Yitagele Terefe Mekonnen

General Information

Name: Mekonnen Yitagele Terefe

Date of Birth: May 29, 1981

Place of Birth: Harar, Ethiopia

Nationality: Ethiopian

Contact Address:

Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Department of Veterinary medical Science

Via Tolara di Sopra, 50

40064 - Ozzano dell'Emilia (BO)

Mobile +393519664284 in Italy (+251-911067947 Whatsapp)

E-mail: yitagele.mekonnen2@unibo.it /yitagele@yahoo.com [mailto:/yitagele@yahoo.com]

Educational background

• PhD candidate at University of Bologna, Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences since November 01, 2021 on sub-specialization on “PhD in Animal Production and Food Safety” with an academic discipline VET/04 Inspection of Foods of Animal Origin. PhD research project on “Identification of microbiome tailored strategies to improve safety and sustainability of poultry meat-based products”.

• Master of Science in Veterinary Public Health (MVPH), July 15, 2017, Addis Ababa University, College of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture, Bishoftu, Ethiopia. Thesis research “Occurrence, Antimicrobial Susceptibility and Public Health Implication of MRSA in Ready to Eat Dairy Foods in Harar Town and Its Surrounding Areas”. http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/14668 or (http://etd.aau.edu.et/bitstream/handle/123456789/14668/YITAGELE2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y ).
• Post Graduate Diploma in Higher Education Teaching (PGDHET), July 2016, Haramaya University, Ethiopia. The qualification supports the teaching experience I have since September 2007.
• Master of Science in Tropical Animal Health, July 12, 2012, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium with thesis research work on “Immune Trypanolysis on Non-human Infective Trypanosomes for diagnosis of gambiense Sleeping Sickness”.
• Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), August 23, 2007 from Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia with thesis research work on “Cross-sectional study of Bovine Tuberculosis in cattle slaughtered at Gondar ELFORA Abattoir”.

Academic career

• Serving as Teaching Tutor from April 2022 to the present for students of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bologna, Italy who are making their internal traineeships in Food Inspection supporting them in the use of the virtual slaughterhouse tool.
• Associate Professor in Tropical Animal Health and control of Zoonosis at Haramaya University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Ethiopia since January 1, 2017 with the following teaching activities depend on different academic year students of the college of veterinary medicine. Teaching courses Veterinary Preventive Medicine and Veterinary Clinical Diagnosis for DVM students and course such as Food safety; Application of Molecular and Immunological Techniques for Diagnosis of Infectious Disease and One Health courses for MSc students. Supervising MSc and DVM students during their thesis research.
• Assistant Professor in Tropical Animal Health and control of Zoonosis at Haramaya University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Ethiopia. July 12, 2012 – December 31,2016 with the following teaching duties. Taught courses such as Veterinary Preventive Medicine; Wild life health and Veterinary Parasitology for DVM students and Emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases and Application of Molecular and Immunological Techniques for Diagnosis of Infectious Disease for MSc students. Supervising MSc and DVM students during their thesis research.
• Lecturer at Haramaya University College of Veterinary Medicine. September 24, 2007 – July 11, 2012 with the following teaching activities. Taught courses such as Veterinary Clinical Diagnosis, Veterinary Clinical Pathology and Veterinary Parasitology for DVM students. Supervising DVM students during their thesis research.

  Fellowship/Award/Honor

  • Marco Polo Research Fellowship for research stay at Department of Functional Microbiology of Livestock, "Hohenheim Center for Livestock Microbiome Research (HoLMiR)", University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany to conduct study on “Assessing the impact of different feces storage conditions in the richness, diversity, and composition of the microbiota” from August 1, 2023 to January 2024.
  • Fellow student of the International PhD College, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Bologna, for three years (2021/22-2024/25 academic year) https://site.unibo.it/isa/en/people/international-phd-college-students
  • PhD scholarship Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna to pursue a PhD study (37^th cycle) in department of veterinary medical science in specialization “Animal Production and food safety” for three years (2021/22-2024/25).
  • Visiting research scholar at The Ohio State University, Food Animal Health Research Program, Wooster, Ohio, USA from April 15, 2019 to April 17, 2020 to conduct molecular and microbiological methods on detection of Foodborne pathogen particularly Campylobacter from human and Domestic Animal feces in Eastern Ethiopia. Research project was funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and coordinated by University of Florida, Haramaya University and Ohio State University.
  • Visiting guest researcher in Laboratory of Parasitology, Cooperative Department of Veterinary Medicine, Iwate University, Iwate, Japan from July 22, 2017 to August 7, 2017 for a study project on “Molecular identification and Characterization of Fasciola species from Ethiopia”. The research stay was supported by the grant from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for Dr. Madoka Ichikawa-Seki.
  • Research stays funded by DFG- Africa Initiative to conduct molecular analysis of Ecchinococcus species in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Romig in University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany from August 14 to September 5, 2016.
  • Laboratory Training Travel grant to attend diagnostics bacteriology to stay in ITM, Tropical Laboratory Medicine Unit from October 17, 2015 to December 5, 2015 in Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
  • Travel grant from ITM to attend ITM-IPH Colloquium on Health Systems and Control of Neglected Diseases in Asia- Bangalore, India from 21 to 23 November 2013.
  • Travel Grant from Institute of Tropical Medicine- Strategic Network for Neglected Disease and Zoonoses (SNNDZ) as South- South Study Site Visit in Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (CRUN), Burkina Faso from October 12, 2013 to November 12, 2013.
  • Training travel grant to attend Seminar and technique transfer training on laboratory analysis of Cestode Zoonosis in Department of Parasitology, Asahikawa Medical University, Asahikawa, Japan on 12^th – 27^th February, 2013. Travel Supported by the grant from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for Prof. Akira Ito.
  • Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD) scholarship to attend Master of science in Tropical Animal Health on specialization of control of zoonotic disease at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium (September 2011 to July 2012).

