Leya Viju

Hometown: Kerala, India

Advisor: Dr. Kumar Venkitanarayanan

About

Leya Viju is a third year PhD student working with Dr. Kumar Venkitanarayanan in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Connecticut. Leya has completed her DVM from India and worked as a small animal veterinarian prior to joining the PhD program at UConn. Her research interests include food microbiology and safety, poultry production, microbiome analysis, and molecular genetics. Her research focuses on developing novel preharvest control strategies to reduce major food-borne pathogens including Salmonella Enteritidis and Campylobacter jejuni in broiler chickens. Besides research she enjoys getting engrossed in a good book and taking a long relaxing swim.