Biography
Professor, Epidemiology & Ruminant Health Management
DVM, MSc, PhD (Guelph)
Dr VanLeeuwen holds, or has held, the following positions: Leader of an international smallholder dairy health management program in a number of countries but focused on Kenya; Scientific Program Chair–International Veterinary Epidemiology Conference ‘21; Past President and Current Project Committee Member of Farmers Helping Farmers; Past Chair and Board Member of Veterinarians without Borders-Canada; Past Director of Centre for Veterinary Epidemiologic Research; Past Cdn Director of the Production Limiting Diseases Dairy Research Project; Past President of Cdn Association of Veterinary Epidemiology & Prev Medicine; Past Chief Research Officer of PEI Health Research Institute
He graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) in 1988; worked as a veterinarian in Nova Scotia & Ontario for 4 years; finished a PhD in epidemiology at OVC in 1997.
Dr VanLeeuwen has been working at AVC as a professor since 1997 as a ½ time Farm Service Clinician and a ½ time Epidemiologist in classrooms and on farms in PEI and other places in the world. He has been the primary supervisor for 30 graduate students, and was on the supervisory committee for another 20 graduate students. He provided supervision for 6 residents in Farm Service. He supervised 60 undergraduate students during summer jobs that usually supported graduate students in their research projects. He has over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, 50 papers in conference proceedings and non-refereed scientific publications, 115 abstracts in conference proceedings, 20 discussion papers, technical reports or lay extension, 8 books or book chapters, 40 invited oral scientific presentations, 35 contributed oral scientific presentations, and 30 presentations to producers’ groups and other layperson organizations. Most of these documents were co-authored with graduate students. He was a lead on proposed research that was funded and worth over $12 million, and a collaborator on other research worth over $10 million. Most of the funding involved graduate student research. The research has included areas within Agroecosystem Health, One Health, and Ecohealth, along with non-zoonotic infectious and non-infectious diseases affecting ruminant health management. He was a lead on proposed international development projects that were funded and worth over $11.2 million, and a collaborator on other projects worth over $20 million. Most of the projects involved graduate students. He has participated in 24 qualifying exams of PhD students at AVC, 29 graduate student thesis exams at AVC, and 9 graduate student thesis exams at other universities. He has taught in 6 different graduate courses, coordinating all of them at some time. He has taught and coordinated numerous other undergraduate courses at AVC that helped to build a solid foundation for some of the students that went on to do graduate studies at AVC. He has been involved in numerous international, national, regional, provincial, community, and UPEI service related directly or indirectly to administration for graduate student funding and other opportunities.
Recent Publications
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Effect of housing improvement and other factors on the growth of heifer calves on Kenyan smallholder dairy farms
- Tropical Animal Health and Production, 2021
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Sero-prevalence and risk factors of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus (type 1) in Meru County, Kenya [Epub ahead of print]
- Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 2020
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Endoparasites in dogs and cats diagnosed at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) of the University of Prince Edward Island between 2000 and 2017. A large-scale retrospective study
- Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 2020
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Management factors associated with perinatal lamb mortality in Prince Edward Island flocks
- Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 2020
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Management factors associated with time-to-onset and fecal egg/oocyst counts of gastrointestinal parasites in heifer calves on Kenyan smallholder farms
- Veterinary Parasitology, 2020
Research Classification
- no classification
Research Interests
- Ecosystem health in agricultural areas
- Production limiting infectious diseases in cattle
- Factors of ruminant health management
- Water quality
- International sustainable development
Current Scholars in Health Management
- Henrik Stryhn
- Luke Heider
- Emily Elizabeth John
- Crawford Revie
- Javier Sanchez
- K. Larry Hammell
- Michael Cockram
- Krishna Thakur
- Bronwyn Crane
- Martha Mellish
- Jason Stull
- W. Ben Stoughton
- Dan Hurnik
- Laurie Anne McDuffee
- Gregory Keefe
- Aimie Doyle
- John VanLeeuwen
- Shawn McKenna
- Kathleen M MacMillan
- Katy Proudfoot
- Caroline Ritter
- Jeffrey Davidson
- Jennifer Burns
- J. Trenton McClure
- Yvonne Elce