Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences at University of Copenhagen is offering a PhD scholarship commencing 1st of October 2011 or soon thereafter. The scholarship is funded by the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
Project description
With reference to the PhD education regulation of UC-LIFE, the work of the PhD Fellow will consist mainly of conducting research as described below together with PhD course training approximating 6 months duration. The fellow is expected to spend between 6 to 12 months in Ghana, e.g. at partner institutions at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Kumasi and/or University of Ghana Medical School, Accra.
The background for this PhD project is that Ghana as most other countries are increasingly experiencing problems with antimicrobial resistant bacterial pathogens causing human infections, i.e. treatment failures and mortality. Problems with such resistant human pathogens are addressed in the project "Antibiotic Drug use, Monitoring and Evaluation of Resistance. The Fellow will be affiliated to ADMER as well as to other relevant projects and institutions in Ghana.
Little is known in Ghana on the level and interactions of antimicrobial resistant bacteria in foods and the environment and how such resistance may be associated with the resistance problems faced in humans. Animal husbandry production is rapidly changing in Ghana from extensive to intensive productions, e.g. poultry, with increased use of antimicrobials as growth promoters and therapeutic agents.
Such use would be expected to increase levels of resistant bacteria in the gut-intestinal environment of production animals, e.g. E. coli and enterococci, and subsequent increased resistance in foods due to faecal contamination, e.g. during slaughter, application of manure or faecal contaminated water.
Specific objectives and activities of this PhD project therefore include, but are not restricted to:
- Determine the prevalence of antimicrobial resistant E. coli and enterococci in selected animals at slaughter, e.g. poultry, and in meat products
- Determine the prevalence of antimicrobial resistant E. coli and enterococci in vegetable crops fertilized with animal manure and irrigated with fecally contaminated water
- Determine important resistance genes and their molecular epidemiology.
Both traditional culture-based isolations of E. coli and enterococci and modern molecular microbiological techniques will be applied to study phenotypic resistance and associated resistance genes. Primary bacterial isolations and MIC (Minimal Inhibitory Concentration) resistance testing are expected done in Ghana with the molecular microbiology taking place at UC-LIFE. Fieldwork will be conducted at selected sites in Ghana and the Fellow will work closely with another PhD fellow carrying out research in the ADMER project on antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella.
Job description
- Your key tasks as a PhD fellow at LIFE are
- Manage and carry through your research project
- Take PhD courses
- Write scientific articles and your PhD thesis
- Participate in international congresses
- Stay at a research institution abroad for a few months
- Teach and disseminate your research
PhD scholarship in Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria in Foods and the Environment in Ghana
