Pedro Paulo Vissotto de Paiva Diniz

Pedro Diniz, DVM, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Small Animal Internal Medicine with Tenure at the Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU) College of Veterinary Medicine. He is specialized in zoonotic vector-borne diseases in companion animals. A native of Brazil, Dr. Pedro Diniz graduated with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science in 1999 from the São Paulo State University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, followed by a residency in Small Animal Internal Medicine at the same institution in 2002. While pursuing a PhD, Dr. Diniz traveled to the United States as a research scholar at the Intracellular Pathogens Research Laboratory at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine (IPRL-NCSU), mentored by Dr. Edward Breitschwerdt (DACVIM). In 2006, he earned a PhD in Clinical Sciences from the College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences at São Paulo State University with research on cardiac abnormalities and myocardial injury in dogs naturally infected with tick-transmitted diseases. After receiving his PhD, Dr. Diniz completed a post-doctoral fellowship at IPRL-NCSU, where he studied microbiology and molecular biology of vector-borne diseases in humans and animals. Dr. Diniz joined WesternU in 2009. He is a member of the International Society for Companion Animal Infectious Diseases and the Emerging Zoonotic & Vector Borne Disease Working Group of the Los Angeles Department of Public Health. He has authored several book chapters on infectious diseases and published over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts in high impact journals. He has given over 50 presentations of his work in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to collaborating with researchers from University of California Davis and Johns Hopkins Medicine, Dr. Diniz partners with research groups from Brazil, Peru, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Greece to study the epidemiological role of companion animals in the transmission of vector-borne diseases to humans. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)