The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine (UGA CVM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Roy Berghaus to the John R. Glisson Professorship in Veterinary Medicine. Berghaus is the head of CVM’s Department of Population Health.
“It is truly a pleasure to honor Dr. Berghaus’s contributions to veterinary medicine and agriculture with the John R. Glisson Professorship,” said CVM Dean Lisa K. Nolan. “Dr. Glisson was an excellent faculty member, whose work in poultry medicine was respected worldwide, and whose leadership was critical in strengthening healthcare across Georgia’s animal industries. I believe John will be pleased to see Dr. Berghaus honored with his namesake professorship, since they share a devotion to animal agriculture.”
The professorship honors Glisson’s distinguished career and record of service at UGA CVM. Glisson earned his DVM from UGA in 1980 and joined the faculty of the CVM four years later. Before retiring in 2011 as the head of the Department of Population Health, he also served as department head in avian medicine, associate dean for public service and outreach, and clinical service chief in the department of avian medicine. His work was celebrated nationally and internationally by poultry producers and veterinarians.
Glisson hired Berghaus the year after the department of population health was organized. “He was the first department head for population health after it was formed,” Berghaus said. “It’s a special thing for me to be named the Glisson Professor. I have a lot of respect for John.”
Berghaus earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri and spent five years in private practice. He mostly worked with beef cows in a small town about 50 miles south of Kansas City in western Missouri.
“The little town we were in had maybe 1,000 people but there were probably 100,000 cows right around that area,” Berghaus said.
He became interested in epidemiology while practicing there and returned to the University of Missouri to earn his master’s degree in biomedical science, followed by a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California at Davis.
His research focus switched to poultry upon arriving in Georgia, which produces more than 1.3 billion broiler chickens per year, making it the No. 1 state in the nation for poultry production. The department of population health is an interdisciplinary unit focusing on food and research animals and wildlife, but Berghaus said 50 percent of his time at UGA has been spent studying poultry issues.
In addition to co-authoring papers on Salmonella spp. and epidemiology, Berghaus is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine (ACVPM) and holds certification in the Epidemiology Specialty from the ACVPM.
