Prof. Gunther Antonissen

Prof. Gunther Antonissen was recently (April 2019) appointed as chairholder of the Chair Poultry Health Sciences at Ghent University, Belgium. Prof. Antonissen received a Master in Veterinary Medicine at Ghent University in 2011. He received a PhD in Veterinary Sciences at Ghent University in 2015, having studied the predisposing effect of the mycotoxins deoxynivalenol and fumonisins on necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens. As a postdoctoral researcher, he investigated the impact of mycotoxins and feed additives on the intestinal physiology and microbiota. Prof. Antonissen currently has more than 40 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals and is a well-known speaker at international events. The research of the group of Gunther Antonissen is multidisciplinary, focusing on the ‘Poultry One Health Paradigm’. i.e., (i) healthy people: impact poultry on public health; (ii) healthy animals: animal health and welfare; and (iii) healthy environment: sustainable poultry production.

Dr Dengpan Bu

Dengpan Bu is professor and faculty member at the Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He received his PhD degree from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Bu’s research activities focus on understanding (i) lipid and nitrogen metabolism at cellular, tissue and whole animal levels in dairy cows, improving rumen fermentation, feed efficiency and milk quality, and (ii) prevalence and fate of veterinary antibiotics from animal waste in crop-livestock production systems. Dr. Bu has co-authored over 200 scientific articles and abstracts either in Chinese or English. He was recognised as one of the young scientific and technological innovation leading talents by the China Ministry of Science and Technology in 2014.

Dr Ottorino Cosivi

Dr Ottorino Cosivi is the Director of the Pan American Center for Foot-and-Mouth Disease and Veterinary Public Health (PANAFTOSA) of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Based in Rio de Janeiro, PANAFTOSA coordinates PAHO’s technical cooperation on (VPH), specifically on 3 areas: (i) zoonotic and foodborne diseases, snakes and arthropods envenomation; (ii) food safety and antimicrobial resistance in the animal food value chain; and (iii) foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). PANAFTOSA hosts the OIE/FAO Reference Laboratory on FMD and the OIE Collaborating Centre on Veterinary Public Health. Dr Cosivi started his career in 1993 as a Veterinary Public Health Officer working on zoonotic diseases at WHO, Geneva. In 2000, he then assumed the leadership of the WHO bioterrorism preparedness program. In 2008, he was Acting Director, WHO's Mediterranean Centre for Health Risk Reduction, Tunis, before moving to PAHO. Dr Cosivi qualified in Veterinary Medicine at Parma University, Italy, and has a postgraduate in Tropical Veterinary Medicine from Edinburgh University. Before joining WHO, he worked with NGOs, academic institutions, pharmaceutical industry and as field practitioner.

Dr Meredith Daly

Dr Meredith Daly is the Director of Medical Quality for BluePearl Veterinary Partners, an emergency and specialty practice group within the Mars Veterinary Health family. In her role, Dr Daly is responsible for overseeing the Mars Veterinary Health strategy to combat antimicrobial resistance, impacting prescription practices and antimicrobial resistance education at Mars’ five global veterinary practices, which collectively treat millions of companion animal pets each year. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Meredith completed a rotating internship in small animal medicine and surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, in 2004. Following her internship, she completed a residency in small animal emergency and critical care at the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. She became board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care in 2007. She currently serves as co-director of the small animal critical care service at BluePearl Midtown Hospital in New York and remains a practicing veterinarian.

Prof. Delia Grace Randolph

Delia Grace is an epidemiologist and veterinarian with 20 years’ experience in developing countries. She is a graduate from several leading universities, including the National University of Ireland, Edinburgh University, the Free University Berlin and Cornell University. She leads research on animal and human health at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya. Her research interests include food safety, emerging diseases, participatory epidemiology, gender studies and animal welfare. Her career has spanned the private sector, field-level community development and aid management, as well as research. She has lived and worked in Asia, West and East Africa and authored or co-authored around 200 peer-reviewed publications as well as training courses, briefs, films, articles and blog posts.

