Dr Livio Heath

Programme Manager at Agricultural Research Council

Dr. Heath joined the Agriculture Research Council in 2006, shortly after obtaining a PhD degree from the University of Cape Town. He is currently appointed as the Research Team Manager responsible for vaccine production. His research focuses on transboundary animal disease, including African swine fever, foot and mouth disease, classical swine fever, PPRS and PPR. He has more than 20 years of research experience in the area of infectious diseases, most of which have been spent working in BSL3 containment and has been responsible for managing the BSL3 and AgBSL3 facilities at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute since 2008. In addition to his research activities, he manages the Transboundary Animal Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory at the institute and serves as a World Orginasation for Animals Health (WOAH) as an international expert for ASF and FMDV. He is the chair of the WOAH Reference Laboratory Network for ASF, a members of the standing group of experts for African swine fever (ASF) and a WOAH Ad Hoc group of experts on FMD. He has extensive experience in assay validation and has assisted several commercial companies to obtain international certification diagnostic products.