Siddhartha Thakur, Assistant Professor
ORAU Research Fellow Centre for Veterinary Medicine, FDA Maryland, USA 2007
Doctor of Philosophy Population Medicine, NC State University North Carolina, USA 2005
Master of Veterinary Science Veterinary Public Health, Indian Vet. Research Institute India 2000 Bachelor of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry G.B Pant University Ag. & Tech. India 1998
Phone: (919) 513-0729
Fax: (919) 515-3044
Email: sid_thakur@ncsu.edu
Lab:
Thakur Molecular Epidemiology Lab
Research Focus
My research focus is to understand the molecular epidemiology of important multidrug resistant food borne pathogens in animals, food and humans. There is tremendous economic burden of treating animals and human patients affected by antimicrobial resistant pathogens. However, there is no clear consensus on the significance of ecological and management factors in the dissemination of such antimicrobial resistant strains in humans. In addition, characterizing the pathogen to specific strain level is time consuming and very costly. Thus, the molecular characterization of antimicrobial resistance and development of effective detection system for food borne pathogens are the two most important goals of my research. Through my research, I plan to address several questions that underlie the mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and genotypic diversity of food borne pathogens including 1) Molecular characterization of antimicrobial resistance in food borne pathogens; 2) Phylogenetic analysis of Campylobacter and Salmonella and determine their clonal complexes that exist in the swine production systems, the retail market and in the human population; 3) Develop methods that will aid in the rapid identification and characterization of bacterial pathogens; and 4) Determine the risk factors that transmit Campylobacter and Salmonella among swine at farm, slaughter and retail meat.
Professional Experience
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina.................2007 - present
Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health & Pathobiology
Centre for Veterinary Medicine, Laurel, Maryland.................2005-2007
Oakridge Research Associated Universities Research Fellow
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina.................2001-2005
Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Population Health & Pathobiology
Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izzatnagar, India.................1998 - 2000
Junior Research Fellow, Department of Veterinary Public Health
Gobind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, India.................1993 - 1998
Selected Publications
Thakur, S., Tadesse, D. A., Morrow, W. E. M., and Gebreyes, W. A. (2007). Occurrence of multidrug resistant Salmonella in antimicrobial-free (ABF) swine production systems. Veterinary Microbiology. June 13th
Thakur, S., Morrow, W. E. M., Funk, J. A., Bahnson, P. B. and Gebreyes, W. A. (2006). Molecular Epidemiologic investigation of Campylobacter coli in swine production systems using Multi-Locus Sequence Typing (MLST). Applied Environmental Microbiology. Aug.72(8): 5666-69.
Harbottle, H., Thakur, S., Zhao, S. and White, D. G. (2006). Genetics of antimicrobial resistance. Animal Biotechnology. 17: 1-12.
Gebreyes, W. A., Thakur, S. and Morrow, W. E. M. (2006). Comparison of prevalence, antimicrobial resistance and occurrence of multi-drug resistant Salmonella in antimicrobial-free and conventional pig production. Journal of Food Protection. April; 69(4): 743-8.
Thakur, S., and Gebreyes, W. A. (2005). Campylobacter coli in Swine Production: Antimicrobial Resistance Mechanisms and Molecular Epidemiology. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. November; 43 (11): 5705-14.
Thakur, S., and Gebreyes, W. A. (2005). Prevalence and Antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter in antimicrobial-free and conventional pig production systems. Journal of Food Protection. November; 68 (11): 2402-10.
Gebreyes, W. A., Thakur, S. and Morrow, W. E. M. (2005). Campylobacter coli: Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance in Antimicrobial Free (ABF) Swine Production Systems. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. October; 56 (4): 765-768.
Gebreyes, W. A. and Thakur, S. (2005). Multi-drug Resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Muenchen from Pigs and Humans and Evidence of Inter-serovar Transfer of Antimicrobial Resistance. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. February; 49 (2): 503-511.
Gebreyes, W. A., Thakur, S., Davies, P. R., Funk, J. A. and Altier, C. (2004). Trends in antimicrobial resistance, phage types and integrons among Salmonella serotypes from pigs, 1997-2000. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. June; 53 (6): 997-1003.
Gebreyes, W. A., Davies, P. R., Turkson, P. K., Morrow, W. E., Funk, J. A., Altier, C. and Thakur, S. (2004). Characterization of antimicrobial-resistant phenotypes and genotypes among Salmonella enterica recovered from pigs on farms, from transport trucks, and from pigs after slaughter. Journal of Food Protection. April; 67 (4): 698-705.
Gebreyes, W. A. and Thakur, S. (2003). Molecular Epidemiology of Multi-drug resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium isolated from Swine and Humans. Infection, Genetics and Evolution. 2: 43.