My career has been incredibly varied and adventurous to date, and I can honestly say that I would not be where I am today without having done the International Animal Health programme. When I graduated from vet school in 2007, I was not drawn to general practice but was unsure of what direction I did want to take. A chance encounter with a multidisciplinary research project investigating schistosomiasis in chimpanzees and humans in Uganda was a ‘light bulb’ moment for me, and I decided that One Health was the focus I’d been looking for.A Masters seemed a sensible next step to explore this further, but at the time, many of the programs on offer had quite a narrow focus, e.g food safety or epidemiology. When I discovered the University of Edinburgh Uni’s MSc(IAH) I felt it was much more aligned with my interests. The first-year core subjects provided a solid knowledge foundation, covering many concepts, pathogens and diseases in depth that were only briefly mentioned during my undergrad vet studies. In the second year, we could select several elective subjects and I furthered my interests in zoonotic, vector-borne and transboundary animal diseases. For the third and final, dissertation year of the course, I was fortunate to join an Australian government-funded project investigating a zoonotic tapeworm (Taenia solium aka ‘the pork tapeworm’) in northern Lao PDR. Witnessing the very real impacts that One Health interventions can have on the health and wellbeing of humans and animals was an eye-opening and pretty humbling experience. I had initially been a bit apprehensive about how challenging postgrad study might be, but the graduated structure of the MSc(IAH) and the strong direction from our lecturers and supervisors meant the workload was always manageable. The flexibility of the online course environment allowed a fantastic work-life balance, & attending a summer school in Lao PDR was a definite highlight.I enjoyed the MSc so much that after graduating in 2013, I signed up for a PhD with Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine and Ghent University, implementing One Health interventions to control the pork tapeworm in Zambia. Since completing that in 2018, I have led an international research project evaluating veterinary point of care tests in the Asia Pacific region; worked for our regional Department of Health during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic response; conducted field-based research investigating Buruli ulcer, a neglected tropical disease that is unexpectedly prevalent in people and wildlife in (temperate) southeastern Australia; and am currently working for Wildlife Health Australia on a national koala project.My career has been incredibly varied and adventurous to date, and I can honestly say that I would not be where I am today without having done the MSc(IAH). I would highly recommend this course to anyone seeking to expand their knowledge and expertise in international animal health, to equip them to effectively tackle the complex One Health challenges we face in our rapidly changing world. This article was published on 2025-11-07
