Dr. Jamie Rothenburger is a veterinarian and scientist whose research has made valuable and unique contributions to the understanding of veterinary medicine and wildlife diseases. She has published over 20 peer-reviewed papers, 16 of which she was the first author, in the top zoonotic disease, wildlife disease and veterinary pathology journals.
Dr. Rothenburger’s research has taken an ecological approach to understanding factors associated with pathogen carriage in Norway rats, a neglected species of global public health significance. This pioneering work led to 4 peer-reviewed, 1st author papers and 6 presentations during her PhD studies and was recognized by the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal and the Forester Medal, the two most prestigious PhD student awards at the University of Guelph. In related work, she conducted one of the largest pathology studies in any wild terrestrial mammalian species. Using > 600 wild rats, her studies have substantially advanced the knowledge of diseases in wild rats, including the discovery of heart and respiratory diseases, resulting in 6 peer-reviewed papers. These results establish the baseline of expected lesions in wild rats, which will help urban rat researchers, public health officials and pest controllers understand how disease impacts rat ecology to better mitigate the risk to human health and better manage urban rat populations.
As a wildlife disease expert, she engages in wildlife disease discovery research. For instance, in 2017 she discovered the first outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) in deer in Ontario, which is an important geographical range expansion that may be driven by climate change. In general, these disease discovery efforts advance fundamental knowledge about wildlife diseases, and are directly useful to wildlife biologists, veterinarians and disease ecologists.
