My main interests are animal health and welfare, paying particular focus on its interconnections with veterinary public health. I combine data analysis and visualization with my veterinary expertise to generate and interpret useful information for farmers, stakeholders and national authorities. My academic background and my current training as a resident of the European College of Porcine Health Management help me to bridge the gap between pig research and the pig industry.

My roles and responsabilities are:

Key responsibility for engaging with the Scottish and UK pig industries, administering existing health schemes with the support of the industry, and developing and leading new initiatives for the benefit of the Scottish pig sector. Involvement in the SRUC livestock disease surveillance intelligence centre and participation in EPIC as a pig-species specialist as well as in other animal health- related research including that funded by Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS).

• RESAS A2-2, 3 and 4 topics: Research into zoonoses and emerging diseases to protect public and animal health in Scotland Zoonoses and Emerging Diseases; A systems understanding of the flow of AMR from livestock production to the environment and humans: informing antimicrobial stewardship and optimal use; and Achieving improvements in the health of Scottish livestock through increased uptake of biosecurity practices: towards a farmer-centric approach based on a Socio-Epidemiological Model.
• In EPIC IV, work on the use of meat inspection results for disease surveillance and on providing evidence needed to design control strategies tailored to the Scottish and UK pig industries.
• AMR VMD (VM047) funded by DEFRA: integration of pig data from different sources and analyse the relationships between the use of antibiotics, health, welfare productivity and AMR data.
• COST Actions:
  • RIBMINS (Risk based meat inspection and integrated meat safety assurance - Ribmins) - participation in WG2 (pre-harvest interventions),
  • BETTER – COST ACTION CA20103 – Biosecurity Enhanced Through Training Evaluation and Raising Awareness (better-biosecurity.eu) - WG2 coordination (Scaling-up the knowledge and experience of stakeholders and of the general public)

2015                          Meat Sanitary Inspector at the Portuguese National Authority for Animal Health (DGAV), Portugal.

2015-2018                 PhD student researcher in Animal Production, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Departament De Ciència Animal i Dels Aliments funded by Walsh Fellowship (Teagasc, Ireland).

2018                          Research assistant at Teagasc (The Food and Agriculture Development Authority, Republic of Ireland) - Pig Development Department. Research Topic: Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Animal Production (pig and poultry).

2019-2020                 Post-Doctoral researcher at Teagasc (The Food and Agriculture Development Authority, Republic of Ireland). Research Topic: Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Animal Production (pig and poultry).

2020-                         Veterinary epidemiologist at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC, UK) - Epidemiology Research Unit.

Supervision activities: 7 Master Students (3 completed: 1 Royal Veterinary College - University of London; 2 Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária - Universidade de Lisboa), 4 currently being supervised – 1 from Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária – Universidade de Lisboa, 1 from Universidade de Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), 2 from SRUC).

Teaching:

2022 - ongoing: Master of Research in Zoonoses and principles of epidemiology (SRUC) - co-leader and teaching in module "Principles of epidemiology and health management".

2016-2020, teaching assistant in pig related classes of the modules Veterinary Food Animal Systems VET20070 & Veterinary Food Animal Systems and Applied Breeding VET30340 – School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin (10h/semester), Republic of Ireland.