Julio Álvarez Sánchez
Qualifications:
PhD in Veterinary Sciences
Diploma de Estudios Avanzados
Degree in Veterinary Medicine (DVM)
Contact
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.
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:
- Characterization of the emergence of foodborne pathogens subjected to surveillance and monitoring programs through quantitative epidemiology (EPIQ)
- Evaluation of the performance of diagnostic tests for diseases of importance in animal health and assessment of their application in the frame of control and surveillance programs (EPIQ)
Next scientific publications:
- Hayer SS., Rovira A., Olsen K., Johnson TJ., Vannucci F., Rendahl A., Perez A. and Alvarez J.. Prevalence and time trend analysis of antimicrobial resistance in respiratory bacterial pathogens collected from diseased pigs in USA between 2006-2016. Research in Veterinary Science, 128:135-144. (A)
- Sponheim A., Alvarez J., Fano E., Schmaling E., Dee S., Hanson D., Wetzell T. and Pieters M.. Comparison of the sensitivity of laryngeal swabs and deep tracheal catheters for detection of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae in experimentally and naturally infected pigs early and late after infection. Veterinary Microbiology. (A)
- Roy A., Infantes-Lorenzo JA., Dominguez M., Moreno I., Perez-Sancho M., Garcia N., Garcia-Seco T., Alvarez J., Romero B., Gortazar C., de Juan L., Dominguez L. and Bezos J.. Evaluation of a new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in goat milk. Research in Veterinary Science. (A)
- Perez-Sancho M., Garcia-Seco T., Porrero MC., Garcia N., Gomez S., Camara JM., Dominguez L. and Alvarez J.. A ten-year-surveillance program of zoonotic pathogens in feral pigeons in the City of Madrid (2005-2014): The importance of a systematic pest control. Research in Veterinary Science. (A)
- Alvarez J., Lopez-Perez G., Muellner P., De Frutos C., Ahistrom C., Serrano T., Moreno MA., Duran M., Saez JL., Dominguez L. and Ugarte-Ruiz M.. Identifying emerging trends in antimicrobial resistance using Salmonella surveillance data in poultry in Spain. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases. (A)
Last scientific publications:
- Picasso C., Grau A., Bakker D., Nacar J., Minguez O., Perez A. and Alvarez J.. Association between results of diagnostic tests for bovine tuberculosis and Johne`s disease in cattle. The Veterinary Record, 31554708. 2019. (A)
- Kanankege KST., Machado G., Zhang L., Dokkebakken B., Schumann V., Wells SJ., Perez AM. and Alvarez J.. Use of a voluntary testing program to study the spatial epidemiology of Johne’s disease affecting dairy herds in Minnesota: a cross sectional study. BMC Veterinary Research, 15(1):429. 2019. (A)
- de la Cruz ML., Pozo P., Grau A., Nacar J., Bezos J., Perez A., Dominguez L., Saez JL., Minguez O., de Juan L. and Alvarez J.. Assessment of the sensitivity of the bovine tuberculosis eradication program in a high prevalence region of Spain using scenario tree modeling. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 173:104800. 2019. (A)
- Saka, K.H., Dabo NT., Muhammad B., Garcia-Soto S., Ugarte-Ruiz M. and Alvarez J.. Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli Pathotypes From Children Younger Than 5 Years in Kano State, Nigeria. Frontiers in Public Health, 7:348. 2019. (A)
- Van Hattem J.M., Cabal A., Arcilla M.S., Alvarez J., de Jong M.D., Melles D.C., Penders J., COMBAT Consortium., Gortazar C. and Schultsz C.. Risk of acquisition of human diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli virulence genes in intercontinental travellers: a prospective, multi-centre study Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 31:101362. 2019. (A)
Last PhD thesis supervised:
- Mª Luisa de la Cruz Conty. Application of quantitative analytic methods for the epidemiological study of zoonotic diseases. 2018.
- 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.(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, Europea)
- Marta Pérez Sancho. Aplicación de nuevas estrategias en el diagnóstico y profilaxis de la brucelosis producida por Brucella melitensis en rumiantes domésticos. 2014.(Mención Europea)
Outreach
Last outreach publications:
- Alvarez J. and Ruiz-Fons F.. Aplicaciones de la epidemiología en el control del PRRS. Monográficos, Grupo Asis. 2019.
- Vilalta C., Sanhueza J., Torremorell M., Corzo C., Morrison R., Alvarez J. and Murray D.. Tail docking, castration: Prime time for PRRS tests. National Hog Farmer, Informa USA. 2018.
- Briones V., Bezos J. and Alvarez J.. Medicina Preventiva Veterinaria: concepto y actualización. Profesión Veterinaria, 91(2018/19):20-23, Colegio Oficial de Veterinarios de Madrid. 2018.
- Alvarez J., Bezos J., Diez-Guerrier A., Gonzalez S. and Saez JL.. Manual de detección de animales infectados anérgicos en explotaciones T2 de riesgo o con antecedentes de tuberculosis. Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación (MAPA) y Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET). UCM.. 2018.
- Cabal A., Garcia-Castillo M., Canton R., Gortazar C., Dominguez L. and Alvarez J.. Prevalence of Escherichia coli virulence genes in patients with diarrhea and a subpopulation of healthy volunteers in Madrid, Spain. Applications of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) tools in microbiology of infectious diseases. Ed. 1. Frontiers. 2017.
Last communications:
- Machado G., Korennoy F., Alvarez J., Picasso C., Perez AM. and VanderWaal K.. The spatiotemporal distribution of lumpy skin disease virus. GeoVet 2019. Novel spatio-temporal approaches in the era of Big Data. 2019. (Oral communication)
- Teng KT., Martinez-Aviles M., Ugarte-Ruiz M., Barcena C., de la Torre A., Lopez G. and Alvarez J.. O, Salmonella, Where Art Thou? Modelling Salmonella infection in swine farms in Spain using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods. GeoVet 2019. Novel spatio-temporal approaches in the era of Big Data. 2019. (Oral communication)
- Pozo P., Minguez O., Grau A., Bezos J., Nacar J., Romero B., de Juan L. and Alvarez J.. To be or not to be (confirmed through bacteriology): spatial epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis in a low prevalence region in Spain. GeoVet 2019. Novel spatio-temporal approaches in the era of Big Data. 2019. (Oral communication)
- Alvarez J.. Factors affecting the performance of diagnostic test for bovine tuberculosis. EU-RL for Bovine Tuberculosis Workshop. 2019. (Oral communication)
- Alvarez J.. Estudios epidemiológicos en la explotación/zona. Las encuestas epidemiológicas. Curso de formación en los aspectos teóricos, prácticos y de base legal en el diagnóstico de la tuberculosis bovina. 2019. (Oral communication)
