Sudhakar Bhandare
Associate Professor in Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Contact
Biography
I am a faculty at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, UK and prior to this I was with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and with the Food Safety and Quality Program at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. I am a qualified Vet with master's in Meat Science and Technology from the University of Bristol, UK and MVSc (Veterinary Public Health) from Bombay Veterinary College, India. I have a PhD from Nottingham Vet school, UK.
I have a longstanding track record of excellence in food safety research and Veterinary Public Health (VPH) teaching internationally. I have VPH expertise for last two decades since I started my career as an army Vet in India. I am involved in VPH teaching as well as research at Nottingham Vet school. My research expertise is in the development of phage-based methods to reduce the presence of food borne pathogens in food industry. I am a member of the UK Food Safety Research Network and also the life member of Society For Bacteriophage Research and Therapy, India. I have lectured on MSc Food safety program at McGill University, Canada and on the two training programs for industry people dealing with basic food hygiene as well as advanced training in rapid methods for food analysis. I have hands on experience in the industry food safety management as I was actively involved in implementation of ISO 22000 - 2005 for a chicken processing facility in India. I am a certified Food Safety Management System (FSMS) Auditor (Certification No: 6034182) certified by International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA), London. I was briefly in Asia (Malaysia) and middle east (UAE) as a faculty, teaching food safety courses and coordinating student research projects. I also have taught food safety and public health courses in various Veterinary schools in India and in my defence job in India I was associated with procurement and inspection of meat supplied to the troops. I was a Technical Expert (Food safety) for the Department of Standards Malaysia. Thus, I have thorough understanding of global food safety standards, auditing and regulations.
Currently I have two grants funded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Food Standards Agency (FSA), UK. Earlier, I have shouldered the responsibility of Principal Investigator (PI) on an Indian national network project and was a collaborator on the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) project at the University of Nottingham, UK. I have experience in VPH at various capacities in the army, govt sector, academia and industry. I have a blend of experience in food inspection, auditing, implementation of industry food safety management systems, training food industry people, food safety regulatory compliance with global perspective, food safety research/teaching, supervision of manpower, research project management and publishing.
Expertise Summary
Veterinary Public Health; Food Safety; One Health; Phage Therapy; Bacteriophages
Teaching Summary
I am part of a winning team which was awarded with a prestigious Lord Dearing Award which recognises excellence in teaching and learning across the University of Nottingham and celebrates outstanding… read more
Research Summary
My research interests are in the novel approaches to infection control in medical/agriculture/industrial settings using bacteriophages aka phages. My mentors Prof. Paul Barrow and Dr. Robert… read more
I am part of a winning team which was awarded with a prestigious Lord Dearing Award which recognises excellence in teaching and learning across the University of Nottingham and celebrates outstanding achievements. We are successful in producing an exciting and engaging VPH programme wherein I am teaching Veterinary Public Health (VPH) and convening year 3 VPH module as well as involved in the year 5 One Health One Welfare (OHOW) rotation. I have been awarded with the Nottingham Rewards Scheme for exceptional teamwork in VPH. I am a Fellow of UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA) with recognition reference no. PR241735. I have more than eight years of Teaching experience in VPH in various Vet schools in India, Malaysia and UAE. I have also taught Food Safety courses to MSc Food Safety course, workshops and short courses in Food Safety and Quality Program at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
I am liaising with external VPH teaching providers, abattoirs and food business operators, to ensure student visits take place, and accompany the students on the visits, ensuring all learning objectives are delivered.
I am involved in student advising/mentoring, curriculum development and usage of student centred practical as well as applied approach in teaching with the help of online learning resources like Moodle, Teams etc. I am a Senior Tutor (PG) for providing pastoral care and guidance to postgraduate students. I am a member of Vet school's Committee for Animals and Research Ethics (CARE), Post-Graduate Committee and also an Employability tutor. I have Mentored on the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) Mentoring Programme.
I am on the editorial board of two journals viz. the Frontiers in Veterinary Science and the International Journal of Livestock Production. I regularly peer review articles for journals in my area of specialization viz. Journal of Food Quality, BMC Public Health, African Journal of Microbiology etc.
