Damien is originally from a cattle farm (originally mixed, now beef) near Killala in North Mayo. He is based in the Surveillance, Animal by Products and TSE division in the Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. He graduated from UCD Veterinary College in 1996 with an MVB. He has also completed a Master’s thesis by research on mastitis in Irish dairy herds. He was awarded the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) certificate in Cattle Health and Production in 2003. He was conferred with a Master in Science (in veterinary epidemiology and public health) from the University of London in 2007. He also became a Diplomate of the European College of Bovine Herd Health Management in 2007, based on his experience of and contribution to herd health management.  He was elected to the board of the ECBHM at the World Buatrics Conference in Dublin in 2016. He spent four years in farm animal practice in Kilkenny and Bandon. From 2000 until 2003 he was clinical lecturer in large animal clinical studies in UCD’s Veterinary College, where he was involved mainly in on farm teaching. He joined the veterinary staff of the Dept. of Agriculture in 2003, working initially as Veterinary Training Officer, in CVERA (Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis) and as a Research Officer in Sligo Regional Veterinary Laboratory until  August 2016.  He was a founding member and chairman of the Cattle Association of Veterinary Ireland.   He was a member of the organising and scientific committees of the 2016 World Buiatrics conference in Dublin, and  a member of the scientific committee  for 2017 International Sheep Veterinary Conference in Harrogate.

Dr David Graham is the current CEO of Animal Health Ireland.  He qualified from UCD as a Veterinary Surgeon in 1988, and after working as a house surgeon at the Veterinary School in Dublin he moved back to Northern Ireland where he spent several years in mixed large animal practice. In 1992 David joined the Stormont laboratories of the Veterinary Sciences Division of the Science Service (now the Agrifood and Biosciences Institute) of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development where he has worked in several branches. During his time there he gained extensive experience in the diagnosis and control of a wide range of viral and bacterial diseases, including bovine viral diarrhoea (BVDV), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), Johne's disease and leptospirosis. He received his PhD in 1998 on improved methods for diagnosing bovine respiratory disease from Queen’s University Belfast.  In 2007 he established, and subsequently led, a cattle health scheme offering monitoring, eradication and accreditation programmes for BVD, IBR, Johnes and leptospirosis. David joined AHI in October 2010 and held the position of Deputy CEO prior to his appointment as CEO in September 2017.  In 2016 he was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in recognition of his meritorious contribution to knowledge. Contact David by email here.

After graduating from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zaragoza (Spain) Maria moved to Northern Ireland, where she gained five years of experience as a veterinary practitioner in a mixed practice. She joined the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) as a Veterinary Research Officer in 2005, working initially on contingency planning for epizootic diseases such as avian influenza and swine fever. From January 2008 Maria managed the diagnostic virology laboratory (classical and molecular virology) and serology at AFBI’s Veterinary Sciences Division, becoming Technical Manager for ISO17025 accredited serological and molecular tests. Maria has worked in the AFBI Cattle Health Scheme (CHS) since 2008, leading and coordinating it since 2010. This is a voluntary scheme which provides disease management programmes with the objective of accrediting disease-free or risk level status for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), infectious bovine rhinotraqueitis (IBR), leptospirosis, neosporosis and Johne’s disease. For the last 10 years she has been involved in several research projects related to endemic diseases of cattle, focusing mostly on BVD and IBR. These projects have studied the diagnosis, epidemiology, cost and control of these diseases.  Maria has been a member of Animal Health Ireland BVD and IBR Technical Working Groups since 2010 and 2011 respectively as well Animal Health and Welfare Northern Ireland BVD Implementation Group since it was set up. She was awarded a PhD from Queens University, Belfast, in 2015 for research on BVD. She has been Head of the Disease Surveillance and Investigation Branch in AFBI which delivers passive animal disease surveillance for Northern Ireland, since 2013 until joining Animal Health Ireland in 2018.  

Bosco is originally from Naas, Co. Kildare and is currently based there. He is currently the Technical Manager for Intervet/Schering Plough Animal Health. He has a MVB degree from UCD and a MRCVS. In 2011 he completed a MVM in “Aspects of Bovine Herpesvirus 1 and Bovine Virus Diarrhoea Virus infection in beef and dairy herds in the Republic of Ireland”. He worked for two and a half years in general veterinary practice before joining Intervet Ireland Ltd. as technical advisor. Recently he has been involved in a nationwide seroprevalence study on BVD and IBR which will yield interesting results on these diseases through peer reviewed publications. Bosco is happy to be involved with AHI because he has been trained extensively on disease management and this experience has been further enhanced with 15 years technical support for veterinary practices throughout Ireland.

