ProfessorPaul Whyte

Prof Whyte is involved in a wide range of research activities within the area of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety. His research interests reflect the broad and diverse scope of this subject area and include themes at the pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest phases of the food chain. Foods of animal origin are universally recognised as a significant reservoir of zoonotic microbiological hazards and contaminated foods are frequently implicated as vehicles responsible for disseminating these infectious agents to humans. On this basis, it is essential that prevalences of these microorganisms are established and effective control measures identified in the various food chains to reduce the risk of human exposure. A significant proportion of my research involves surveillance studies designed to establish the prevalence, levels and significance of microbial hazards in food animals and foods of animal origin. Furthermore, targeted epidemiological studies are also used to determine significant risk factors responsible for causing colonisation in animals by human enteropathogens and the dissemination of these agents during transportation, slaughter and processing. These epidemiological investigations frequently involve both phenotypic and genotypic characterisation of microbiological hazards. In addition, zoonotic agents are frequently characterised as part of my research based on their virulence/pathogenicity and antimicrobial resistance profiles in order to ascertain a more accurate assessment of the risks they pose to public health. A brief synopsis of specific research activity is outlined below and in the Appendices: (i) Epidemiology and control of campylobacters in commercial poultry production and processing (ii) Assessment of the prevalence of campylobacters in foods of animal origin and the epidemiology of campylobacter in humans (iii) To determine the prevalence of campylobacters in companion animals and use molecular characterisation techniques to determine their role in transmitting this zoonosis to humans (iv) The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and multi-drug resistance among zoonotic pathogens and to examine the underlying molecular mechanisms causing resistance in these microbial populations (v) To investigate the role of food animals and foods of animal origin in the epidemiology of Norovirus (vi) To investigate the prevalence and public health risk associated with verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli in cattle at pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest phases of the food chain (vii) Development of rapid nucleic acid based diagnostic assays to detect and characterise common foodborne pathogens (viii) Development of integrated HACCP-based Food Safety Risk Management systems at pre-harvest and harvest levels for food animals and derived foods. (ix) Development of Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment predictive models for investigating the public health impact of specific pathogens in foods and the effects of interventions on exposure (x) Development and evaluation of risk management programmes for the control of infectious agents at farm level (eg mastitis & Johne's disease) (xi) Efficacy, optimisation and evaluation of novel non-thermal process technologies for the control of pathogens in foods