Career profile: Veterinary pathologist

Dr Grant Campbell, veterinary pathologist

Wealth of experience follows Townsville's new veterinary pathologist

Townsville has a new Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries veterinary pathologist based at Oonoonba.

Dr Grant Campbell is one of the DPI&F´s most experienced veterinarians, having worked in most parts of Queensland, and across nearly all of the state´s animal production sectors.

His appointment to Townsville´s Tropical and Aquatic Animal Laboratory means that Dr Campbell has worked in all four of DPI&F´s animal laboratories in Queensland.

Most recently based in Toowoomba, Dr Campbell has headed north to broaden his experience, and for a taste of the tropics - although he has been greeted with the 2009 wet season.

Dr Campbell completed his veterinary qualifications at the University of Queensland in 1979, but his was a non-traditional path to tertiary studies.

"I grew up on a cattle property in the central west, and before I decided to become a vet, I worked in shearing sheds, as a ringer, for a geological exploration company, for the Ford Motor Company and at the Golden Circle cannery in Brisbane," he said.

"But after doing these jobs for 10 years, it dawned on me that I had quite a good brain, and that I should be doing something about making the best use of it. I went back to school, completed senior in 12 months, and studied veterinary science."

Dr Campbell loves good science, and this love and an interest in research has taken him from the paddock into the laboratory and the specialised field of pathology where he has gained considerable experience. Additionally, he has a Master´s degree in molecular genetics after researching genetic vaccines for Pasteurella haemolytica, a bacterium that causes pneumonia in cattle.

Dr Campbell said a pathologist´s role is to put the jigsaw together and oversee the process of diagnosis.

"Using our specialist skills in gross and histopathology, we work with other specialists, such as virologists and bacteriologists, as well as field officers and livestock managers, to pull information together and diagnose disease," he said.

DPI&F veterinary pathologists play a central role in keeping many of Queensland´s primary production industries moving.

"We need to continually monitor our herds to assure our trading partners that Queensland livestock are free from disease," Dr Campbell said.

"Additionally facilitating animal production in Queensland is an important spin-off from our monitoring program.

"We also need to be a central part of ongoing vigilance to ensure animal diseases do not enter the state, and we need to be able to act quickly and diagnose rapidly if a disease breaches our defences.

"We also have a very important role in veterinary public health, particularly with regard to detecting, diagnosing and monitoring emerging, exotic and endemic zoonotic diseases, to protect public health."