José Manuel Sánchez-Vicaíno Rodríguez
Prof. Sánchez-Vizcaíno is professor of animal health at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), where he lectures and conducts research on infectious diseases in the Department of Animal Health of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. He is the director of the OIE reference laboratory for African swine fever. In 2013 he was nominated George Poppensiek visiting professor on global animal health at Cornell University, NY, USA. In September 2018 he was appointed adjunct professor of the Veterinary Population Medicine Department of the University of Minnesota.
Professor Sanchez-Vizcaíno’s research has had a marked impact on the control and eradication of several animal diseases, including African swine fever, African horse sickness, and classical swine fever. His scientific contributions include new, fast, and sensitive diagnostic tests and reagents, as well as new epidemiological models and control strategies.
He has published over 200 articles in high-impact journals and has directed 27 PhD theses. In 2009 he was awarded the Merit Medal from the World Organisation for Animal Health in recognition of his outstanding services to veterinary science.
Cristina Jurado Díaz
Cristina Jurado Díaz received her degree in veterinary science from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain (2014). During her senior year she worked as an intern developing new diagnostic techniques for African swine fever (ASF) using noninvasively acquired samples such as oral fluids. She subsequently joined the team of Prof. Sánchez-Vizcaíno at the OIE reference laboratory for ASF and VISAVET Health Surveillance Centre. In 2014 she began her PhD, which focused on the development of new epidemiological and diagnostic tools for the control and eradication of ASF in currently affected European territories. In the course of her studies she has acquired expertise on ASF in a research laboratory context, where she has learned how to perform diagnostic techniques and work in biosafety level 3 (BSL3) containment conditions. She has also gained experience in the epidemiology of ASF and the use of different tools (e.g. clustering techniques, time series studies, regression studies) to understand epidemiological scenarios. Since joining the team at UCM she has collaborated on several international and national projects, including ASFRISK, ASFORCE, and OIE twinning projects, and has published several scientific papers.
Estefanía Cadenas Fernández
Estefanía Cadenas Fernández holds a degree in veterinary science from the UCM (2017). Her interest in the health of wildlife and their interactions and impact on livestock led her in 2017 to pursue a master’s degree in basic and applied research in hunting resources at the Spanish National Wildlife Research Institute (IREC-UCLM), where she acquired a basic knowledge of ecological, epidemiological, and statistical research tools. Upon completing her master’s degree she joined Prof. Sánchez-Vizcaíno’s team at the OIE Reference Laboratory for ASF and VISAVET Health Surveillance Centre. She was awarded a competitive PhD fellowship for the Training of Future Scholars (FPU) from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. Her ongoing PhD studies focus on the development of new techniques for monitoring and controlling the spread of ASF between wild boar and domestic pigs. Since joining the team at UCM she has acquired expertise in laboratory research of ASF, including diagnostic techniques and working in BSL3 containment conditions, and in the evaluation of wildlife-livestock interactions in the context of ASF transmission.