Mark Fox
|
|
Mark currently leads veterinary parasitology teaching at the College and has longstanding research interests in the pathophysiology, epidemiology and control of parasite infections in both domestic and wild animals.
Biography
Mark graduated with a BVetMed degree from the Royal Veterinary College in 1977 and, after a short period in small animal practice, obtained a PhD in Veterinary Parasitology from the College in 1982. He was appointed Lecturer in Veterinary Parasitology later the same year, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1994 and to Professor of Veterinary Parasitology in 2010. He co-founded and acted as Co-Director for Masters Courses in Wild Animal Health (1994) and Wild Animal Biology (2003), in collaboration with the Institute of Zoology (Zoological Society of London), and took over as Director of the College's Contract Research Unit in 2006.
He was elected a Diplomate Member of the European Veterinary Parasitology College and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2003. Mark's current research focuses on the epidemiology and control of parasite infections in domestic and wild animals.
Research
Mark’s initial research interests focussed on the epidemiology of roundworm parasitism in lactating dairy cows though soon expanded to include the pathophysiology of such infections in growing calves. He established the significance of inappetance as a cause of poor weight gain and went on to investigate the cause of anorexia in animals infected with the abomasal nematode, Ostertagia ostertagi. Mark investigated new approaches to the control of such infections in the field with Dennis Jacobs and later studied the use of new chemotherapeutic agents in the control of fleas in small animal.
His interest in parasite epidemiology has led, in recent years, to studies on blowfly myiasis in rabbits, Giardia and Angiostrongylus infections in dogs and warble fly infestation in wild deer in collaboration with colleagues in the universities of Bari (Italy), Bristol and Cambridge, Agri-Food Canada (Lethbridge, Canada), the Forestry Commission, the Natural History Museum (London) and in the Epidemiology Group at the Royal Veterinary College.
Mark was awarded the William Hunting medal, with Neil Forbes in 2005, for the best paper published in the Veterinary Record describing research conducted in general veterinary practice.
Teaching
Mark leads the Veterinary Parasitology teaching in various modules on the BVetMed, BVetMed Graduate Accelerated, BSc Bioveterinary Science, BSc Veterinary Nursing and three Masters degree courses. He also supervises research projects on several of these courses, a number of which have resulted in presentations given at international conferences and publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Mark chairs the Wild Animal Biology and Wild Animal Health MSc course Boards of Examiners and currently acts as External Examiner in Veterinary Parasitology for veterinary schools at the universities of Dublin and Nottingham.
He was awarded the individual RVC Jim Bee Educator prize in 1998 and 2009, and the team prize in 2004.
Selected Publications
FORBES, A.B., WARREN, M., UPJOHN, M., JACKSON, B., JONES, J., CHARLIER, J., FOX, M.T. (2009) Associations between blood gastrin, ghrelin, leptin, pepsinogen and Ostertagia ostertagi antibody concentrations and voluntary feed intake in calves exposed to a trickle infection with O. ostertagi. Veterinary Parasitology 162, 295-305
UPJOHN, M., COBB, C., MONGER, J., GEURDEN, T., CLAEREBOUT, E., FOX, M.T. (2010) Prevalence, molecular typing and risk factor analysis for Giardia duodenalis infections in dogs in a central London rescue shelter. Veterinary Parasitology 172, 341-346
MASTIN, A., BROUWER, A., FOX, M.T., CRAIG, P., GUITIAN, J., LI, W., STEVENS, K. (2011) Spatial and temporal investigation of Echinococcus granulosus coproantigen prevalence in farm dogs in South Powys, Wales. Veterinary Parasitology 178, 100-7