Dr Rob Hunter

Rob Hunter owns One Medicine Consulting in Olathe, KS, USA to assist veterinary pharmaceutical companies with designing and establishing veterinary drug development plan and regulatory strategies for their technologies. He received a BS degree in Animal Science from Angelo State University. He went on to obtain a MS in Veterinary Physiology from Texas A&M University and a PhD in Veterinary Pharmacology from Louisiana State University. He has worked at the Johnson Space Center, Pfizer Animal Health, and as a tenure-track faculty member at Kansas State University, College of Veterinary Medicine. He has also been employed as a Senior Research Scientist at Elanco Animal Health and was the Chief Scientific Officer for Parnell Animal Health. He has a distinguished research record and is internationally known for his research on veterinary bioequivalence, human food safety as it relates to drug residues, and antimicrobial therapy of minor species. He is the current President of the American Academy of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Rob has worked on developing new animal health antimicrobials for more than 25 years.

Dr Arie K. Kies

After finishing his studies animal sciences in Wageningen, the Netherlands, Arie Kies worked as a general nutritionist (all species) for Hendrix’ Feeds, then the largest private feed compounder of the Netherlands. Subsequently, he worked with Rhône Poulenc Animal Nutrition in France as a pig nutrition researcher. His work was mainly related to amino acids, vitamins, and antibiotic growth promoters. In 1992, he joined DSM, where he worked in the feed enzyme area. He was the first to develop “matrix-values” of phytase for digestible amino acids and energy utilisation in pigs and poultry, which was instrumental to make the enzyme economically applicable. On this topic, he wrote his PhD-thesis in 2005. Subsequently, he worked for 11 years in human nutrition, mainly in relation to nutrition for athletes and elderly people (focused on protein) and for lactose intolerants. In 2015, he moved again to animal nutrition, as application research manager for the EMEA region. His main task was to manage a large research programme on gut health at different universities. As of 2021, he has started a consultancy business, ArieKiesAdvies.

Prof. Jan Kluytmans

Prof. Jan Kluytmans did his medical training as well as specialisation in clinical microbiology at Erasmus MC, the Netherlands. His scientific career focuses on the epidemiology and control of nosocomial infections, with a special interest in S. aureus, surgical site infections and catheter-related infections. He discovered the concept of perioperative eradication of nasal carriage as an infection control measure. More recently, his investigations have included the impact of agricultural antibiotic use on the development of resistance in animals, food items and humans. Prof. Kluytmans has been involved in many national and international guidelines on infection control, especially those dealing with the control of MRSA and the prevention of surgical site infections. At present, he is working at Amphia Hospital and Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital. From 2006-2014, he was professor medical microbiology and infection control at Amsterdam UMC. In 2014, he moved to UMC Utrecht as professor epidemiology of healthcare-related infections. Prof. Kluytmans leads several work packages within the New Drugs for Bad Bugs (ND4BB) programme focused on the epidemiology of S. aureus within Europe. Since 2017, he is the leader of the i-4-1-Health crossborder project between the Netherlands and Belgium. He has published more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has given more than 500 presentations and lectures.

Dr Celso J.B. Oliveira

Dr Celso J.B. Oliveira is associate professor at the Centre for Agricultural Sciences at the Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil. Dr Oliveira has been working with research, education, and extension activities related to zoonosis and public health, with a focus on integrated food safety, epidemiology of foodborne pathogens and mitigation of antimicrobial resistance. His research interests are related to the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in the human-animal-interface, the understanding of the dynamics of antimicrobial resistance in the food chain, and on-farm factors associated with the maintenance and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance determinants in the animal production systems. Dr Oliveira is co-founder of the ICOPHAI global consortium – an initiative launched in collaboration with the Ohio State University in order to build capacity low income regions, such as semi-arid North-eastern Brazil, in order to mitigate problems of global significance, for example antimicrobial resistance. Dr Oliveira is currently a member of the board of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in the area of veterinary medicine, and the Veterinary Subcommittee of the National Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Committee for Brazil (BrCAST).

