Investigation of atypical _Aeromonas hydrophila_ prevalence at the organ-, individual-, and pond-level. Swabs were taken from the gills and lower intestines of channel catfish and analyzed using qPCR to detect bacterial DNA. Results from qPCR were used to inform occupancy models to investigate prevalence and non-perfect detection.
Yesterday, April 20, 2020, I successfully defended my doctoral research! In the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown, the defense was completely virtual (other than one of my co-advisors being in the room).
As the spring semester wraps up and the 2018-19 school year comes to a close. I am currently prepping for the LAST field season of my doctoral work! I am slated to graduate in May 2020, which means I will be defending my dissertation in February or March, most likely.
Well, the time has officially arrived! Next week, I will begin my preliminary exams to fulfill my requirements to move from a Ph.D student to a Ph.D candidate! This means that starting on Monday, I will start a week of written exams, one from each of my dissertation committee members.
As mentioned in the project description of my Aeromonas work, we are currently working with two different strains/genotypes of virulent Aeromonas hydrophila. Dealing with multiple strains of a bacteria can prove difficult with creating vaccines or administering antibiotics so we wanted to see how the temporal distribution of these two strains compared.
My doctoral research investigating the eco-epidemiology of atypical _Aeromonas hydrophila_ in farm-raised catfish.