During the “Improving neighbourhood surveillance and European preparedness for Foot-And-mouth disease and Similar Transboundary (FAST) animal diseases” workshop organized by EuFMD in Bari on 24 and 25 September 2019, we had the chance to meet the Dr. Germán Caceres Garrido, a Spanish veterinary, and to have an interesting small talk with him. We discussed the EuFMD FAST disease future work-plan as an important frame to tackle diseases other than FMD in developed and developing countries around the world.

Dr. Germán Caceres Garrido is the head of service of the Epidemiology Department of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fishieries and Food. In his present job activities, his responsibilities are mostly related with risk assessment, communication and management. He started his career on 1999 by obtaining a veterinary degree at Univeristy Complutense of Madrid and suddenly he become a clinician and surgeon for small animals. After this experience, he become an OVs in the United Kingdom working for DEFRA on meat hygiene, disease surveillance and welfare in slaughter houses until 2007, and then started working in Spanish Ministry of Agriculture in the Epidemiology department of the Animal Health Unit. He is also Focal point for the EuFMD since 2016.

Our FMD Risk Assessment Specialist Dr Bouda Ahmadi interviewed Dr Andrew Peters at the FAO HQ. They discussed on the Supporting Evidence-based Interventions (SEBI-livestock) program in Edinburgh which focuses on improving data collection and quality for livestock health and productivity in LMICs



Dr Peters is Professor of Tropical Veterinary Medicine at Edinburgh University and Director of SEBI-livestock, Centre for Evidence based Interventions, which aims to improve data on livestock health and productivity in low and middle-income countries. He also works as an independent consultant to the animal health industry and the third sector in development of veterinary medicines, with special emphasis on vaccines. He is a member of several public committees and charity trusts both in the Uk and internationally. He is a veterinarian with PhD and DSc degrees in animal science. He has published some 160 scientific papers and two books on Vaccines for Veterinary Applications and Reproduction in Cattle respectively.



Dr. Bouda Ahmadi is an FMD Risk Assessment Specialist and an Animal Health Socioeconomics expert. Bouda is working across the EuFMD Pillar II and Pillar III Work Programme.

We spoke with our EuFMD Veterinary Epidemiologist Dr Melissa McLaws about the Prioritization of Antigen Management with the International Surveillance Tool (PRAGMATIST). This tool has been developed by EuFMD in collaboration with the World Reference Laboratory for FMD, to assist risk managers make decisions about the FMD vaccines that they purchase/maintain, based on current risks to countries covered by the bank.

Dr McLaws is a veterinary epidemiologist trained in Canada. She has worked in private practice, for government and international organizations; and is currently working for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as well as a consultant for EuFMD.

During the “Regional cooperation between Trans Caucasus and neighbouring countries for the prevention and control of FMD and similar Transboundary Animal Diseases” meeting held in Rome at the FAO HQ between the 16th and 17th of September, we spoke with Dr. Tamilla Aliyeva. Our discussion focused on the role of regional collaboration to control FMD and other Transboundary Animal Diseases the expected achievements.
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Dr. Tamilla Aliyeva is an Expert in virology and Veterinary epidemiology, with over 29 years of experience in the leading of laboratory, quality control of veterinary preparations, especially virus vaccines, storage and updating of virus strains, scientific investigations in viruses’ reproduction of animals and birds in different biological systems. She has a strong experience in disease control and management, outbreak epidemiological investigation of infectious diseases, development of National Strategy Plans, Contingency Plans for infectious diseases
She is currently working as Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijan Food Safety Institute under the Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan Republic National Consultant for Regional FAO Program «Strengthening FMD surveillance and control in the Transcaucasian countries to assist progression on the West Eurasia FMD Progressive Control Pathway»

During the “Regional cooperation between Trans Caucasus and neighbouring countries for the prevention and control of FMD and similar Transboundary Animal Diseases” meeting held in Rome at the FAO HQ between the 16th and 17th of September, we spoke with Dr. Carsten Pötzsch on FMD risk assessment and early warning systems through information sharing among countries.

Dr. Pötzsch is a veterinary epidemiologist from Germany. He has been working with EuFMD since 2004, specifically on the development and promotion of Progressive Control Pathway with a particular focus on the Southern Caucasus countries, Turkey and Central Asia. He has a broad international experience in Europe, Asia and Africa on development, implementation and evaluation of livestock, wildlife and zoonotic disease surveillance and control scheme.

At the time of the Vaccine Security meeting held in Rome at the FAO HQ on the 22-23 January 2020, Keith Sumption discussed Vaccine Security issues with David Mackay, the team leader on the vaccines project in the EuFMD.
They discussed on:
• What does the term ‘vaccine security’ mean and why is this important for FAST diseases? What makes the issue particularly challenging for this type of disease?