Current Research
My research interests are in the novel approaches to infection control in medical/agriculture/industrial settings using bacteriophages aka phages. My mentors Prof. Paul Barrow and Dr. Robert Atterbury took a clue from H. William Smith's pioneering work on phage therapy of enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), where he suggested that phage therapy might work for V. cholerae due to similar pathogenesis and hence, my PhD project was designed for in vivo studies post in vitro characterisation of V. cholerae phages giving success in therapeutic trials in an infant rabbit cholera model.
I continued to remain in the phage research and now I am a part of Global Health and Anti-Microbial Resistance strategic research initiative of the Nottingham Vet school. My current research is funded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Food Standards Agency (FSA). Currently, I am leading following two research projects:
A) Phage as biocontrol of Listeria monocytogenes in the UK aquaculture (Ongoing):
Principal Investigator (PI) on this project in collaboration with Prof. Margaret Crumlish from the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK. The objectives of this project are the collection/isolation, characterization, in vitro screening of the Listeria phages and then phage biocontrol studies for evaluating the efficacy of phages in controlling Listeria monocytogenes in the farmed fishes in the UK. This project is funded through UK Food Safety Research Network jointly by BBSRC and FSA (https://quadram.ac.uk/first-uk-food-safety-research-network-projects-funded-to-deliver-safer-foods/).
B) Partner with researchers in Canada on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) grant: Application of Hydroxyl radical process and phage biosanitizers to reduce the spread of AMR pathogens in the poultry chain (Ongoing):
PI on this project which involves working with a team of researchers (Prof. Michael Clark, Akin Jenkins and Belinda Wang from the University of Nottingham, UK; Prof. Keith Warriner from the University of Guelph, Canada; Dr Danish Malik from the Loughborough University, UK and a Canadian Industrial partner) to study application of Hydroxyl radical process and phage biosanitizers to reduce the spread of AMR pathogens viz. Salmonella and Campylobacter spp. in the poultry chain. This project is funded through 'BBRSC 2022 International Partnership Awards Plus - Canada' grant (https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FX012654%2F1#/tabOverview).
Apart from above mainstream research projects, I regularly deal with various short research projects addressing food safety issues in various food environments. I have supervised undergraduate research projects in year 3 of Veterinary degree course. I also have keen interest in educational research with my involvement in an educational enquiry project through Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE).
Past Research
My earlier research was on biocontrol of Salmonella using bacteriophage in fresh produce with Prof. Lawrence Goodridge, Canada. Earlier to this I was working on my PhD project 'Reviving phage therapy for the treatment of Cholera' under supervision of Prof. Paul Barrow and Dr. Robert Atterbury. This study was supported by UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) grant, on which I was one of the research partners from Indian side. To facilitate this research, we had collaborations with institutes in India [National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata], China [China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing] and Kenya [University of Nairobi (UON), Nairobi]. I have shouldered a responsibility of Principal Investigator (August 2010 to September 2011) for 'Outreach Programme on Zoonotic Diseases (OPZD)'. OPZD was an Indian national network project of Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). Project dealt with 'Prevalence, molecular characterization and economic impact of major meat borne zoonotic parasitic diseases of public health significance viz. Hydatidosis, Cysticercosis and Trichinellosis'.
Future Research
Bacteriophages have been shown by our group at the University of Nottingham, UK to be potentially highly effective against bacterial pathogens and they have a great potential both for controlling antibiotic resistant pathogens but also for monitoring the presence of pathogens as sentinels in the industry environments. This potential of phages will be explored further. I wish to focus on the infectious diseases of humans and animals, while attempting to develop phage therapy for them. I would also like to work on the food safety research areas benefiting food industry and hence, any collaborations pertaining to food safety issues concerning food industry are welcome. Any enquiries related to post-graduate studies (Master's and PhD) in the areas of Veterinary Public Health, Food Safety, One Health, Phage Therapy, Bacteriophages etc are also welcome.