Edward Breitschwerdt

About

Dr. Edward B. Breitschwerdt is a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He is also an adjunct professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center and a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM). Dr. Breitschwerdt directs the Intracellular Pathogens Research Laboratory in the Institute for Comparative Medicine at NC State University, co-directs the Vector Borne Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory, and is the director of the NCSU-CVM Biosafety Level 3 Laboratory. His clinical interests include infectious diseases, immunology, and nephrology. With over 30 years of research emphasis on vector-transmitted, intracellular pathogens, his work has contributed significantly to understanding animal and human bartonellosis, a group of zoonotic bacterial pathogens. His research group has published more than 350 manuscripts in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and he has received notable awards such as the North Carolina State University Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award and the Holladay Medal, the highest faculty honor at NC State University. Dr. Breitschwerdt's research focuses on developing targeted treatments for bartonelloses, evaluating anti-bacterial drugs in vitro and in vivo, and understanding the pathogenesis of these emerging pathogens.

Research topics

• Virology
• Medicine
• Immunology
• Veterinary medicine
• Internal medicine
• Biology
• Microbiology
• Intensive care medicine
• Pathology
• Genetics

Selected publications

• Recent Progress in Lyme Disease and Remaining Challenges

  Frontiers in Medicine · 2021 · 150 citations

  Lyme disease (also known as Lyme borreliosis) is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States with an estimated 476,000 cases per year. While historically, the long-term impact of Lyme disease on patients has been controversial, mounting evidence supports the idea that a substantial number of patients experience persistent symptoms following treatment. The research community has largely lacked the necessary funding to properly advance the scientific and clinical understanding of the…

  DOI

• Development and validation of a droplet digital PCR assay for the detection and quantification of Bartonella species within human clinical samples.

  Journal of Microbiological Methods · 2020 · 47 citations

  DOI

• <i>Bartonella rochalimae, a</i> newly recognized pathogen in dogs

  Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine · 2020 · 20 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Bartonella spp. comprise a genus of bacteria that frequently cause persistent, often subclinical infection. Although many Bartonella spp. have been implicated in a variety of clinical presentations, Bartonella rochalimae has yet to be documented in association with a clinical presentation other than infectious endocarditis (IE) in dogs. OBJECTIVES: To document a spectrum of clinical presentations accompanied by mild hematological abnormalities in B rochalimae-infected dogs from the U…

  DOI

• An Improved Point-of-Care ELISA for the Diagnosis of Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichiosis During the Acute Phase of Tick-Borne Infections in Dogs

  Topics in companion animal medicine · 2022 · 19 citations

  Veterinarians often test for serologic evidence of vector-borne infections in sick dogs presenting with clinical signs or to screen for subclinical chronic infections. Additional peptide targets for the detection of antibodies to Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Anaplasma platys, and Ehrlichia canis were added to an existing point-of-care (POC) ELISA test (SNAP 4Dx Plus Test, IDEXX Laboratories, Westbrook, ME). This second-generation, multi-analyte test detects Dirofilaria immitis antigen and antibodi…

  PublisherDOI

• Comparison of Anaplasma and Ehrlichia species–specific peptide ELISAs with whole organism–based immunofluorescent assays for serologic diagnosis of anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis in dogs

  American Journal of Veterinary Research · 2020 · 17 citations

  OBJECTIVE: To compare the performance of 5 synthetic peptide-based ELISAs with that of 3 commercially available immunofluorescent assays (IFAs) for serologic diagnosis of anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis in dogs. SAMPLE: and 1 uninfected control dog in previous studies. PROCEDURES: The species-specific seroreactivity, cross-reactivity with the other tick-borne pathogens (TBPs), and diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each assay and compared among assays. RESULTS: All serum sa…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ricardo G. Maggi

  North Carolina State University

  187 shared

• Barbara C. Hegarty

  North Carolina State University

  115 shared

• Melissa J. Beall

  IDEXX Laboratories (United States)

  72 shared

• Ramaswamy Chandrashekar

  IDEXX Laboratories (United States)

  69 shared

• Michael R. Lappin

  65 shared

• Michael G. Levy

  61 shared

• Matthew D. Eberts

  IDEXX Laboratories (United States)

  45 shared

• Barbara A. Qurollo

  North Carolina State University

  44 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Pathology

  North Carolina State University

  1990

• M.S., Pathology

  North Carolina State University

  1985

• B.S., Animal Science

  University of California, Davis

  1983

Awards & honors

• North Carolina State University Alumni Association Outstandi…
• Holladay Medal, the highest award bestowed on a faculty memb…

Similar researchers at North Carolina State University

• B. Duncan X. Lascellesh-67
• Craig Harmsh-54
• Anthony Blikslagerh-52