Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health (MSc, Postgraduate Diploma & Postgraduate Certificate)

Academic leadership - Royal Veterinary College

The Royal Veterinary College (external link) is the UK’s longest established veterinary school and one of the most highly regarded institutions of its kind in Europe. The College has over 1,500 students enrolled on undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development programmes and four state-of-the-art teaching and referral hospitals, providing services to the public and the veterinary profession.

The College’s reputation for excellence and pioneering work in teaching and research makes us stand out from the crowd, and our independent status enables us to innovate and keep at the forefront of theory and practice. Postgraduate students learn alongside experts in their field and are provided with the specialist knowledge and skills required to make it to the very top of their chosen profession. The Royal Veterinary College is one college spread over two campuses, one based in central London and the other in rural Hertfordshire. We are ideally located for all international transport links and within easy reach of London’s many other excellent universities and research hospitals.

Academic leaders

Dr Christine Thuranira-McKeever

Distance Learning Programme Director

Christine graduated from the University of Kent in Canterbury and went on to read for a Masters degree in Development Economics at the University of Manchester, in 1995. She moved to the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi and Addis Ababa, and worked there for a number of years before leaving to undertake a PhD at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine. Her research focused on the costs of livestock disease to small holder farmers in developing countries and the socio-economic factors influencing smallholders' ability to productively keep livestock. After completing her PhD, Christine worked as a research associate for a DFID-funded Animal Health Programme, based at the University of Edinburgh. This was a competitive grants programme that funded research into animal health issues in the developing world. During her time in Edinburgh University, Christine was also involved in teaching undergraduate students. Her research interests remain in the field of international development, mainly from a livestock and agriculture perspective. Christine was appointed to her current post in July 2008.

Dr Silvia Alonso Alvarez

Lecturer in Veterinary Public Health

Silvia graduated in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Leon, Spain, in 2001. She attended the last year of her studies in Bologna, Italy, as an Erasmus fellow. After graduation she started a PhD at the Department of Animal Pathology and Veterinary Public Health of the Veterinary School of Bologna, which was completed in 2005. Silvia was involved in different research projects focused on the epidemiology of foodborne diseases and the biology of foodborne pathogens. She gained experience in microbiology and diagnostic methods and spent 3 months at the E. coli Reference Laboratory in Spain where she was trained in molecular analysis techniques. In the meantime, Silvia also worked as a consultant for a major food industry in Italy.

After her PhD she worked as research fellow at the same Department for one year, while attending part-time an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which was completed in 2007. Her MSc thesis focused in the use of mathematical modelling to evaluate the effects of farming density in the spread and control of brucellosis in Mongolia. Silvia joined the RVC at the beginning of 2008 as a Lecturer in Veterinary Public Health.

Professor Javier Guitián

Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology

Javier qualified from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1993. He then studied for a PhD in Epidemiology and conducted research as a visiting scientist in the USA, Canada, Brazil and Portugal. In 2002, he was awarded a PhD in Veterinary Epidemiology (European Doctorate). Javier spent three years working for the industry and practicing clinical epidemiology in the context of laboratory diagnostic and herd health in Spain. He returned to academia and the RVC in 2002. Javier is the Deputy Course Director for the MSc in Veterinary Epidemiology and the MSc in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health by distance learning.

Javier conducts applied research aimed at informing management of health and production of livestock populations. His work integrates field-based observational studies and quantitative methods such as statistical modeling, spatial epidemiology and risk analysis.

A substantial part of his research activity takes place in the developing world and, in collaboration with researchers from the RVC and other research institutions, as well as international cooperation organizations.

Professor Dirk Pfeiffer

Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology

Dirk graduated in Veterinary Medicine in Germany in 1984 and was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Tropical Veterinary Medicine in 1986. He subsequently worked as a field veterinarian in Colombia and on development projects in Kenya, Somalia, Malaysia and Thailand until 1988 when he moved to Massey University in New Zealand, initially as Lecturer in Production Medicine and Epidemiology, and from 1996 as Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Epidemiology. In 1994, he was awarded a PhD in Veterinary Epidemiology. He has held the Chair in Veterinary Epidemiology at the RVC since 1999 and is also Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dirk teaches epidemiology at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has designed and taught international training courses in veterinary epidemiology, risk analysis and spatial analysis in Europe, Australasia and Africa. His particular interest is the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases, and his involvement in bovine tuberculosis research started in 1988 when he commenced his PhD study in New Zealand. His technical expertise includes field epidemiological and ecological research methods, advanced epidemiological analysis, spatial and temporal analysis of epidemiological data, risk analysis, computer modeling of animal disease, animal health economics and development of animal health information systems. Dirk provides scientific expertise to various national and international organizations including the European Food Safety Authority, Defra, the Food and Agriculture Organization, as well as various national governments.

