Rate My Professor Thomas Passler

Dr. Thomas Passler is the Jack Rash Endowed Professor of Internal Medicine and Professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. A specialist in food animal internal medicine, he is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in Large Animal Internal Medicine (DACVIM-LA). Passler earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (MedVet) from the Free University of Berlin in 2003 and his PhD from Auburn University in 2010, with his dissertation focusing on the role of white-tailed deer in bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) epidemiology. His career at Auburn has included progressive academic appointments, promotion to associate professor with tenure in 2015, and leadership as head of the Farm Animal section. In this role, he manages clinical services at the J.T. Vaughan Large Animal Teaching Hospital, including the Food and Fiber Animal Hospital and farm animal ambulatory services. Passler contributes to veterinary education through supervision of residents, participation in Phi Zeta Research Emphasis Day, and service on resident grant proposal committees.

Passler's research centers on infectious diseases of ruminants, with a particular emphasis on BVDV biology, interspecies transmission, persistence, and control. He has co-authored influential works such as the book Farm Animal Anesthesia: Cattle, Small Ruminants, Camelids, and Pigs (2nd edition, 2022, with HuiChu Lin and Stuart Clark-Price) and Sheep, Goat, and Cervid Medicine (3rd edition, 2020, with D.G. Pugh et al.). Key peer-reviewed publications include "Bovine viral diarrhea virus: An updated American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine consensus statement with focus on virus biology, hosts, immunosuppression, and vaccination" (Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 2020, with P.H. Walz et al.), "Control of bovine viral diarrhea virus in ruminants" (Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 2010, with P.H. Walz et al.), and "Experimental persistent infection with bovine viral diarrhea virus in white-tailed deer" (Veterinary Microbiology, 2007). Additional studies explore BVDV in heterologous species, detection using trained dogs (Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2016), and colostrum immunity effects on BVDV detection. His scholarship has advanced disease management practices in livestock and wildlife interfaces, earning high citation impact in the field.