Dr. Nielsen graduated with his DVM degree from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark in 2001. He then spent three years in equine veterinary practice before joining graduate school in 2004. He received his Ph.D. in equine parasitology at University of Copenhagen in 2007, and served as assistant professor in Department of Large Animal Sciences of this university until 2011. In August 2011, he joined the M.H. Gluck Equine Research Center at University of Kentucky as assistant professor in equine parasitology.

In 2009, Dr. Nielsen was elected national Young Elite Scientist by the Danish Ministry of Sciences, and in 2010 he was awarded by Aage and Edith Dyssegaard’s Foundation for high quality research within medicine, veterinary medicine and animal production. He is board certified in veterinary parasitology with European Veterinary Parasitology College (EVPC) as well as with American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM).

 

Service activities include serving as reviewer for several scientific journals and he was guest editor of a special issue of Veterinary Parasitology published in 2012. In addition, he is editorial board member of Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, and Veterinary Parasitology. Dr. Nielsen has been involved with organizing several scientific meetings and conferences, including the 2007-2010 Joint Spring Symposium for Danish Society of Parasitology, the 2008 Equine Parasite Drug Resistance Workshop, University of Copenhagen, the 2009 Equine Parasitology Symposium, University of Kentucky, and the 2012 Equine Infectious Disease Conference in Lexington, Kentucky. He has been invited as speaker at numerous international scientific conferences and has served as scientific chair at several of them. Further, he chaired the AAEP parasite control guideline committee which published its guidelines in 2013.

Dr. Nielsen’s research is focused on development and refinement of diagnostic tools to better detect and measure parasite burdens. In addition he works with anthelmintic resistance in equine strongyle nematodes, and his main focus is to identify and evaluate modern sustainable anthelmintic treatment regimens.

Dr. Nielsen’s research has resulted in more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals, and over 100 peer-reviewed abstracts for presentations at conferences and meetings. He is co-author of “Handbook of Equine Parasite Control” published in 2012. He has published over 40 popular and tutorial articles, and is the author of four book chapters.  He has lectured extensively to veterinary students, veterinary practitioners, and horse owners.