Professor Darren Trott

I completed my veterinary degree at Murdoch University and worked in small animal practice for eight years. Following an honours project on Listeria monocytogenes I became interested in the ecology of infectious diseases and completed a PhD with Prof David Hampson on intestinal spirochaetes (awarded in 1998). After completing a three year post-doc at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, USA, I accepted a lectureship at The University of Queensland (UQ) School of Veterinary Science in 2000. I taught veterinary microbiology and antimicrobial chemotherapy to veterinary undergraduates at UQ for 10 years and conducted research on gastrointestinal diseases, microbial ecology and virulence/antimicrobial resistance in companion animal, livestock and human bacterial pathogens. I joined The University of Adelaide School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences in January 2010 and my research areas have expanded to also include antimicrobial resistance ecology, repurposing existing drug classes for development as new anti-infectives, including pre-clinical assessment in murine bioluminescent models of infection, and the effect of antimicrobials on the gut microbiome.

I recently established and am the inaugural Director of a new Research Centre at The University of Adelaide, the Australian Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Ecology. I work closely with Australia's major animal industries (both livestock and companion animal) in the areas of prudent antimicrobial use, antimicrobial stewardship and confirming/ensuring that rates of resistance in animal pathogens, zoonotic and commensal bacteria remain low by international standards.