  Course/Trainings/ workshop/ conference attended

• Attended “NEXTVET Una Europa Summer School in Veterinary Public Health (Meat Hygiene)” training held on June 26-30, 2023 at Department of Veterinary Medical Science (DIMVET), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
• Oral presentation entitled “Systematic review on microbiome-related interventions to enhance broiler productivity and safety of poultry meat” on the 23^rd European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition (ESPN) held on June 21-24, 2023, Rimini, Italy.
• Attended Virtual Training school on “Risk-based Meat Safety Assurance Systems Focusing on Risk Categorization of Farms and Abattoirs from June 13 – 16, 2023. It was organized by the training school Risk-based meat inspection and Integrated meat safety assurance (RIBMINS) funded by European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST).
• Oral presentation in season III Game of Research on the title “Identification of microbiome tailored strategies to improve safety and sustainability of poultry meat-based products”. Department of Veterinary Medical Science (DIMVET), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, 16^th March, 2023.
• Attended Workshop on “Pre-Slaughter Handling of Pigs: Effects on Animal Welfare and Meat Quality”. Department of Veterinary Medical Science (DIMVET), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, 6^th - 9^th February, 2023.
• Attended and presented a paper on “Literature review on microbiome-based interventions to enhance target populations in the broiler gut as identified in the observational phase of CIRCLES project” at the 3^rd Annual Meeting of Controlling mIcRobiomes CircuLations for bEtter food Systems (CIRCLES) project, Volos, Greece. 6^th -7^th September, 2022.
• Attended Workshop on “Experimental Design for Animal Experiments”. University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, 18^th - 19^th July, 2022.
• Attended UNA EUROPA workshop on “Expanding the Frontiers in Veterinary Public Health Education” 10^th March, 2022. Department of Veterinary Medical Science (DIMVET) University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
• Attended online Seminar on the topic “Information Literacy for PhD Students: Open Access and Open Science: which was organized by University of Bologna (UNIBO) on February 24, 2022.
• Attended and certified online course “Research and Proposal Writing in the Sciences” from 8 September to 15 December 2020 (14 weeks). This course was offered by INSAP and AuthorAID project.
• Oral presentation in the monthly Global One Health initiative (GoHi) webinar on November 21, 2019 on the title “Prevalence, Diversity, and Co-occurrence of Campylobacter Spp. in Children from Eastern Ethiopia, and their association with Environmental Enteric Dysfunction, Diarrhea and Host Microbiome”.
• Poster presentation entitled “Campylobacter species diversity in children and livestock in eastern Ethiopia” at the Conference of Research Worker in Animal Disease (CRWAD) in Chicago, USA, November 3-5, 2019.
• Attended a hands-on training on Fecal samples preparation for Metagenomics analysis of organized by Ohio State University in collaboration with Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) on May 06-10, 2019 at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
• Attended FAO/WHO/AU First International Food Safety Conference, 12-13 February 2019, African Union Commission, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
• Online course attended from July 2 to 27, 2018 on Open Data Management in Agriculture and Nutrition. Organized by Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN Action).
• Oral Presentation entitled “Status of Cystic Echinococcosis in Domestic and Wild Animal in Ethiopia: The way Forward for Future Research and Intervention” at the Sub-Saharan Africa Research Initiative (CESSARi) project workshop, Kenya from March 12-15, 2018.
• Technique transfer training on molecular study of Cestode zoonoses in University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany from August 14, 2016 to September 5, 2016.
• Zoonoses Research Prioritization and One Health Capacity Building Workshop held on 15-18 March 2016, University of Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Travel grant supported by Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium through its project on Strategic Network on Neglected Disease and Zoonoses (SNNDZ)
• Training on Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) held from February 22-26, 2016 at Haramaya University, Ethiopia.
• Training on Diagnostic bacteriology of Common pathogens from October 17 to December 5, 2015 at Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium
• Training participant in Zoonoses Research Prioritization Workshop organized by Strategic Network on Neglected Diseases and Zoonoses (SNNDZ), ITM, Belgium in Collaboration with University of Pretoria from August 24-26, 2015, Hans Hoheisen Wildlife Research Station, South Africa.
• Attended Project management, Monitoring and Evaluation” training held from July 13- July 16, 2015 at The Ohio State University-Ethiopia Partnership One Health Summer Institute in the University of Gondar, Ethiopia.
• International workshop on “Reducing the impact of infectious disease on village poultry production in Ethiopia” organized by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at Addis Ababa campus, on May 16, 2014, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
• Training on “Academic Advisership and Continuous Assessment” on December 14-15, 2013 at Haramaya University.
• ITM-IPH Colloquium on Health Systems and Control of Neglected Diseases in Asia- Bangalore, India from 21 to 23 November 2013.
• Good Clinical Laboratory Practices (GCLP) in Microbiology Practical Sessions held in Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (CRUN), Nanoro, Burkina Faso from October 13^th to October 25^th 2013. Organized by Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) and Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (CRUN) with a grant from Strategic Network on Neglected Disease and Zoonosis (SNNDZ).
• Seminar and Technique Transfer Training on Cestode Zoonosis in Department of Parasitology, Asahikawa Medical University, Asahikawa, Japan on 12^th – 27^th February, 2013.
• Scientific Research Paper Writing training organized by Bioscience Eastern and Central Africa- International Livestock Research Institute (Beca-ILRI) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 19^th – 23^rd November, 2012.
• Certified attendance on RIPROSAT symposium on “One health, one world in the context of developing countries: Opportunities and challenges” held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 1^st – 3^rd October, 2012 and organized by the Ethiopian National Networks of Graduates in Tropical Animal Production and Health and the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium (ITM).

