My main research interests are animal health and welfare, with a particular focus on their vital interconnections with veterinary public health. My current and recent research spans national pig health initiatives, disease surveillance, and international collaborations, focusing heavily on animal health, welfare, biosecurity, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

By combining advanced data analysis and visualisation with my veterinary expertise, my goal is to generate and interpret actionable information for farmers, industry stakeholders, and policy makers. My academic background and field training enable me to effectively bridge the gap between scientific research and the practical needs of the pig industry.

Pig Health Schemes and Industry Engagement

I have long-standing engagement with the Scottish and UK pig industries, heavily involved in managing, analysing, visualising, and reporting data for abattoir pig health schemes. This includes continuous work with the Scottish Pig Health Network (SPHN; 2003-ongoing), and the British Pig Health Scheme (BPHS; 2005-2022).

Developing Initiatives for the Pig Sector and PRRS Control

I actively develop and lead new initiatives for the benefit of the Scottish and wider UK pig sector. Key projects include PigInsights (using AI to generate information from routine pig vet inspections), investigating the intended and unintended consequences of the ZnO ban from pig diets (BBSRC), conducting Rapid Evidence Assessments on practices to reduce post-weaning diarrhoea (AHDB), and utilizing pig health networks to tackle pleurisy. Additionally, I am a member of the PRRS control and elimination programme in Scotland (PCES), operationalising disease control strategies funded by the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme (RESAS, 2022-2027)

I am a Co-Investigator across several major strategic research areas:

• A2-2: Research into zoonoses and emerging diseases to protect public and animal health in Scotland.

• A2-3: A systems understanding of the flow of AMR from livestock production to the environment and humans, informing antimicrobial stewardship and optimal use.

• A2-4: 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.

Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks (EPIC)

As the current SRUC institutional lead, pig species-expert, and co-lead for EPIC IV's Challenge 3, my work focuses on improving veterinary surveillance to detect and reduce animal and zoonotic disease threats. A core part of my role involves studying the use of meat inspection results for disease surveillance and providing the evidence needed to design tailored control strategies for the Scottish and UK pig industries.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Surveillance

I collaborate on significant national AMR monitoring and integration projects. This includes working on the UK cattle abattoir AMR survey (PATH-SAFE/VMD; 2023-2024), and a VMD/DEFRA-funded project analyzing the complex relationships between antimicrobial use (AMU), health, welfare, productivity, and AMR data in pigs (2019-2022).

European Research and Networks

Internationally, I was a member of the Horizon 2020 DECIDE project, and contributed to the development of data-driven tools and dashboards to visualise and monitor pig disease, welfare, and meat sanitary inspection data for the UK pig industry (explore the AbattoirInspect tool). I am also highly active in European COST Actions, serving as a Management Committee member (UK representative) and Working Group 2 Leader for BETTER (Biosecurity Enhanced Through Training Evaluation and Raising Awareness), and having contributed systematically to WG2 of RIBMINS (Risk-based meat inspection). Furthermore, I serve on the expert panel for the EUPig Innovation Group focusing on Precision Production and Health Management.

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-                         Senior Lecturer (2026-) in Veterinary Epidemiology (previously, Lecturer/veterinary epidemiologist 2020-2025) at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC, UK) - Centre for Epidemiology and Planetary Health (CEPH).

• Supervision activities: 6 Master Students (1 Royal Veterinary College - University of London; 3 Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária - Universidade de Lisboa; 1 from Universidade de Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), 1 from SRUC).

• Member of the Program of Study Committee (POSC) of an Iowa State University PhD student

• 2022 – to 2025: Master of Research in Zoonoses and Epidemiology of Animal Infectious Disease (SRUC) – designing, planning and delivering the course. Co-leading the module "Principles of epidemiology and health management" (30 SCQF credits), including, lecturing and moderating the marking in the module “Epidemiological Analyses, Modelling & Data Handling” (15 SCQF credits); development of project options and supervision of 3 projects in the modules “Epidemiology Project 1: Thesis and Presentation” and “Epidemiology Project 2: Scientific Paper and Conference” (60 SCQF credits each).

• Coordination and delivery of the annual veterinary student rotation visits from the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh (3 x 1 week). 2021-ongoing. These students have elective modules requiring them to spend a few weeks in Rural Mixed Practice followed by a one-week stay with the SRUC team in Inverness.

• From 2016 to 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).