8th International Conference of the European College of Veterinary Microbiology

Patrícia Alexandra Curado Quintas Dinis Poeta, Full Professor at UTAD. EBVS® European Specialist in Veterinary Microbiology. Member of CECAV-UTAD and collaborator of LAVQ-REQUIMT. Coordinator of the Research Group MicroArt- Microbiology and Antibiotic resistance Team and Head of Medical Microbiology Laboratory. Her main research interest is the characterization of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in bacteria of different origins as humans, animals, food, water and the environment, as well as the performance of studies of molecular epidemiology to characterize the genetic lineages of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Director of several doctoral and masters’ theses. Also responsible for research projects funded by private companies and inter-university projects. Published more than 300 articles in journals from the SCI and book chapters. Has more than 1,000 communications at international scientific meetings, presentations at national or Iberian scientific meetings, posters at scientific meetings. More than 10.000 publications in GenBank, UniProt, records in MLST, among others. Received 48 awards.

Peter Damborg, Chair of the EUCAST subcommittee VetCAST (Veterinary committee on antimicrobial susceptibility testing), Member of the WSAVA Therapeutics Committee, Head of the local microbiology diagnostic laboratory Sund Vet Diagnostik and PI of ongoing clinical trials aiming to optimize antimicrobial treatment length of infections of companion and production animals. Most of Peter’s  research has centered on antimicrobial resistance in animals, including surveillance, zoonotic transmission, dissemination and characterization of resistance determinants, and selection of resistance following antimicrobial treatment. Recently, he has also focused on rationalization of veterinary antimicrobial treatment through development of antibiotic treatment guidelines and research into novel treatment regimes, alternative antimicrobial agents, and optimization of diagnostic tests.

Steve is a veterinary graduate with over 25 years research experience on virus diseases in animals. His research interests centre largely around viruses and their interaction with host cells and the innate immune response, with a particular focus on influenza viruses. Current research aims to unpick the molecular mechanisms that underpin the differing responses between susceptible and resistant avian hosts and the development of tissue culture models for investigation of innate responses to influenza infection. We are also assessing how influenza A and secondary bacterial infection act together to affect host responses to infection. Steve also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students in virology, infectious disease and professional veterinary skills.

Els Broens was trained as a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University (UU) and finished a PhD on livestock-associated MRSA in pigs in 2011. Currently, she is Associate Professor and Director of the Veterinary Microbiological Diagnostic Centre at Utrecht University. Her fields of expertise are clinical veterinary microbiology, antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial stewardship and one health. She is an EBVS Diplomate of the European College for Veterinary Microbiology and is (co-)supervisor of several PhD-students and ECVM-residents. Together with (inter)national peers Els aims to promote diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship by training early career scientists, by conducting research and by raising awareness among policy makers, veterinarians and other stakeholders.

Stefania Lauzi is Associate Professor of Veterinary Infectious Diseases in animals at the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences of the University of Milan, Italy from 2022. She received her veterinary degree from the University of Milan in 1995, and her Specialization in Animal health in 2000. She was Assistant professor of Veterinary Infectious Diseases in domestic animals from 1999 to 2022. Her teaching activity is mainly in courses held at the Veterinary Medicine Degree programme of the University of Milan. Her research activity focuses on infectious diseases of domestic animals, especially companion animals, and wildlife and on emerging and zoonotic diseases. Dr Lauzi has authored more than 55 peer-reviewed publications. She is responsible of the Serology and Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the University of Milan, Italy since 2008. Dr Lauzi is De Facto Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Microbiology from 2022.

Dorina Timofte DVM, PhD, FHEA, Dipl ECVM, FRCPath, FRCVS  is Professor in Veterinary Clinical Microbiology at the University of Liverpool and has a long-standing career in veterinary clinical microbiology. Dorina is RCVS Specialist in Veterinary Microbiology and Diplomat of the European College of Veterinary Microbiology (ECVM); at Liverpool she established the first ECVM Residency training programme and is currently the ECVM vice-president. Dorina is involved in several European initiatives (ENOVAT, EARS-VET) focusing on the development of veterinary clinical microbiology and raising the profile of the role of veterinary microbiology laboratory in antimicrobial stewardship. She is leading the VMD-funded VetCLIN_AMR project which involves close collaboration with UK veterinary diagnostic laboratories aiming to harmonise microbiology laboratory methodologies impacting on surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in companion animals. Dorina’s research focuses on surveillance and genomic epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in companion animals, describing interspecies transmission of multidrug-resistant bacteria between humans, animals, and the environment, particularly in the context of healthcare-associated infections in human and veterinary hospitals.

Nicola Decaro; DVM, PhD, Dipl ECVM is Professor of Infectious Diseases of Animals and Head of Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari.  PhD degree, Utrecht University, The Netherlands (2009). President of the European College of Veterinary Microbiology (ECVM). 

Director of the Specialization School of Infectious Diseases of Animals, University of Bari (2008-2014). Coordinator of the PhD course “Animal Health and Zoonoses”, University of Bari (2017-2021). President of the Italian Society of Veterinary Infectivologists (ANIV) (2018-2021). Member of the Board of the Italian Society of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (Si.Di.L.V.) (2014-2019). Editor/Associate editor of Journal of Virological Methods, Acta Tropica, Virus Genes and Heliyon. Author/coauthor of more than 400 scientific manuscripts (332 on peer-reviewed international journals); h-index = 62 (Scopus). Viral infections of carnivores and ruminants are the main topics of his research, focusing on the characterization of emerging viruses and development of diagnostic assays and vaccine.

Marcus Fulde is a microbiologist whose work centers on bacterial pathogens, host–pathogen interactions, and antimicrobial resistance. He studied veterinary medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo) and earned his PhD in microbiology in 2007. After postdoctoral research at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, he returned to the Medical School Hannover in 2011 to investigate neonatal gut infections. In 2015, he was appointed Professor of Veterinary Infection Biology at Freie Universität Berlin. Since October 2025, he has served as Director of the Institute of Microbiology at the TiHo Hannover, where he leads research on streptococci, Salmonella, zoonotic infections, and microbial adaptation processes. His work integrates molecular microbiology and immunology to advance understanding of infectious diseases and resistance development.