Luke is originally from Glasgow in Scotland. He graduated from Glasgow Veterinary School in 2003 (BVMS) and after a short period in general practice he undertook an internship within the large animal clinical studies department at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital in University College Dublin. In 2005 he then embarked on a European College of Bovine Health Management residency-training programme. In 2007 he took up his current role as a lecturer in Population Medicine within the unit of Herd and Veterinary Public Health at UCD. In 2008, he attained further specialist qualifications by receiving a diploma from the European College in Bovine Health Management. Luke has an interest in all aspects of herd health and his research areas include the creation and delivery of dairy herd health management systems, disease investigation strategies, simulation modelling, animal health economics and veterinary education. He is currently a member of several Animal Health Ireland technical working groups working to develop control programmes for infectious diseases and mastitis.

Michael grew up on a dairy farm near Bandon in Co. Cork, where he now breeds Limousin cattle in his “spare” time. After qualifying in 1992 from UCD, Michael returned to Cork, where he has been in practice ever since, apart for a few months in mixed practice in the Hunter valley, NSW, Australia.

He is a partner in the Riverview Veterinary Group, where he works with ten other colleagues in mixed dairy/small animal practice and has a special interest in bovine infectious diseases. He was until recently, Chairman, director and technical director of an independent animal health laboratory (AHLI Ltd) and helped it gain the internationally recognised ISO17025 accreditation standard for BVD and Johne’s testing.

Michael was a former president of Veterinary Ireland, the representative body for vets in Ireland. He also sits on the Advisory Committee of the Veterinary Defence Society which provides indemnity cover for veterinary surgeons in practice.

Sharon Verner is Programme Manager for Animal Health and Welfare Northern Ireland with responsibility for the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) Eradication Programme. Sharon holds a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Cambridge.  Previously she has led on the technical side of animal health programmes in government veterinary service.  Her most recent role was management of the Brucellosis eradication scheme in DAERA which resulted in NI gaining Officially Brucellosis Free status in 2015. Prior to that, Sharon led the BSE-driven Over Thirty Month Rule Change project that ultimately allowed meat from older cattle to enter the food chain.  She has also spent several years in the field, conducting disease investigations and management of infectious disease breakdowns, (including Foot and Mouth Disease, TB and Brucellosis), carrying out on-farm clinical work and as a veterinary adviser for a veterinary pharmaceutical company.

Emma Campbell is from Co. Antrim and graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 2009. She worked for two years in mixed practice in Co. Antrim before moving to Australia and working there for 2 years. On her return, she worked as a locum for 3 years while completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Veterinary Public Health from UCD. In 2015 Emma started a PhD through Queen’s University Belfast studying spatial and temporal relationships in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis between cattle and badgers. In 2018 Emma joined AFBI as a Veterinary Research Officer in the Disease Surveillance and Investigation Branch at the Veterinary Sciences Division of AFBI. She is managing the Diagnostic Virology Laboratory and involved with the ISO 17025-accredited serology and molecular tests. She also works on AFBI’s Cattle Health Scheme which is a voluntary scheme to award herd certification of disease status for Johne’s, BVD, Leptospirosis, IBR and Neospora.

Niamh Field is originally from Co. Kildare.  Niamh qualified as a veterinary surgeon from UCD in 2015 and spent four years working in large animal practice in the UK and Ireland, where she developed a keen interest in herd health. She particularly enjoyed working with farmers to effectively manage infectious disease in their herds. Niamh joined Teagasc Moorepark as a research officer for herd health in 2019, where she is involved in infectious disease research, as well as other aspects of herd health.

Jose Maria (Chema) Lozano is originally from Zaragoza, Spain. He completed his veterinary studies in the University of Zaragoza. After a couple of years of large animal practice in the north of Spain, he completed a PhD in ruminant reproduction and nutrition in the University of Zaragoza. Following this, between 1998 and 2004, Chema completed various research projects on ruminant reproduction and neuroendocrinology in UCD and the University of Glasgow. In 2004, he joined the Veterinary Laboratory Service of the Department of Agriculture (DAFM) in Ireland and has worked there ever since. He was initially involved in the Internal Audit Unit with particular responsibility on the monitoring of private laboratories carrying out TSE testing, moving on into other areas where National reference Laboratory requirements would involve monitoring and auditing of external laboratories. In 2014 he joined the Virology Division of the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory in DAFM where he took up diagnostic duties and an advisory and policy role on statutory testing for viral diseases. He is particularly involved in the day to day running of the National Reference Laboratory for BVD, including liaison with other sections within DAFM and other stakeholders, and technical monitoring of BVD designated laboratories.