• What particular role can EuFMD play in promoting vaccine security for FAST diseases?

• Who needs to be involved in improving vaccine security and how can they best work together?




David Mackay retired from the EMA (European Medicines Agency) in 2018 and now provides independent advice to governmental and non-governmental bodies in relation to regulation and use of veterinary medicines. During his career, Dr Mackay worked upon international FMD surveillance and improving vaccines for a range of animal diseases, has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on infectious disease of animals, veterinary vaccinology and regulatory affairs, particularly in relation to immunological veterinary medicinal products.

During the Presentation of the Warwick project on development of the simulation model for FMD control in endemic areas held in Rome at the FAO HQ on November 22nd , 2019, we spoke with Dr Michael Tildesley and Glen Guyver-Fletcher. We discussed the challenges of developing models for FMD endemic settings.
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Mike Tildesley is an Associate Professor in the Mathematics Institute and the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick. Dr Tildesley works upon the development of mathematical models of livestock and zoonotic infectious disease and their utility as predictive tools. He worked extensively on FMD in the aftermath of the UK 2001 outbreak, developing a model to determine optimal strategies for disease control in the event of future outbreaks. More recently, he has worked on model development in situations where precise demographic and disease incidence data are not available, with a focus on diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease, avian influenza, bovine Tuberculosis, rabies and lumpy skin disease. Dr Tildesley works closely with national policy makers and non-government organisations having previously advised the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Department of Agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) upon strategies for disease control.
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Mr. Glen Guyver-Fletcher is a current PhD student working with Dr Mike Tildesley at the University of Warwick. Previously he completed an undergraduate degree in biology and worked as an intern at EuFMD, assisting in the organization of the 2018 Open Session. Currently he is modelling the spread of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in the Republic of Turkey, in an effort to compare and contrast control measures for the disease.

During the CIRAD Qualitative Risk mapping & Optimization of national monitoring systems meeting held on 15-19 of July 2019, in Rome at the FAO headquarters, we interviewed Dr Hanan Yousif on the Importance of training on Risk assessment and risk mapping on Transboundary animal diseases.

Dr Hanan Yousif obtained her Master Degree at the University of Khartoum, Sudan in veterinary Epidemiology with a special focus on Rinderpest disease in Sudan. She later completed her PhD studies at the University of Khartoum, in veterinary Epidemiology working on FMD in Sudan and is currently working for the Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries, Sudan as senior veterinary epidemiologist and as Director of the Disease Control Department.
Dr Yousif supervises the implementation of the zoosanitary measures to control Transboundary Animal Diseases and other diseases in the country and works on the capacity building in six countries in Africa and in Middle-East and at the national level in 18 states by strengthening existing capacities on Disease surveillance, risk assessment and risk mapping and in the use of the livestock emergency guidelines and standards in emergency situations, in collaboration with the Arab Organization of Agriculture Development (AOAD), UN -FAO and INGOs-ICRC and WVI.

During the CIRAD Qualitative Risk mapping & Optimization of national monitoring systems meeting held on 15-19 of July 2019, in Rome at the FAO headquarters, we interviewed one of the course trainers, Dr. Gabriel Poujol.

Dr Poujol spoke with us about the Challenges of the implementation of animal movement in the risk assessment and risk mapping for early detection of transboundary animal diseases.

Dr Gabriel Poujol is a geographer and an Expert in Geographical information sciences. After his graduation in Montpellier, he obtained a Master degree in Management of geographical information systems project and a PhD on staple crops mobility modelling for food security. Before joining Cirad, he worked for the French Government as an expert in risk mapping for decision makers. He is now a data scientist and trainer in the Qualitative Risk analysis field, focusing on risks and mobility in application to animal health.

During the CIRAD Qualitative Risk mapping & Optimization of national monitoring systems meeting held on 15-19 of July 2019, in Rome at the FAO headquarters, we spoke with Dr. Dayhum Abdunaser. We asked Dayhum to go into details about Qualitative risk mapping and optimization of national monitoring systems, with a special focus on the development of risk-based surveillance protocols.

After his degree at the University of Tripoli and a Masters at the Ontario Veterinary College in Canada, Dr Dayhum obtained his PhD at the Alfort National Veterinary School of France.
He was co-chair of the Mediterranean Animal Health Network in 2013; CVO and OIE delegate at National Center of Animal Health (NCAH) of Libya from June 2012 to Nov. 2014) He is now Head of Research, of the Consulting and Training Department for the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tripoli since 2015