Rafael F.C. Vieira

Bio

Dr. Rafael F.C. Vieira is an Assistant Professor of One Health in the Department of Public Health Sciences and Center for Computational Intelligence to Predict Health and Environmental Risks (CIPHER) at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC-Charlotte). Dr. Vieira is currently a Board Member of the African Small Companion Animal Network (AFSCAN). Dr. Vieira completed his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) at Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), Veterinary Residency in Laboratory Diagnostics at São Paulo State University (Unesp), Masters at the Federal University of Parana (UFPR), and his PhD at Londrina State University (UEL), Brazil. Dr. Vieira worked in the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB) from 2011-2014, as an Associate Professor of Zoonosis and Epidemiology, and later at the Department of Veterinary Medicine at UFPR from 2014-2023. Dr. Vieira is the PI of several research projects in Brazil, USA, and Sub-Saharan Africa, and he is engaged in research and teaching focuses on One Health, ecoepidemiology of ticks and tickborne diseases (TBD), genetic diversity of tickborne pathogens, tick microbiome, and pathogen discovery. Over the last 13 years his research has focused on zoonotic diseases, with emphasis in the epidemiology of vector-borne and transboundary infectious diseases, genetic diversity of TBD pathogens, pathogen discovery, One Health, molecular detection and characterization of novel hemoplasmas and Anaplasmataceae species and evaluation and validation of diagnostic tests for zoonotic infectious diseases. His research summary includes 115 peer-reviewed publications on Medline and Scopus databases, and book chapters. His professional goal is to apply his background to approach global health issues at the human-animal-environment interface from a One Health perspective, with a special focus on vector-borne and zoonotic diseases.