David H. Ley (Faculty)

Dr. David H. Ley is the recipient of the Phibro Animal Health Excellence in Poultry Research Award for 2012 presented by the American Association of Avian Pathologists (AAAP). Sponsored by the Phibro Animal Health Corporation, this honor recognizes “sustained excellence in research in poultry disease and health” during a period of 20 years or more. Dr. Ley received the award during the AAAP award luncheon at the recent annual meeting of the American Veterinary Medical Association in San Diego. Dr. Ley, who directs the Mycoplasma Diagnostic and Research Laboratory in the CVM Department of Population Health and Pathobiology, focuses his current research on improving the health of commercial poultry by developing new knowledge that will contribute to the elimination or reduction of losses due to avian mycoplasmosis—a respiratory tract pathogen. “Dr. Ley has both a national and an international reputation in the field of avian mycoplasmosis,” says Dr. Malcolm Roberts, chair of the Department of Population, Health and Pathobiology. “His research has provided support to the poultry industry in both North Carolina and the United States, as well as enhancing our understanding of mycoplasmosis as an emerging disease in the house finch population of North America. The AAAP Phibro Animal Health Excellence in Poultry Research Award is a well-deserved honor for a distinguished scientific investigator who has been focused on a problem in the poultry industry and more recently among the wild bird population.” Dr. Ley has been an invited speaker at more than 50 scientific and industry meetings, most related to his research work in avian mycoplasmology and ranging from the effectiveness of serological tests to detect infection in turkeys, transmissibility of live mycoplasma vaccines, characterization of atypical M. gallisepticum isolates, development of molecular techniques to detect M. iowae, to the dynamics of mycoplasma conjunctivitis in house finches.