Håkon Harry Jones, DVM, MPH
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Dr. Håkon Harry Jones, DVM, MPH will complete his residency under the primary supervision of Dr. Michael Yabsley at the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS), University of Georgia, with additional mentorship from Dr. Cassan Pulaski at the UGA Parasitology Diagnostic Laboratory and Dr. Brian Herrin at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. Håkon first earned a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology before going on to study veterinary medicine at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine. He is currently completing his doctoral dissertation at UGA within SCWDS. His dissertation research investigates the transmission ecology of Angiostrongylus cantonensis-- the rat lungworm-- across intermediate and paratenic hosts in the southeastern United States, integrating gastropod molecular diagnostics, geospatial surveillance, and epidemiological modeling to characterize zoonotic risk in coastal and semi-aquatic systems. |
Five Questions with NCVP IDEXX Resident Dr. Håkon Jones
Tell us a little about your background. Where are you from, what are some of the defining experiences of your life?
I grew up in a Navy family, which let me see a large stretch of the eastern seaboard before they retired to Savannah, Georgia. That meant countless hours combing the beach for shark teeth and whatever storm-tossed lifeforms had washed up overnight. I learned to SCUBA dive early, which deepened my love of aquatic species and drew me into research and conservation work with everything from tongue-eating isopods and sharks to sea turtles and ospreys. That love of the aquatic and the oddball never left me as I pursued degrees in marine sciences, epidemiology, and ultimately veterinary medicine-- each a different lens on the same coastal ecosystem that shaped me.
How did you initially become interested in veterinary medicine?
Like a lot of kids my age, watching Steve Irwin was a strong motivation to spend a lifetime in the wildlife field, and reading James Herriot and Gerald Durrell only solidified this desire. I entered veterinary school not as a typical clinician, but as something closer to a naturalist in a laboratory white coat-- my background in in epidemiology and longstanding interest in wildlife had already oriented me toward understanding animals at the population level rather than the individual.
How did you become interested in parasitology? When did you know it would be your field?
It happened the summer between my first and second years of veterinary school, at AQUAVET, when we extracted living cestodes from a squid. Watching the scolex in real time was akin to seeing the Alien movie for the first time. When I returned, my mentors at SCWDS and in the UGA clinical parasitology diagnostic laboratory nurtured that budding interest and pointed out that it was truly a zoo under the microscope. Until then I had been searching for a way to tie together wildlife conservation and epidemiology; diagnostic parasitology turned out to be exactly that bridge between zoology and infectious disease.
What focus have you chosen for your residency? Where will your research efforts be targeted?
I have chosen to focus my residency on helminths of gastropods-- an emerging group in the United States and one poised for further expansion in a warming world. Angiostrongylus spp. (A. vasorum, A. cantonensis, and A. costaricensis) are now endemic here and use a broad range of gastropod intermediate hosts, posing simultaneous threats to public health, wildlife, and domestic animals.My research will center on the transmission of rat lungworm (A. cantonensis) through the trophic systems of wildlife in the southeastern United States, including its interactions with the many paratenic hosts it exploits.
What is your plan after your residency? What would you like to accomplish over the course of your career?
I plan to work in a diagnostic and research capacity-- ideally one that sees a truly diverse array of parasitic organisms spanning every manner of group, from ectoparasites and endoparasites to the more unconventional taxa such as myxozoans. What draws me is the change to look under the proverbial rock at some of the last undescribed "monsters" and "cryptids" on the globe and bring them into the light: to describe new species, support outbreak response for emerging and reemerging diseases, and keep a caseload balanced across wildlife, zoonotic, and domestic animal pathogens. Above all, I want to contribute meaningfully to the parasitological literature, because among the most enduring things any of us leave behind are the tools we place in the hands of future generations.
I grew up in a Navy family, which let me see a large stretch of the eastern seaboard before they retired to Savannah, Georgia. That meant countless hours combing the beach for shark teeth and whatever storm-tossed lifeforms had washed up overnight. I learned to SCUBA dive early, which deepened my love of aquatic species and drew me into research and conservation work with everything from tongue-eating isopods and sharks to sea turtles and ospreys. That love of the aquatic and the oddball never left me as I pursued degrees in marine sciences, epidemiology, and ultimately veterinary medicine-- each a different lens on the same coastal ecosystem that shaped me.
How did you initially become interested in veterinary medicine?
Like a lot of kids my age, watching Steve Irwin was a strong motivation to spend a lifetime in the wildlife field, and reading James Herriot and Gerald Durrell only solidified this desire. I entered veterinary school not as a typical clinician, but as something closer to a naturalist in a laboratory white coat-- my background in in epidemiology and longstanding interest in wildlife had already oriented me toward understanding animals at the population level rather than the individual.
How did you become interested in parasitology? When did you know it would be your field?
It happened the summer between my first and second years of veterinary school, at AQUAVET, when we extracted living cestodes from a squid. Watching the scolex in real time was akin to seeing the Alien movie for the first time. When I returned, my mentors at SCWDS and in the UGA clinical parasitology diagnostic laboratory nurtured that budding interest and pointed out that it was truly a zoo under the microscope. Until then I had been searching for a way to tie together wildlife conservation and epidemiology; diagnostic parasitology turned out to be exactly that bridge between zoology and infectious disease.
What focus have you chosen for your residency? Where will your research efforts be targeted?
I have chosen to focus my residency on helminths of gastropods-- an emerging group in the United States and one poised for further expansion in a warming world. Angiostrongylus spp. (A. vasorum, A. cantonensis, and A. costaricensis) are now endemic here and use a broad range of gastropod intermediate hosts, posing simultaneous threats to public health, wildlife, and domestic animals.My research will center on the transmission of rat lungworm (A. cantonensis) through the trophic systems of wildlife in the southeastern United States, including its interactions with the many paratenic hosts it exploits.
What is your plan after your residency? What would you like to accomplish over the course of your career?
I plan to work in a diagnostic and research capacity-- ideally one that sees a truly diverse array of parasitic organisms spanning every manner of group, from ectoparasites and endoparasites to the more unconventional taxa such as myxozoans. What draws me is the change to look under the proverbial rock at some of the last undescribed "monsters" and "cryptids" on the globe and bring them into the light: to describe new species, support outbreak response for emerging and reemerging diseases, and keep a caseload balanced across wildlife, zoonotic, and domestic animal pathogens. Above all, I want to contribute meaningfully to the parasitological literature, because among the most enduring things any of us leave behind are the tools we place in the hands of future generations.