Ricardo graduated in 1990 from the school of veterinary medicine in Barcelona. After a brief stint in farm animal practice in his native Catalonia, he went on to complete a PhD in veterinary epidemiology at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University. In 1996 he came to the UK as a post-doctoral fellow in the epidemiology group at Glasgow University Vet School. He left academia and joined the then State Veterinary Service in 1998 as a veterinary officer in West Wales, where he saw first-hand the ravages caused by the rising bovine TB epidemic in that endemic area of GB. In 2000 he joined the team of specialist vets and scientists advising the bovine TB policy team of Defra based in London.

In his capacity as a veterinary advisor to the bovine TB programme of Defra for more than 20 years, Ricardo has been directly involved in the development and adoption of many key disease control policies in England.

He was a member of the expert panel that designed the ongoing field trials of cattle TB vaccination and its companion DIVA skin test in England and Wales and continues to be involved in the design of the future cattle vaccination and DIVA test deployment policies for England.

Ricardo has been the lead author or co-author of some 20 peer-reviewed papers in the field of TB in cattle and other domestic species. He is also a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Public Health in the sub-specialty of Population Medicine.