Escherichia coli is an important cause of economic losses in turkeys. The presentation will show a table of lesions caused by these bacteria, explain how it successfully infects a bird, present the last discoveries on the laboratory observations compared with field observations, and discuss strategies to better control it.
Dr. John M. Fairbrother graduated in veterinary medicine from the University of Sydney (BVSc), Australia in 1972. After working as a veterinarian for five years in Australia, he began a Ph. D. in veterinary microbiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine of the Cornell University, USA. After completing his Ph. D. in 1981, he joined the University of Montreal's Veterinary Medicine Faculty, and built a research program on the identification, the pathogenic mechanisms and control, and more recently the antimicrobial resistance to E. coli, mainly of swine and poultry origin. He co-founded Prevtec microbia inc. in 2003, a spin-off company from the University of Montreal, specializing in the development and marketing of preventive methods in animal production. In 2006, the lab was officially designated as the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE) Reference Laboratory for Escherichia coli, thus becoming WOAH's world expert for E. coli.