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Veterinary Epidemiologist |
Nick Taylor
graduated in Veterinary Science in Britain in 1983 and was awarded a
postgraduate Masters in Tropical Veterinary Medicine in 1989. Nick
has extensive expertise in the combination of veterinary
epidemiology, disease control and animal health economics and
provides
consultancy expertise to DEFRA, the Food and Agriculture
Organization, and the Department for International Development (DFID).
He has gained broad experience in Vietnam, Turkey, Oman, Bangladesh,
Nepal, Tanzania, Armenia and the UK.
After some time in
UK veterinary practice Nick became interested in overseas work. He spent three years working in a village project in Bangladesh, that involved
setting up and running a ‘front line’ rural clinic with community animal
health workers and providing livestock extension, mainly among women,
concerned with small ruminants and poultry. Later, Nick spent two years
working in Oman on a project developing goat and sheep production and then
four years working within the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Affairs, assisting in the establishment of a central epidemiology and
information section, with the overall task to formulate disease control
strategy, including cost / benefit analyses of disease control strategies.
Nick has been based
at VEERU since 1997. Nick works as a teacher, researcher and consultant. He
has taught quantitative veterinary epidemiology and disease modelling on MSc
and ad hoc courses, supervises postgraduate students and has designed
and taught international training courses in veterinary epidemiology, data
management and analysis in Asia and Africa.
In Vietnam, Nick has contributed to a capacity-building initiative by the EU
Strengthening of Veterinary Services Vietnam-project. He provided training
in Basic Epidemiology for provincial veterinary officers and took part in
stakeholder consultation studies on the options for control of classical
swine fever and a feasibility study on the establishment of disease free
zones in Vietnam. In 2005, Nick tutored four training workshops in
Surveillance, Investigation, Control and Prevention of Avian Influenza for
provincial veterinary officers as part of the WB/FAO Avian Influenza
Emergency Recovery Project.
In Armenia, Nick assisted the post-soviet veterinary services in carrying
out an assessment of the brucellosis situation and provided advice on the
future control of the disease.
Nick was heavily involved in the foot and mouth disease epidemic in UK
during 2001, working with the field epidemiology team in Cumbria and then
carrying out detailed analyses of data from that epidemic, focusing on
learning lessons about strategy choices. He also carried out a review of the
use of mathematical modelling in disease control policy formulation, with
special reference to the UK FMD epidemic of 2001.
Other work in UK has included an epidemiological survey of antibiotic
resistance in pigs and poultry, research into the application of biosecurity
on stock farms, and scientific review to inform policy on control of bovine
TB and rabies.
Nick is currently working on a Wellcome Trust funded project looking at
using a value chain approach to risk analysis and control of Highly
Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Vietnam.
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