The best way to summarize 37 years (1974 to 2013) of active research as a faculty member of The Ohio State University is to identify scholarly contributions by infectious agents. As well, three co-authored books on veterinary immunology and viral infectious diseases were written and the position of North American editor, Veterinary Immunology and Immuno-pathology was held for 13 years (1987-2000).
1973-1988: A total of 78 peer-reviewed publications on canine distemper virus (CDV) and related viral diseases of dogs were published. The most important contributions were: CDV strains varied in neurovirulence, immunosuppressive effects of CDV upon developing immunity was a critical determinant of neurovirulence and identification of the canine natural killer (NK) cell. As well, work with X-SCIDs germfree dogs demonstrated that the defect per se was not lethal and that X-SCIDs dogs could be reconstituted with either canine or human CD34+ bone marrow stem cells.
1987-1998: A total of 49 peer-reviewed publications were published on Helicobacter pylori, a human gastric pathogen and other gastric bacterial pathogens. The most important contributions were: Demonstration that this bacterium caused type A gastritis (Koch’s postulates), development of successful anti-microbial therapies for bacterial gastritis in germfree piglets and identification of Helicobacter pylori-like organisms in (HPLO) porcine stomachs.
1999-present: A total of 60 peer-reviewed publications were devoted to the most important viral infectious disease of modern swine production, porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and post-weaning multi-systemic wasting syndrome (PMWS). The most significant contributions to this field were: Proof for the concept that induction of PMWS by PCV2 requires that action(s) of co-factors (usually immune stimulation) for full disease expression, the identification of certain widely-used swine bacterin formulations had an unanticipated potentiating effect on PCV2/PMWS and the identification of a three amino acid segment in within the second immunogenic epitope of the nucleocapsid protein is critical for virulence.
2008-2011: A total of 6 publications concern the topic of porcine torque teno viruses (TTVs). The most significant contributions to this field were: Established a link between TTV infection and a reproducible spectrum of gross and histologic lesions in young swine, recognition that TTV potentiates mortality rates for both PCV2 and also porcine reproductive and respiratory virus syndrome (PRRSV) viruses and that TTV DNAs (and very likely infectious TTVs) are present in commercial swine bacterins.
2012-present: The last several years have been devoted to developing a germfree piglet model of human norovirus infection and vaccination/challenge studies with two newly emergent and lethal porcine coronavirus infections, PEDV and PdCV.
1973-present: Finally, over 100 peer-reviewed publications have addressed general or specific topics in Veterinary immunology and pathology.