Peter J.G. Oostenbach

Peter Oostenbach obtained his masters’ degree in animal husbandry from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, in 1985. The first part of his professional career was focused on poultry. For the Dutch Product Board for Poultry and Eggs he developed the quality assurance systems for the Dutch poultry industry, which still form the quality base for the Dutch poultry production. Mid 1990s he moved to the animal health industry and from that moment he was involved in the issue of the use of antibiotics in animal production. For more than 2 decades, he was member of the Antibiotic Core Group of MSD Animal Health. He was very active at the level of the European animal health association and was among the founding fathers of EPRUMA, the European Platform for the Responsible Use of Medicines in Animals. In these roles, he has been promoting a holistic approach towards responsible use of antibiotics in animals. Currently, he is Interim Director Product Development and Innovation for Delacon, Austria, provider of phytogenic solutions for food animal production.

Dr Stephen Page

Dr Stephen Page is a veterinary clinical pharmacologist with a career that has included 5 years in ambulatory mixed animal practice, followed by a number of decades divided equally between global clinical development roles within the animal health industry and, most recently, directorship of a consulting company and two start-up antimicrobial discovery and development companies. He is passionate about appropriate use of veterinary medicines, especially antimicrobial agents which has led to a focus on two areas, those of clinical decision making and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS). He is currently working with veterinary colleagues in Australia and internationally to develop AMS frameworks and prescribing guidelines for companion animal and livestock species. He is a member of the Australian Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (ASTAG), the World Small Animal Veterinary Association Therapeutic Guidelines Group, the World Veterinary Association Pharmaceutical Stewardship Working Group and the OIE Antimicrobial WG. Though never having an academic position, he has more than 60 publications and close to 100 granted patents. Most of all he has an insatiable passion for new discoveries and likes nothing more than time to talk with others learning new things that can help refine current practices.

Dr Thomas R. Shryock

Dr Tom Shryock received his Ph.D. in medical microbiology from the Ohio State University, USA, in 1982. He spent the majority of his career with Elanco Animal Health Regulatory addressing the use of antibiotics and AMR in food animals, food and people. He co-founded the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute’s Subcommittee on Veterinary Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (CLSI-VAST). Dr Shryock began Antimicrobial Consultants, LLC in 2015 to partner with clients on R&D projects and regulatory submissions for antimicrobial agents and ‘alternatives’, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and stewardship programmes plus policy development. Dr Shryock served 2015-2019 on the US Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB).

Satya Sivaraman

Satya Sivaraman is a health communications specialist based in India but with work experience in Southeast Asia and South America. He is currently a communication advisor with a global network of universities and organisations that seeks to initiate public and policy action on antibiotic resistance in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He has also worked with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) as well as with other UN agencies in different capacities. His work has involved explaining technical issues to wider audiences and understanding resistance in an anthropological and a cultural context. Recently, he has focused on popular messaging on antibiotic use in food-animal farming in the Asia-Pacific region. Satya has also produced a variety of documentaries on various themes, including a short film titled ‘Antibiotic resistance for idiots’.

Prof. Jaap A. Wagenaar

Jaap Wagenaar was trained as a veterinarian and completed his PhD study at Utrecht University and the National Animal Diseases Center (USDA-ARS) in Ames, IA, USA. Before being appointed as a Chair in Clinical Infectiology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands in 2006, he worked with the WHO in Switzerland, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Western Regional Research Center (USDA-ARS) in the USA. He is a member of the WHO Advisory Group on Integrated Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (AGISAR) and the WHO Global Foodborne Infections Network, a global capacity building network. He is a member of the expert panel of the Netherlands Veterinary Medicines Institute and involved in the major reduction of antimicrobial use in livestock. He is director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Campylobacter and the OIE Reference Laboratory for Campylobacteriosis, and he is acting frequently as an expert for the WHO, FAO and OIE.

Dr Jeffrey L. Watts

Dr Jeffrey L. Watts currently holds the position of Research Director, External Innovation – Anti-Infectives for Zoetis, Inc., USA. Dr Watts has had a varied career over the past three decades that has spanned both clinical and veterinary microbiology. He has been active in antibacterial discovery programmes over the past three decades where he has contributed to the development of ceftiofur, clindamycin, pirlimycin, spectinomycin, cefpodoxime, and linezolid. Jeff was the founder of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) Subcommittee on Veterinary Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing developing standards and guidelines that promote accurate antimicrobial susceptibility testing and appropriate reporting. Jeff received his PhD from Western Michigan University.