Dr Jonathan Rushton

Senior Lecturer in Animal Health Economics

Jonathan graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, UK, and then completed a Masters and a PhD in animal health economics from the Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics Research Unit, University of Reading, UK. Dr Rushton has worked on animal health issues in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America for the EU, DFID, IICA, ILRI, DANIDA, GTZ and USAID. His key interests are the role of livestock in the livelihoods of poor people worldwide, impact of livestock diseases, the use of participatory methodologies in veterinary epidemiology and the marketing of agricultural products.

Since 2002, Jonathan has been involved in the RVC’s distance learning courses developing material on animal health economics, data collection and policy. Over the last ten years, Jonathan has run short courses on animal health economics in Portugal, Turkey, Uruguay, Armenia and for the Central Asian countries.

Dr Ayona Silva-Fletcher

MSc Veterinary Education, Course Director

Ayona qualified as a veterinarian from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and then did an MSc in Animal Nutrition and a PhD in University of Aberdeen, UK. Her PhD was on rumen bacteria and she spent most of her time in Aberdeen working with sheep and cattle. Following this Ayona spent several years in post-doctoral and teaching appointments at the University of London (Royal Postgraduate Medical School), University of Leiden, the Netherlands and finally at the Open University in Milton Keynes. Ayona joined the RVC in 2003 as the Director of Distance Learning and played a major role in expanding the programme with the development of a new MSc and a short course framework. In 2008 Ayona moved to her current position in LIVE (Lifelong and Independent Veterinary Education) to take a leading role in developing a new MSc in Veterinary Education.

Ayona is passionate about Distance Education and the International outreach of RVC to the wider veterinary community.

Professor Katharina Stärk

Katharina is a Professor of Veterinary Public Health and Director of the Centre for Emerging, Endemic and Exotic Diseases (CEEED). She is also the coordinator for the Infection and Immunity Research Group.

Katharina was born in Frauenfeld, Switzerland and graduated from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Zürich in 1988. Her Doctoral thesis on the Risk factors for Enzootic Pneumonia Re-infection in SPF Pig Breeding Herds undertaken between 1989 and 1991 was honoured with the Karl-Pfizer-Award in 1992.

Between 1995 and 1998 Katharina undertook a PhD programme at Massey University in New Zealand in information systems for the prevention and control of infectious diseases in pigs. Following this Katharina then worked for 2 years in Denmark as a research officer for the Danish Bacon and Meat Council. She then took a post as a Head of Section of Monitoring, at the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office which she held for 7 years. Parallel to this Katharina worked as part-time lecturer in Epidemiology and Veterinary Public Health at the University of Bern in 2000. From 2002-2006 Katharina was also a Member of the Executive Board at the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office, Bern, with responsibility for 30 staff.

In 2005 Katharina spent 4 months as a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural Life Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan. She joined the Royal Veterinary College in January 2007. Katharina has an international role as President of the European College for Veterinary Public Health.

Kim Stevens

Assistant Lecturer in Epidemiology

After completing a BSc and MSc in Agriculture (Animal Science) at the University of Natal in South Africa, Kim worked as a research assistant at University of Pretoria initially for the Department of Veterinary Physiology and, later, for the Equine Research Centre. After moving to the UK, she joined the Epidemiology Division of the Royal Veterinary College as a research assistant before being promoted to the position of assistant lecturer. Kim teaches basic statistics at the undergraduate level and advanced statistical methods and spatial analysis at the postgraduate level.

Her research interests include the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases, the effect of climate change on the epidemiology of disease, risk assessment and spatial modelling. In addition to her full-time job responsibilities Kim is also completing a part-time PhD which focuses on spatial modelling.

Dr Kristien Verheyen

Senior Lecturer in Clinical Epidemiology

Kristien graduated as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Ghent, Belgium, in 1995. After short spells in mixed practice and the pharmaceutical industry, she joined the Epidemiology Unit at the Animal Health Trust near Newmarket, UK, in 1997. Whereas her initial role at the Trust focused on equine infectious diseases, in 1998 she started working full-time on a large-scale epidemiological study of musculoskeletal injuries in thoroughbred racehorses. During the course of this project, she also studied for an MSc degree in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London, which she completed by distance learning in 2002. She subsequently embarked on a Residency in Equine Epidemiology which allowed her to obtain a PhD on the ‘Epidemiology of fractures in racehorses in training’ from the University of London in 2005.

Kristien joined the Royal Veterinary College as a Lecturer in Clinical Epidemiology in 2005. Her research activities remain in the field of equine epidemiology, with a focus on common diseases that affect equine welfare in the UK and health and welfare of working horses in developing countries. She also teaches evidence-based medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics at undergraduate and postgraduate level, including on the resident MSc course in Veterinary Epidemiology.