VISAVET | Julio Álvarez Sánchez

Contact

Management
VISAVET, Health Surveillance Centre
Universidad Complutense
Av. Puerta de Hierro s/n. 28040 Madrid. Spain

e-mail:

Telephone: (+34) 91 394 3992

Fax: (+34) 91 394 3795

Biography

After defending my PhD in 2008, focused on different aspects of the epidemiology of tuberculosis and paratuberculosis in Spain, I served as the head of the unit of neglected and emerging diseases in the VISAVET Health Surveillance Center, Spain, for two years, and then held two post-doctoral positions at the Spanish wildlife research institute (IREC) of Ciudad Real, Spain, and at the Research Institute Ramón y Cajal (IRYCIS) focusing on the epidemiology of bacterial zoonotic diseases in wildlife and humans. After this I joined the University of Minnesota in 2014, first as a research associate and then as an assistant professor, and came back to VISAVET in 2018 with a Ramon y Cajal postdoctoral contract. My research is currently focused on the application of quantitative approaches for the study of the epidemiology of infectous diseases in the human-animal-environmental interface.

I have co-authored over 100 papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, being first or last author in 36 of them; I have acted as PhD advisor of four students in the last 5 years, and currently act as scientific advisor of the European Laboratory for Bovine Tuberculosis, as well as a scientific reviewer for 12 indexed scientific journals.

Investigation

Research lines:

Next scientific publications:

Wiederkehr CM., Alvarez J., Torre-Fuentes L., Crespo-Lopez OI., Calfucura P., Ugarte-Ruiz M., Toledo V., Lurz PWW. and Retamal P.. Salmonella in Coastal Birds in Chile: Detection of a Multidrug-Resistant S. Infantis Bearing the blaCTX-M?65 Gene in a pESI-Like Megaplasmid in Humboldt Penguins. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases. (A)

Last scientific publications:

Lorente-Leal V., Pozo P., Bezos J., Collado S., Vicente J., Stuber T., Alvarez J., de Juan L. and Romero B.. Revisiting Mycobacterium bovis SB0121 genetic diversity reflects the complexity behind bovine tuberculosis persistence in Spain. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 239:106519. 2025. (A)
Samper-Cativiela C., Torre-Fuentes L., Bernabé Diéguez B., Maex M., Ugarte-Ruiz M., Carrizo-Coronado P., Hernandez M., Hofle U., Saez-Llorente JL., De Frutos C., Aguero M., Moreno MA., Dominguez L., Herrera-Leon S. and Alvarez J.. Molecular epidemiology of Salmonella Enteritidis in humans and animals in Spain. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 69(4):e0073824. 2025. (A)
Irrazabal R., Iriarte MV. and Alvarez J.. Non-typhoidal Salmonella in food animals in Paraguay: predominant serovars and resistance phenotypes. Frontiers in veterinary science, 12. 2025. (A)
Hernandez M., Falco-Prieto A., Ugarte-Ruiz M., Miguela-Villoldo P., Ocampo-Sosa A., Abad D., Perez-Sancho M., Alvarez J., Dorighello-Cadamuro R., Alves-Elois M., Fongaro G., Quesada A., Gonzalez-Zorn B., Dominguez L., Eiros JM. and Rodriguez-Lazaro D.. Genome Analysis of 6222 Bacterial Isolates from Livestock and Food Environments in Spain to Decipher the Antibiotic Resistome. Antibiotics, 14:281. 2025. (A)
Serna C., Calderón-Bernal JM., Torre-Fuentes L., Garcia-Munoz A., Diez-Guerrier A., Hernandez M., Fernandez-Garayzabal JF., Vela AI., Cid D. and Alvarez J.. Integrative and conjugative elements associated with antimicrobial resistance in multidrug resistant Pasteurella multocida isolates from bovine respiratory disease (BRD)-affected animals in Spanish feedlots. The Veterinary quarterly, 45(1):1-15. 2025. (A)

See all scientific publications

Last PhD thesis supervised:

Pilar Pozo Piñol. Use of Epidemiological Analytic Tools and Molecular Characterization Techniques to Inform Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication Programs. 2020.(Doctorado Internacional y Doctorado Industrial)
Mª Luisa de la Cruz Conty. Application of quantitative analytic methods for the epidemiological study of zoonotic diseases. 2018.(Doctorado Europeo)
María Teresa García-Seco Romero. Epidemiology of Q fever in domestic ruminants in the central zone of the Iberian peninsula. 2017.
Adriana Cabal Rosel. Distribución, cuantificación y caracterización de genes de virulencia de Escherichia coli en reservorios animales, humanos y medioambientales. 2016.(Doctorado Internacional)
Carmen Casal Comendador. Diagnosis of tuberculosis in ruminants and camelids: optimization of cell-based and humoral tests. 2016.(Laboratorios Ovejero Award, PhD Extraordinary Award, Doctorado Europeo)

See all thesis supervised

Outreach

Last outreach publications:

Velasco-Reinaldos C., Ortega J., Gómez-Buendía A., Grau A., Lopez M., Alvarez J., Romero B., de Juan L. and Bezos J.. Evaluación de una nueva estrategia para el diagnóstico humoral de la paratuberculosis caprina. Tierras. Caprino, 45, Grupo interempresas. 2024.
Roy A., Diez-Guerrier A., Perello A. and Alvarez J.. Epizootic hemorrhagic disease: an emerging arbovirosis. Profesión Veterinaria, 101:14-25, Colegio Oficial de Veterinarios de Madrid. 2023.
Velasco-Reinaldos C., Roy A., Ortega J., Romero B., Alvarez J., Dominguez M., Moreno I., Diez-Guerrier A., de Juan L., Dominguez L. and Bezos J.. Mejorando el diagnóstico para ayudar en la erradicación de la tuberculosis en los rumiantes domésticos: el proyecto internacionalo imdiTBap. Ruminews, Noviembre 2023, Agrinews. 2023.
Balseiro A. and Alvarez J.. Animal tuberculosis: the (never)ending story?. Albéitar, Grupo Asis. 2023.
Lorente-Leal V., Pozo P., Bezos J., Alvarez J., Perez del Val B., Gortazar C., de Juan L. and Romero B.. La secuenciación masiva al servicio de la Tuberculosis. Actualidad redrisa.es, Red de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (RISA). 2023.