The RUMA Independent Scientific Group

The RUMA Independent Scientific Group was established in 2017. Its members cover areas of human and animal medicine, and they advise both RUMA Agri and RUMA CA&E on technical developments, help underpin fact-based and scientific approach, and provide independent expert voices with a One Health perspective on the responsible use of medicines in livestock and companion animals and equines.

The members of the Group are all eminent specialists in their own right in fields related to the responsible use of medicines in both human and animal medicine. They cover a wide range of specialisms and share a common desire to bring factual evidence and science to the debate around animal medicines – and antibiotic resistance in particular, to prompt the right actions, while ensuring animal welfare is protected.

Professor Pete Borriello (Chair of the ISG Group)

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Professor David Barrett (deputised by Dr Kristen Reyher)

Professor of Bovine Medicine, Production and Reproduction at University of Bristol

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Dr Ian Brown

Consultant Clinical Research Fellow at Oxford University & Oxford University Hospitals; Chairman of the Government’s Advisory Committee on Animal Feedstuffs

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Professor Mark Fielder

Professor of Medical Microbiology at Kingston University; President of the Society for Applied Microbiology

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Professor Nigel Gibbens

Veterinary public health consultant specialising in disease control & animal health and welfare policy

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Daniel Parker

Avian expert for UK government; Technical Advisor to the British Poultry Council; Lecturer at Cambridge University Veterinary School

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Dr Kristen Reyher (deputy for Professor David Barrett)

Reader in Veterinary Epidemiology and Population Health at University of Bristol

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Dr Shabbir Simjee

Chief Medical Officer, Elanco Animal Health

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Mr Martin Smith

Lead Veterinary Surgeon, British Quality Pigs

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Professor Nicola Williams

Professor in Zoonotic Bacterial Disease, University of Liverpool

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Catherine McLaughlin (RUMA Agri Chair)

RUMA Chair, NFU Chief Adviser (Animal Health and Welfare)

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Gwyn Jones (RUMA CA&E Chair)

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Tamsin Dewé

Head of AMR Surveillance and Evidence – VMD

Dr Paul Cook (Observer)

Head of the Microbiological Risk Assessment Branch of the Food Standards Agency

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Professor Pete Borriello (Chair of the ISG Group)

Pete is a microbiology graduate and Fellow of the University College London. His career history includes senior appointments with the Medical Research Council, University of Nottingham, Public Health Laboratory Service, Health Protection Agency, Veterinary Laboratories Agency and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. His science research has led to over 300 publications, and he has been chair of many international and national learned societies and committees. He was the first chair of the World Health Organisation Laboratory Twinning Programme, in support of improvements to help compliance with the new International Health Regulations, and was the first Chair of Med-Vet-Net (a consortium of European animal and human health Institutes co-ordinating improved zoonoses research and responses). He was a member of the EU Heads of Medicine Agencies Management Group for more than five years. In 2020 he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath for services in Global Animal Health and Tackling Anti-Microbial Resistance. He is also a Trustee for Safe Medicines for Animals through regulatory training (SMArt).

Professor David Barrett (deputised by Dr Kristen Reyher)

Professor of Bovine Medicine, Production and Reproduction at University of Bristol

Professor David Barrett is a clinical veterinarian with over 25 years of experience in livestock practice, veterinary education and research. He is both a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Recognised Specialist in Cattle Health and Production and a European Veterinary Specialist in Bovine Health Management. He is a Past-President of the European College of Bovine Health Management (2005-07), a former Chair of Directors of Vet Trust and the Vice-President of the British Cattle Veterinary Association (2017-18).

Dr Ian Brown

Consultant Clinical Research Fellow at Oxford University & Oxford University Hospitals; Chairman of the Government’s Advisory Committee on Animal Feedstuffs

Dr Ian Brown is a medically qualified registered specialist and consultant in occupational medicine and toxicology. He is also a graduate in agricultural biochemistry and nutrition and has a wide range of knowledge and experience covering occupational health medicine, toxicology, agriculture and food safety. Dr Brown was formerly a Consultant Physician in Occupational Medicine and Toxicology at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust and was Director of Occupational Health and Head of Department at the University of Oxford until 2105. He remains an Honorary Consultant Physician and Research Fellow to Oxford University and Oxford University Hospitals.

Professor Mark Fielder

Professor of Medical Microbiology at Kingston University; President of the Society for Applied Microbiology

Professor Mark Fielder was awarded a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Kings College London in 1995, winning the Tadion-Rideal Prize for outstanding postgraduate work. He then undertook Postdoctoral position at St Georges Hospital London on mucosal vaccination against Vibrio cholerae. After joining Kingston University as a lecturer (1998) in medical Microbiology, he was awarded a chair in Medical Microbiology in 2011. He acts as an advisor for the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Institute (Veterinary antimicrobial susceptibility testing) and sits on the Parliamentary and Scientific committee. His research team is multidisciplinary working on rapid detection systems for infectious disease diagnosis and to overcome antimicrobial resistance in clinical and veterinary settings and looking at antibiotic overspill into wild raptors.

