CVER would like to extend a warm welcome to Dr. Ana Alba Casals, a Doctoral Research Fellow from Spain. 

Dr. Casals is visiting AVC at the invitation of Dr. Crawford Revie.

Dr. Casals works as Veterinary epidemiologist in Spain. She has a special interest in surveillance and contingency plans design, health information systems, epidemiological data analysis, epidemiological training, and geographical information systems applied to animal health of different species, including livestock, wildlife, horses, and animal companions.

Dr. Casals graduated from the faculty of Veterinary Science from the University Autonomous of Barcelona in 1996. She completed a Masters in Tropical Medicine Medical Geography in 2002, and joined the Centre of Research in Animal Health (CReSA) as a researcher of the Epidemiology Unit in 2003. Between 2004 and 2009, Dr. Casals undertook research for her PhD, working with a couple of models to increase the sensitivity of the current surveillance systems for Avian Influenza in wild birds and domestic poultry.

Dr. Casals is currently employed in Spain, where she works as a consultant providing epidemiological support to the Department of Agriculture of Catalonia, on the surveillance programs carried out in Catalonia for Avian Influenza and West Nile among others, and is involved in research projects (in a network of surveillance for influenza in Mozambique, the study of Bovine Tuberculosism and a project of PRRS).

For the last two years she has been involved in training activities with FAO in North Africa in relation to data management and GIS and says that she enjoys these kinds of activities.

Dr. Casals says that "I would like to explore the potential of data mining applied to syndromic surveillance and I am working with a "beautiful " database of fallen stock."

Dr. Casals is co-located in AVC 345N with Dr. Singh. She will be with us until approximately the end of June.

Please extend a warm welcome to Dr. Casals!