These drugs are often used indiscriminately without prior diagnosis, or assessment of need, and the effectiveness of treatments is rarely assessed. This approach leads to the overuse of anti-parasitic drugs and ineffective treatment and control of parasites. This non-evidence-based approach is increasingly unsustainable, partly due to the emergence of drug-resistant parasites and partly due to the ecosystem damage caused by these potent chemicals as they enter the environment.
Parasites are important disease-causing agents in both humans and animals and there is an urgent need for more effective and sustainable control. For example, parasitic nematodes alone are estimated to cost the US cattle industry over $2 billion per annum and related parasites are major human pathogens (Soil Transmitted Helminths) infecting well over a billion people in low- and middle-income countries worldwide.
Our research team uses a variety of genetic and genomic approaches to develop molecular diagnostic tools and to study how drug resistance arises and spreads in parasite populations.