Professor Nigel Gibbens

Veterinary public health consultant specialising in disease control & animal health and welfare policy

Professor Gibbens qualified from the Royal Veterinary College in 1981 and worked in general practice before completing a Masters Degree in Tropical Veterinary Medicine at Edinburgh. After spells in Belize and Yemen providing government-led veterinary services, he returned to the UK as a Government Field Veterinary Officer in 1990. A succession of lead veterinary roles within Government followed, culminating in his appointment as Chief Veterinary officer in 2008, a role he retired from in February this year.

Daniel Parker

Avian expert for UK government; Technical Advisor to the British Poultry Council; Lecturer at Cambridge University Veterinary School

Daniel Parker graduated from Downing College, Cambridge in 1983. He initially worked in large animal practice in the UK and small animal practice in Hong Kong. Developed and interest in the poultry sector whilst working with Intervet UK before setting up Slate Hall Veterinary Practice. The practice provides a range of veterinary and laboratory consultancy services across the poultry sector to UK and international poultry companies. Daniel’s particular interest is in the poultry meat sector at both primary breeder and broiler level. Daniel is a visiting lecturer at Cambridge University Veterinary School and gained Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2017. He was also made diplomate of European College of Poultry Veterinary Surgeons in 2015 and is an RCVS-recognised Specialist in Poultry Medicine and Production.

Dr Kristen Reyher (deputy for Professor David Barrett)

Reader in Veterinary Epidemiology and Population Health at University of Bristol

Dr Kristen Reyher is a Senior Lecturer of Farm Animal Science at the School of Veterinary Sciences, University of Bristol. She has worked in livestock practice in three countries, and holds a doctorate of veterinary medicine from Cornell University as well as a PhD in veterinary epidemiology from the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Kristen currently leads an interdisciplinary research group (the AMR Force) focussed on antimicrobial resistance as well as directs the first studies applying a counselling style called Motivational Interviewing to veterinarian-client communication.

Dr Shabbir Simjee

Chief Medical Officer, Elanco Animal Health

Dr Simjee completed a PhD in 1998 from the University of Birmingham Medical School. After a brief time in research he went to work at the US FDA between 2000-2003 at the Centre for Veterinary Medicine specifically looking at gene transfer between animal and human pathogens and also heading the enterococcus part of the US National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring Systems (NARMS) program. He returned back to the UK in 2004 to take up a position at Elanco Animal Health as global technical and regulatory advisor on antibiotics. Dr Simjee is past-chair of the VetPath program a Pan European AMR monitoring program and is past co-chair of the CLSI veterinary antimicrobial susceptibility testing sub-committee. Dr Simjee has served 9 years as editor for Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 10 years as editor for Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and continues to serve as editor on International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.

Mr Martin Smith

Lead Veterinary Surgeon, British Quality Pigs

Martin graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in London in 2009 with a Bachelors in Veterinary Research Science, specialising in veterinary pathology and a Bachelors in Veterinary Medicine. Following graduation Martin spent a number of years in both mixed and farm animal veterinary practice, then returned to the Royal Veterinary College to author modules on the Intensive Livestock Health and Production online masters course, covering health and welfare modules in pigs and poultry. Martin joined AHDB Pork (formerly BPEX) in 2014 leading the veterinary team and was directly involved in project managing the build for the electronic Medicines Book for Pigs (eMB-Pigs). Martin now leads the veterinary department in the UK’s largest outdoor pork producer BQP in Suffolk.

Professor Nicola Williams

Professor in Zoonotic Bacterial Disease, University of Liverpool

Professor Williams is a microbiologist with over 17 years’ experience in conducting applied research, primarily on bacterial zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Her research interests include reservoirs and transmission of food-borne pathogens, transfer and maintenance of antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial prescribing practice, and the epidemiology of AMR bacteria in wildlife, livestock and pets.

Catherine McLaughlin (Chair)

RUMA Chair, NFU Chief Adviser (Animal Health and Welfare)

Catherine (Cat) McLaughlin is the Chief policy adviser at the National Farmers Union (NFU) for Animal Health and Welfare, providing strategic policy leadership around farmed animal welfare, endemic and exotic disease control and veterinary medicines, including antibiotics and AMR. Her previous roles have included a directorship of AMTRA (Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority), Scottish extension officer of the Milk Development Council and market information manager of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS)/Meat and Livestock Commission (Scotland). A graduate of the University of Aberdeen (Agriculture, with Honours in Animal Science) she also holds a PG Diploma in Farm Business Organisational Management from Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) (Aberdeen).

Gwyn Jones (RUMA CA&E Chair)

Gwyn is a farmer and the former chair of The Responsible use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) which he led from 2013-2020 He has also chaired EPRUMA in Brussels and has served on a number of sector groups and organisations. Gwyn also manages special projects with RUMA Agriculture, which has included the development of the latest set of responsible antibiotic use targets by the Targets Task Force. He was born into a hill farming family in Snowdonia, North Wales and trained as an engineer before returning to agriculture, running the beef and sheep units at Moulton College before moving to West Sussex where he operated a 350-cow dairy herd for over 30 years. Gwyn has served as vice president of the NFU, chair of the COPA[1]Cogeca Animal Health and Welfare Working Group, chair of AHDB Dairy and is a member of the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC). He sits on Defra’s Animal Health and Welfare Board for England and is vice chair of the UK’s new Ruminant Health & Welfare organisation. Gwyn is also a member of The University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine External Liaison and Advisory Committee.