  Research Experience and grants

• Designing and executing of microbial challenge tests for the control of Foodborne Pathogens in Dry aging or mature meat from beef, Salmon, Tunna and Spada fish.
• Systematic Review on the Application of Microbiome-Related Nutritional Interventions for the Modulation of Beneficial Gut microbes and for the control of foodborne pathogens in broilers.
• Campylobacter Genomics and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (CAGED) project. A research project lead by University of Florida and in collaboration with Ohio State University and Washington State University from the fund of Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation (BMGF). Two papers were published from this involvement.
• Acquiring experiences and skills how to involve and manage working in multi-disciplinary project setting.
• Through this collaborative work I attended one year research stay in Ohio State University to learn the molecular and microbiological detection of Campylobacter spp.
• Leading the laboratory activities of the project on molecular and microbiological detection of Thermophilic and non-thermophilic Campylobacter species from human, animal and environmental samples.
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• Served as a country investigator for Ethiopia in systematic review to identify the priority area of research for zoonoses and to review how One Health concepts included in undergraduate and postgraduate training levels in Ethiopia. A project from Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. Data collection was completed and categorization of research options, scoring, weighting and prioritization of identified research options exercise is undergoing.
• Leading the sample collection and laboratory analysis conducted in research on “Isolation and Antibiotics Susceptibility profile of Staphylococcus aureus in Dairy foods in Harar town and surrounding area, Eastern Ethiopia” from a grant obtained from Haramaya University, Ethiopia. On part of this project, I did my second MSc (MVPH) thesis research work entitled “Occurrence, Antimicrobial Susceptibility and Public Health Implication of MRSA in Ready to Eat Dairy Foods in Harar Town and Its Surrounding Areas”. Similarly, one student was supervised for his DVM thesis research work and the finding was published in Ethiopian Veterinary Journal.
• Leading the sample collection and serological analysis of a study on “Brucellosis in dairy cattle in selected areas of Eastern Ethiopia”. It was performed by a grant won from Haramaya University in its young faculty research grant scheme.
• Immune Trypanolysis on Non-human Infective Trypanosomes for diagnosis of gambiense Sleeping Sickness my first MSc thesis research work in ITM, Belgium. On this study I applied molecular and immunological techniques to develop recombinant Trypanosome for application on Immune Trypanolysis test on Non-human Infective Trypanosomes for diagnosis of gambiense Sleeping Sickness. Since the recombinant study need gradual modification our study still under optimization of the techniques.

• Leading the microbiological analysis in a study on “Zoonotic reservoirs and antibiotic resistance profile of non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS), in Eastern Ethiopia”. It was conducted by the support from Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium and from International Foundation for science (IFS), Stockholm, Sweden to isolate and identify the NTS in domestic animals and to assess their antimicrobial susceptibility profiles. Sample collection and microbiological analysis was completed in some sites. COVID-19 affects the preparation to ship the isolates on future collaborative research for molecular characterization. In the side work of this project, one DVM student was supervised for her thesis work and the finding was published.
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• Molecular and Serological Study of Cestode Zoonosis in Ethiopia (completed project with Germany, Japan and Finland Research Collaborators: Some published papers and few molecular analyses is undergoing for publication).
• Status of Bovine Tuberculosis in Eastern Ethiopia. (Completed research by a grant of Haramaya University).