Speaker bio page for Linda Evans

Bio

Linda qualified from The Royal Veterinary College. She moved to Devon where she worked in mixed practice and small animal practice, developing an interest and experience in carrying out preventative health programmes across all the species. Following 18 years in practice she joined the State Veterinary Service, later to become the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), where she gained experience in disease control, epidemiology and regulation. She specialised in public health, disease control and eradication and her role included advice on policy development, legislation, enforcement and implementation of policy, and she took a lead role during outbreaks of notifiable disease. She represented the UK on the EU Task Force for the Eradication of bovine TB for 6 years, providing advice for member states on eradication of disease, and she set up and worked collaboratively with stakeholder groups across all sectors in the UK to support the programme for eradication of bTB. Linda joined The Donkey Sanctuary in 2017 where she reviewed biosecurity across the charity, including zoonotic risks, developing training and implementation of protocols. Linda developed and maintained an overview of the global situation and the risk of disease spread as a result of the trade in donkey skins, promoting good practice by highlighting the risks and impacts and producing content for campaigns and published materials. She continued to promote good biosecurity protocols and improved protection of people from zoonotic disease when working for SPANA; introducing policies and training in best practice. She believes in collaboration and has shared protocols for best practice of biosecurity for those travelling across borders to engage in animal health care with a strong passion for protecting animals from the poor welfare caused by diseases that we could and should have prevented.