Dr. Arfan Ahmad

(PhD Microbiology, DVM)
Associate Professor
Institute of Microbiology, University of Veterinary and Animal Scienecs, Lahore 54600, Pakistan

Mobile: +92-300-5517500

Email: iffivet@uvas.edu.pk

Biography

Dr. Arfan Ahmad is serving this highly esteemed institute since 2006. Currently he is working as Associate Professor (Tenured) in University Diagnostic Laboratory (UDL) Internationally Accredited ISO/IEC 17025:2017. He holds DVM, M.Sc. (Hons.) and Ph.D. degrees in Microbiology. He conducted significant part of his Ph.D. research at Atlantic Veterinary College, UPEI Canada. He is involved in teaching and research. He has been part of national and International
collaborative research projects. His area of research interest is to diagnose various infectious diseases which are prevailing in Pakistan and ultimately developing control strategies using biosafety and biosecurity measures to prevent their trans-boundary transmission. He is also serving the institute as research supervisor for undergraduate and postgraduate students and produced over 23 MPhil while 03 PhD students are working under his supervision. He is qualified assessor for ISO/IEC 17025:2017. He is on the panel of Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), Islamabad as technical assessor to assess the quality of testing activities under the requirements of international standards in the area of Microbiology

Area of Interest

  • Molecular Characterization of bovine Pestiviruses, NewCatle disease, and Avian influenza viruses, Salmonellosis, avian mycoplasmosis etc
  • Food safety

Publications


 

 

 

Malik Z, Ahmad A, Anjum AA, Aslam A, Shabbir MZ, Ghafoor A, Muhammad J, Avais M, Ahmad N, Saleem MH, Rabbani M. In process quality control factors affecting the quality of locally prepared salmonella gallinarum antigen. JAPS, Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences. 2018 Apr 1; 28(2):656-9.

J. Muhammad, M. Rabbani, K. Muhammad, M. Wasim , K. Dewan , AA. Anjum , AA. Sheikh, A. Ahmad, F. Akhtar, M. Nisar, I. Khattak, B. M. Jayarao, G. S Kirimanjeswara 2017: Lipopolysacharide gene based development and optimization of diagnostics for Francisella tularensis, J Ani. Plant Sci, 27(4):1116-1166.

J. Muhammad, M. Rabbani , K. Muhammad , M. Wasim , A. Ahmad , AA Sheikh, F. Akhtar , A. Rasool , I. Khattak, T. Bashir, Z. Islam, M. Rasheed 2017: Physicochemical factors affecting persistence of Francisella tularensis in soil” J  Ani. Plant Sci, 27(3):1047-1050.

F.Akhtar, M. Rabbani, K. I. Muhammad, M .Younus, AA.Sheikh, A. Ghafoor, A Ahmad, J.Muhammad, A. Rasool, A.Y.Shaheen 2016: Comparative antibiotic resistance profile of the multidrug resistant E. coli isolated from commercial and backyard poultry J  Ani. Plant Sci, vol 26(6): 1628-1632.

A. Rasool, S. Akhtar1, K. Muhammad, M. Rabbani, A. A. Anjum, J.Muhammad, A.Ahmad, A.A.Sheikh, F. Liaqat, F. Akhtar, R. Tahir). (2016): Comparative Evaluation Of Factors Affecting Hemagglutinatingactivity Of Avian Influenza (H9) Virus. Turk J Vet Anim Sci 40: 102-106.

Shabbir MZ, Akram S, Hassan Z, Hanif K, Rabbani M, Muhammad J, Chaudhary MH, Abbas T, Ghori MT, Rashid H, Jamil T, Islam Z, Rasool H, Bano A, Ahmad A, Ali MA, Yaqub T, McVey W, Jayarao BM 2016: Evidence of Coxiella burnetii in Punjab province, Pakistan . Acta Tropica. 163: 61 – 69.DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2016.07.017

Shabbir MZ, Akhtar S, Tang Y, Yaqub T, Ahmad A, Mustafa G, Alam MA, Santhakumar D, Nair V and Munir M 2016: Infectivity of wild bird-origin avian paramyxovirus serotype 1 and vaccine effectiveness in chickens. Journal of General Virology. 97 (12): 3161–3173 DOI: 10.1099/jgv.0.000618

Z. Shabbir, T. Jamil, M. Asad, A. Ali, A. Ahmad, M. Naeem, M. H. Chaudhary, M. Bilal, M.A. Ali, K. Muhammad, T. Yaqub, A. Bano, A.I. Mirza, M.A.B. Shabbir, W.R. McVey, K. Patel, S. Francesconi, B.M. Jayarao and M. Rabbani (2015) Prevalence and distribution of soil-borne zoonotic pathogens in Lahore district of Pakistan. Frontiers in Microbiology ISSN: 1664-302X , 6 (917): 1-9

A. Raza, A. Ahmad, M. Rabbani, A. Mahmood, M. Younus, Z. Ali and A. Ahad (2015) Optimization of quality control factors for indigenous Mycoplasma gallisepticum bacterin preparation and their impact on immunoprophylaxis in broilers. PVJ, ISSN 0253-8318 (PRINT) ISSN 2074-7764 (ONLINE).

