Andy has over 35 years of experience of controlling livestock and zoonotic disease outbreaks.

He is an internationally recognised specialist in veterinary epidemiology and public health and has worked on controlling livestock diseases in Europe, East and Southern Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and China.

After qualifying, he worked in a large farm animal veterinary practice in Somerset. Since then he has worked for the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), national governments, private companies, universities, NGOs and the UK’s Defra and APHA.

He has worked on every UK disease outbreak since the UK foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001. As APHA’s Head of the UK’s National Emergency Epidemiology Group until 2024, he worked closely with operational delivery and policy teams, stakeholders and industry bodies on issues such as biosecurity. During this time he was responsible for leading and developing a large multidisciplinary team of field vets, epidemiologists, scientists, risk analysts, computer modellers, information system specialists and data analysts, providing advice to senior policy decisions makers. He was responsible for developing and managing the equine disease control strategy for the London 2012 Equestrian Olympic Games.

Andy’s work has focussed on using epidemiology, information systems, surveillance  and risk analysis techniques to both defend countries from incursions of both human and animal diseases, and also to rapidly control outbreaks when they occur. He is particularly interested in using these skills to promote safe international trade and open markets for livestock and livestock products.