Dr. Cesar A. Corzo earned his DVM at the Universidad de La Salle in Bogota, Colombia before pursuing his MS at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and his PhD at the University of Minnesota. He has over 20 years of experience working in the swine industry and currently holds the Leman Chair in Swine Health and Productivity at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on understanding the epidemiological features of swine infectious diseases to develop methodologies to prevent, control and ultimately eliminate pathogens from pig populations. His research involves understanding factors related to the occurrence of PRRSv, PEDv, and Senecavirus. He currently leads the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project (MSHMP), a project funded by the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC). In his free time, Cesar enjoys spending time with his family, playing football with his 2 boys, watching Formula 1 races, and when he gets the chance he will spend the whole day at the racetrack finetuning his driving skills and improving his personal record.

Contact info: [email protected]

Dr. Mariana Kikuti received her DVM at Universidade Federal do Parana, Brazil, and a MPH and DPH in epidemiology from Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil. She has experience working on endemic and emerging arboviruses epidemiology, laboratory diagnosis tests accuracy assessment under field conditions. Her research interests focus on the epidemiology of emerging and infectious diseases. Her current work with the Morrison Swine Health Project includes a range of projects with a focus on curating a PRRSV sequence library and using molecular epidemiology approaches to investigate patterns of disease transmission and viral evolution. In her free time, Mariana (Mari) enjoys camping with her husband in Minnesota State parks (collected over 20 park stamps since 2021), taking her cat Laika on short walks with a leash, and recently went down the rabbit hole of collecting fountain pens and inks.

Contact info: [email protected]

Dr. Xiaomei Yue received her PhD in animal health economics from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, and her MSc from China Agricultural University. Her research focuses on the production and economic effects of animal disease surveillance programs on herds. She conducts retrospective and predictive research on disease surveillance programs to provide decision-makers with insights into more effective animal disease control programs. Her work with the Morrison Swine Health Project includes providing weekly regional swine infectious disease updates and risk alerts and analyzing surveillance data for swine infectious diseases. Her leisure time is spent playing with her loved ones and enjoying family time or indulging in personal hobbies such as solving jigsaw puzzles and playing video games.

Contact info: [email protected]

Dr. Marcello Melini received his DVM and MA from Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. After graduating with his DVM he worked in the swine industry and public sector of Guatemala managing biosecurity, prophylaxis, diagnostics, and field clinics for multiple farm types. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Minnesota, working on understanding factors contributing to PRRSv transmission. He works with the Morrison Swine Health Project on a variety of projects, focusing on analysis and content. In his free time, Marcello likes to read books of different genres, watch science fiction movies, play video games, and hang out with his friends in Minnesota.

Contact info: [email protected]

Sarah Vadnais earned their BS in environmental science from the University of Minnesota and is currently finishing their MPH in public health data science at the University of Minnesota. Sarah has a background working in clinical research and has joined MSHMP as a researcher focused on the managing and reporting of swine disease data. In their free time Sarah enjoys live music, watching movies at the Trylon Cinema, and spending time with the people and cats they love.

Contact info: [email protected] 

Emily Geary has a BA in biology and environmental studies from St. Olaf College, Minnesota. Her background is in field biology focusing on avian biology and habitat assessments. She joined the Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project as the Data Coordinator in 2016. Emily primarily coordinates with MSHMP participants to intake and manage weekly disease data, produces the weekly reports, manages MSHMP data user security, and participates in a variety of projects. Emily is currently working on her Master's in relational therapy. She spends much of her free time listening to audio books, outside with her dog, birdwatching, and working on various art projects. 

Contact info: [email protected]

Paulo Fioravante received his Bachelor degree in Computer Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He has over 14 years of experience as a Java Full-Stack developer. He joined MSHMP in mid 2016, and was appointed as IT Director in early 2017. During his time with the project, he has restructured how data is handled, entered, and managed in order to increase project security and versatility. As the IT Director, Paulo oversees all of the project's IT requirements, with a focus on data security and software development.

Contact Info: [email protected]

Dr. Carles Vilalta received his DVM from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and has a PhD in applied pharmacology from UAB. He is currently working towards a Master ́sin biostatistics and bioinformatics. Prior to receiving his PhD he worked as a swine veterinarian for 8 years and as a meat inspector in slaughterhouses while pursuing his Doctorate. Currently, he is a Researcher at the Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA -IRTA), Barcelona, Spain. His research focuses on the epidemiology of swine diseases and more specifically the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory virus (PRRSv). He is currently working to further the understanding of the Spanish PRRSv epidemiology and the role of different biosecurity measures in preventing/reducing the impact of the disease.

Contact Info: [email protected]

Dr. Juan Sanhueza is an assistant professor of herd health and veterinary epidemiology, and the director of the school of veterinary medicine at the Universidad Católicade Temuco, Chile. He was trained as a veterinarian at the Universidad de Chile and obtained his Master and PhD degrees at the EpiCentre, Massey University, New Zealand. He worked from February 2017 to February 2020 as a Postdoctoral Associate in the MSHMPat the University of Minnesota. During that time Juan collaborated in several research projects investigating PRRS and PED occurrence, disease determinants and evaluating sampling strategies for swine pathogens. In addition, he actively helped automate the MSHMP report generation process. Currently, Juan is leading a research project on Influenza A surveillance and control strategies in swine breeding herds in Chile.

Contact Info: [email protected]

Dr. Catalina (Cata) Picasso is a veterinary epidemiologist working on the integration of research and science for the epidemiological and economic assessment of animal health programs. After receiving her DVM in 2009 in her home country, Uruguay, Cata worked as a government veterinarian for 6 years.  Her decision to pursue her graduate degrees brought her to the University of Minnesota in 2014 where she completed her masters (2014) and her PhD (2019). As part of the MSHMP team, she focused on data collected from swine transportation trucks, working towards multiple goals. The overarching project goal was to gain a better understanding of different movement patterns within a production system, and how those affect disease spread within the system.

Contact Info: [email protected]

Dr. Andreia Arruda graduated as a DVM in 2010 from Sao Paulo State University (UNESP, Brazil). She received her MS degree from the University of Minnesota in 2012 and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Guelph in 2015. Dr. Arruda's main area of interest involves the use of novel epidemiological approaches to investigate large animal infectious disease transmission and to support the development of effective control, prevention, and surveillance strategies. Currently Dr. Arruda works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at The Ohio State University. While she was at the University of Minnesota, she worked on a PRRS seasonality project using data collected through the MSHMP.

Contact Info: [email protected]

Andres Perez joined the University of Minnesota faculty in January 2014. Dr. Perez has held the Endowed Chair in Global Animal Health And Food Safety since 2015 and has served as director of CAHFS since 2017.

Prior to his position at the U, Dr. Perez spent 10+ years at the University of California, Davis, where he served as director of the UC Davis Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance. He is also currently an advisor on epidemiology for the Argentine Animal Health Service and for the Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit of the USDA Agricultural Research Service at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. 

Contact Info: [email protected]