A. Ahmad, M. Rabbani, K. Muhammad, M. Younus, M. Z. Shabbir, A. Ghafoor, A. A. Anjum, J. Nazir, M. K. Saleemi, J. Muhammad, A. A. Ali and A. Cepica. 2014: applications of antigen capture elisa and immunohistochemistry for detection of bovine viral diarrhea persistent infection. Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences. 24(4): .1019-1025

Muhammad Kashif Saleemi, Muhammad Fayyaz Ul Hussan, Muhammad Zargham Khan, Ahrar Khan, Rao Zahid Abbas1 and Arfan Ahmad. Hemato-Biochemical Effects of Colistin Administered Intramuscularly in Growing Broiler Birds. Pakistan Veterinary Journal. 34(1): 78-81

Ahmad A, Rabbani M, Younus M, Zahid MN, Javed A, Ghafoor A (2014). Diagnostic approaches for detection of bovine viral diarrhea virus persistent infection. J. Inf. Mol. Biol. 2 (4): 53 – 60.

Muhammad Zubair Shabbir, Siamak Zohari,Tahir Yaqub, Jawad Nazir,Muhammad Abubakr Shabbir,Nadia Mukhtar, Muhammad Shafee, Muhammad Sajid, Muhammad Anees, Muhammad Abbas, Muhammad Tanveer Khan, Asad Amanat Ali,Aamir Ghafoor,Abdul Ahad, Aijaz ALI Channa, Aftab Ahmad Anjum, Nazeer Hussain, Arfan Ahmad, Mohsan Ullah Goraya, Zahid Iqbal, Sohail Ahmad Khan, Hassan bin Aslam, Kiran Zehra,Muhammad Umar Sohail, Waseem Yaqub Nisar Ahmad, Mikael Berg,and Muhammad Munir.2013: Genetic diversity of Newcastle disease virus in Pakistan: a countrywide perspective. Virology Journal. 10:170-179

Ahmad A, Rabbani M, Shabbir MZ, Muhammad K, Yaqub T, Saleemi MK, Khalid RK, Shabbir MA, Alvi SY. Comparative Suitability of Ear Notch Biopsy and Serum Pairs for Detecting Nature of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus Infection in Dairy Herds. Pakistan Veterinary Journal. 2012 Jul 1;32(3).

Ahmad A, Rabbani M, Muhammad K, Shabbir MZ, Yaqub T, Munir K, Akhter F, Cepica A. Prevalence of bovine viral diarrhea virus persistency in 12 Holstein cattle dairy herds of Charlottetown, Canada. Pakistan Journal of Zoology. 2011;43(2):255-61.

Ali H, Ahmed A, Ali AA, Atta MS, Hanna P, Cepica A. Detection, genotyping, and antigen distribution of bovine viral diarrhoea virus in archival formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissues. Revue de Médecine Vétérinaire. 2012;163(5):219-26.

 

Research projects

  • Molecular approach to use Avian cytokines for the control of indigenous avian influemza H9N2 in commercial Poultry 0.528 million. Role: Co-PI (continue)
  • Molecular characterization of bovine pestivirus isolates from dairy animals of Pakistan and their use in diagnostic, biosecurity and biological development to control disease in Pakistani herds. Rs. 0.62 million, Role: PI (continue) (completed )
  • Defense Threat Reduction Agency, USA (2010-15). Spatial ecology and epidemiology of soil-borne human and animal bacterial pathogens and its public health significance in Pakistan (Project ID: 4368-UVAS-DTRA-0080). Value $519,854. Role: (Team Member) Completed.
  • Defense Threat Reduction Agency, USA. (2010-15). A metagenomic approach to the unbiased identification of pathogens endemic to Pakistan (Project ID: 4367-UVAS-DTRA-0081). Value $590,000. Role:Team Member  Completed

Internal/External Collaboration:

Over the years, Dr Arfan Ahmad has developed collaboration with various national and international institutes across the globe to execute multidisciplinary research projects. A few of these include the Pennsylvania State University USA (Dr. Bhushan M. Jayarao, University of Georgia, USA (Dr. Eric T. Harvill).