Tom Aifuo Aire, DVM, PhD - St. George's University

Program Director, Anatomy and Physiology
Email: taire@sgu.edu
Website: https://www.sgu.edu/psc
Phone: (473) 444-4175 ext. 3327
Fax: (473) 444-1480

Biography

Dr. Aire holds the degrees of D.V.M. and Ph.D. (University of Ibadan), and did postdoctoral studies in Sweden and the United States of America. He is a Foundation Fellow of the College of Veterinary Surgeons of Nigeria (FCVSN), and an inducted member of the Fellowship of the Academy of Sciences (FAS).

He has taught veterinary anatomy in various universities: University of Ibadan, University of Illinois, USA, University of Zimbabwe, University of Pretoria and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, and has had research visits to Universities of Minnesota, Ontario Veterinary College, Guelph, Canada, and The University of Liverpool, England, and external examiner to several universities in Africa, the Caribbean and India.

Dr. Aire has had considerable administrative experience at Head of Department and Deanship levels, as well as serving in several committees in several universities, and also at the national level. He is a National Research Foundation-rated scientist in South Africa, and he has had the honor of being the representative for Animal Sciences and Veterinary Science in the Rating Assessment Committee of that Foundation, 2004 to 2006. He is currently Professor of Anatomy, the immediate past chair of the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Veterinary Medicine, and currently Associate Dean of Academic Programs, School of Veterinary. Before coming to the Caribbean, he was Professor of Veterinary Anatomy, University of Pretoria (1996-2006), where he is Professor Emeritus.

His research activities are in reproductive biology of animals, with particular reference to male reproduction in birds, wildlife and laboratory animals. His journal and book publications, well over a hundred and thirty, have received good international acceptability and respect. He has been invited a number of times to write specialist reviews in this area of research in journals and books. He has won a number of publication and paper-presentation awards, including, but not limited to, the 2nd Prize of the European Academy of Andrology, 1997, for a publication in 1996 in the International Journal of Andrology, Researcher of the Year, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, 2003. He has written chapters in four state-of-the-art books, including in the Encyclopedia of Reproduction, 2^nd Edition, 2017, in his area of research specialty. He was nominated in 2000 to serve in the Nomina Anatomica Avium Committee, which is responsible, globally, for avian structural nomenclature.

Dr. Aire has supervised eleven Ph.D. degree theses and several M.Sc. degree dissertations, and he is currently supervising one Ph.D. degree and several Master of Science degree students.

Professionally, he has, at different times, served as Secretary and then President, Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association (NVMA); Council Member, Commonwealth Veterinary Association (CVA); National Representative, World Veterinary Association (WVA) and Pan African Veterinary Association. He received the Livestock Feeds (Nigeria) Award for contributions to Veterinary Medicine, 1996.

Areas of Interest

Affiliations

Selected Publications

Aire, T. A. (2007) Anatomy of the Male Reproductive Tract and organs. In: B. G. M. Jamieson (ed.), Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Birds, Vol. 1, Phylogeny, morphology, hormones and fertilization; Science Publishers, Inc., New Hampshire 03479, USA; Plymouth, UK. Pp. 37-114.

Aire, T. A. (2007) Spermatogenesis and Testicular Cycles. In: B. G. M. Jamieson (ed.), Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Birds, Vol. 1, Phylogeny, morphology, hormones and fertilization; Science Publishers, Inc., New Hampshire 03479, USA; Plymouth, UK. Pp. 279-348.

Aire, T. A. and Ozegbe, P. C. (2008) Immunohistochemistry of the cytoskeleton in the excurrent ducts of the testis in birds of the Galloanserae monophyly. Cell Tiss. Res. 333, 311-321.
Ozegbe, P.C., Aire, T.A. and Deokar, M.S. (2012) The cytoskeletal proteins in the contractile tissues of the testis and its excurrent ducts of the passerine bird, Masked Weaver (Ploceus velatus). Tiss. Cell, 44, 22-31.

Aire, T. A. (2014) Spermiogenesis in Birds. Spermatogenesis 4:3 doi.org/10.4161/21565554.2014.959392 (35 pp).

Aire, T. A. (2017) Spermatogenesis and Spermiogenesis, Birds. In: Jodi Flaws, Bernard Jegou, John McCarrey, Craig Niederberger, Carlos Simon, Michael Skinner, Thomas Spencer, Penny Swanson, and Wei Yan (eds.) Encyclopedia of Reproduction, 2nd Edition, Vol. 6.; Elsevier (in press).

Selected Projects

Some aspects of the normal structure - histological and ultrastructural - of the epididymides and endocrine glands of birds (domestic fowl, Japanese quail, guinea-fowl, ostrich, etc). A long-term, on-going, project. Published work cited in several text-books and reference texts. Sponsored by the University of Ibadan Senate Research Committee, Wellcome Trust (Nigeria); Commonwealth Interchange Fund, Medunsa Research, Board and University of Pretoria. (A Postdoctoral Fellow [Dr. P. C. Ozegbe] joined the research area in 2005/2006)

The effects of the widely-used agricultural fungicide, carbendazim, on the reproductive organs of the male bird, with particular reference to the Japanese quail. (University of Pretoria research grant, 2004).