Kevin Lahmers
Dr. Lahmers aims to improve animal and human health by better controlling infectious diseases in food animals. He focuses on potential zoonotic diseases caused by strains of Escherichia coli that cause hemorrhagic disease, as well as Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, which causes Johnes disease in cattle and has been associated with Crohn’s disease in humans.
Dr. Lahmers explores the molecular and cellular mechanisms of immunity and infectious disease. He also examines nonclassical immune responses that may provide new clues for vaccine development.
He is one of a select group of individuals to have been trained at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a research and diagnostic facility that protects United States livestock from foreign animal disease agents introduced into the U.S. Located off the tip of Long Island, N.Y., the facility houses a highly secure biocontaminant area where foreign animal disease specimens are kept for research and teaching purposes.
The significant pathology and diagnostic training offered at Plum Island is the basis upon which Dr. Lahmers has built his research program. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology and the School for Global Animal Health.