2026 Conference Programme

Alastair is a consultant veterinary surgeon for Synergy Farm Health Ltd and Scientific Director of Surefarm Ltd. He is an RCVS specialist in cattle health and production.

Anna Harrison is Veterinary Adviser to Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land (a UK registered charity).

Ivelina Miteva is a bovine tuberculosis (bTB) veterinary adviser at the Animal and Plant Health Agency. She holds a veterinary degree from Trakia University, Bulgaria. After working in the UK’s national bTB diagnostic laboratory, she moved into a field‑based veterinary role, where she spent several years investigating and managing complex bTB incidents and producing county‑level annual bTB epidemiology reports.

Her growing interest in the pathophysiology and immunopathology of Mycobacterium bovis led her to complete an MSc in Clinical Microbiology at the University of Nottingham. Her MSc research, conducted in collaboration with the TB Research Group at APHA Weybridge, focused on potential subunit bTB vaccine candidates.

She currently divides her time between acting as Lead Investigator for Phase 3 of the Cattle Vaccine Field Trials and advising on the development and implementation of GB deployment policy for the use of BCG alongside a novel DIVA skin test reagent, pending marketing authorisation for both.

Maria Dominguez qualified in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Zaragoza, Spain, in 1995. After a short period in small animal practice in Spain, she moved to the UK to work in abattoirs for the Meat Hygiene Service and joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) in 2000 as a Temporary Veterinary Inspector. She has worked for the Animal and Plant Health Agency and its predecessor organisations since then, serving as a Veterinary Officer until 2022 and in various Veterinary Adviser roles thereafter. She has a special interest in bovine tuberculosis, including disease affecting other species, and is currently the Lead Investigator for the Cattle Vaccine Field Trials supporting Marketing Authorisation Application for the TB vaccine and companion DIVA test.

Laura qualified from the University of Edinburgh in 2004 and has spent much of the past 22 years working in government veterinary roles for APHA. For most of that time, she served as a field vet within the Devon field team, primarily managing on‑farm TB cases alongside additional responsibilities in areas such as welfare, PRIMO, and ABP.

In 2014, Laura completed a Master’s in Veterinary Public Health at the University of Glasgow. She then spent three years as a Veterinary Investigation Officer (VIO) at the Starcross Veterinary Investigation Centre.

In 2022, Laura moved to the national Field Epidemiology team, where she now works as a Veterinary Advisor on TB, with a particular focus on WGS and its implementation in field operations.

Simon King is a Claims Consultant for the Veterinary Defence Society (VDS).

Ian is a practising veterinary surgeon and co-owner of the Mount Veterinary Practice in Fleetwood. He has a master’s degree in Veterinary Parasitology, and is Chair of the European Scientific Counsel of Companion Animal Parasites (ESCCAP). Ian has over 130 published peer reviewed articles and papers, and is an editorial board member for the Companion Animal journal. He continues to carry out research in practice, including work on intestinal nematodes and ticks.

Ioana Dobre MSc MRCVS is Managing Director of Amivet and a veterinary public health specialist with extensive experience in export certification, food safety, regulatory compliance and international trade.

After qualifying as a veterinarian in Romania, Ioana moved to the UK and built her career in veterinary public health, working across export certification, abattoir operations, licensing, inspections and business development. She has held several senior leadership positions within the certification sector and played a key role in supporting industry through the implementation of post-Brexit sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements.

Alongside her role at Amivet, Ioana serves on the Council of the Veterinary Public Health Association (VPHA) and is an active contributor to discussions on the future of veterinary certification and international trade. In 2023 she was awarded the Women in Meat Industry Supplier Award in recognition of her contribution to the sector.

Ioana is passionate about veterinary public health, supporting the veterinary profession and helping businesses navigate complex regulatory and international trade requirements.

Cristina Sau Nadal is a Veterinary Officer and International Trade Vet (exports) at the Centre for International Trade.

Roger qualified from the RVC in 1987 and has worked in the West Country in mixed (mainly farm) practice; most recently at North Park Veterinary Group in West Devon.

Now retired from clinical practice, Roger actively manages the practice’s export certification work – predominantly dairy products (whey powders, liquid protein and cheese) with some canned petfood, composites and other oddities to provide extra entertainment.

He first became involved when a partner retired in 2017, and he inherited some cheese exports from a local creamery going to Third Countries. More experience was then gained when the practice started certifying a significant amount of dairy formula powder out of a local transport depot.

However, Brexit resulted in a massive increase in the workload, and gradually extra ideas were developed to cope with the daily complexities involved in managing the increasingly complex work. A combination of a cloud storage system and a custom-built database was designed which was demoed as part of the virtual OV Conference webinar series in 2025.

Curiosity in early 2026 led to the development of an AI project to error check EHCs, and this will be presented at the 2026 OV Conference.