CORE - Staff
David Edache, PhD, MSc
Research Associate David received his Animal Science undergraduate degree from the University of Agriculture Makurdi in Nigeria, where he was born and raised. He later moved to the UK to pursue a MSc degree. While there, he continued his study on ruminant nutrition with a particular focus on mineral supplementation for lambs raised on pasture. After completing his MSc degree in 2019, he accepted a PhD position in Italy where his research was on developmental programming in dairy heifers, specifically looking at the impact of maternal dietary challenge during pregnancy on the development of the gastrointestinal system in the offspring. David has a strong interest for research involving animal models, and his long-term goal is to keep pushing the limits of research in both academic settings and R&D-related enterprises. Under the supervision of Dr. Natalia Cernicchiaro, David is presently a postdoctoral research fellow. As part of his job, David will look into the antiviral activities of polyphenols isolated from sorghum against the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). |
Karla I. Moreno-Torres, PhD, DVM, MScResearch Associate Karla received her PhD from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Ohio State University, where she focused on the dynamics of infectious diseases at the wildlife-livestock interface. She worked as a post-doctoral researcher and an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education fellow at the Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health and at the Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. She used experimental data to parameterize national models for epidemiological preparedness. Her research interests include modeling infectious diseases, emergency preparedness, applied epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases. |
Shankar Yadav, PhD, MPH, BVSc&AH
Research Associate Shankar is a veterinarian and epidemiologist with expertise in statistical and stochastic modeling of foreign animal diseases in the United States. As a Fulbright scholar, he completed an MPH degree at Kansas State University and then moved to Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN), where he earned a Ph.D. degree in epidemiology. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the modeling of movement restrictions during the control of a classical swine fever outbreak. As an ORISE (Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education) postdoctoral fellow (2.5 years), he worked jointly with the USDA-ARS Plum Island Animal Disease Center, New York and USDA-APHIS Center for Epidemiology and Animal Health, Fort Collins, CO and conducted a series of epidemiological studies on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) involving model parametrization, simulation of FMD spread and control in the US, and estimation of potential consequences of FMD carrier states in cattle. As a veterinary epidemiologist at the Public Health Surveillance Group (New Jersey), he collaborated with the International Vaccine Institute (South Korea) to study on the Regional AMR Data Analysis for Advocacy, Response, and Policy project in six countries of Asia, Africa, and Southeast Asia with support from the Fleming Fund. Before joining this position at KSU, Shankar worked for the EuFMD (European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (4.5 years), which is one of the commissions of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He supported the activities of EuFMD including the European Foot-and-Mouth Disease Spread Model (EuFMDiS) project and helped develop FMD models at national and regional scales in Europe. His research interests include modeling of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, biosecurity risks, and zoonoses. |
GRADUATE STUDENTS (listed alphabetically):
Torre Dunlea, MScGraduate Research Assistant Torre completed her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Texas, San Antonio. In the fall of 2021, Torre completed her master's in Epidemiology of Infectious Disease and Antimicrobial Resistance at the University of Glasgow. Her primary research focus is modeling transmission risk for Foot-and-Mouth Disease to identify optimal outbreak management strategies. |
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Vanessa Horton, DVM, MSPhD, Pathobiology (Epidemiology) Vanessa received her veterinary degree from Brazil in 2017. She completed her MS degree at K-State in 2020, which focused on beef cattle nutrition, in the Dept. of Animal Sciences and Industry. During her MS degree, she held multiple management roles including interim Manager of the KSU Beef Cattle Research Center, and Manager of the ASI Pre-harvest & Food Safety Laboratory. Her current interests include the application of epidemiological concepts and methods to support evidence-based inference related to animal health and production issues. Her doctoral research focuses on various aspects of veterinary epidemiology, food safety, cattle production, and health. |
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