Dr Nicola Lewis

Nicola Lewis is Associate Professor in Infectious Diseases and Co-ordinator of the Livestock Production and Health research programme at the RVC. Nicola is also Deputy Director of the OIE/FAO International Reference Laboratory for avian influenza, swine influenza and Newcastle Disease at APHA-Weybridge.

Her research focuses on investigating the ecology and evolution of influenza A viruses in multiple animal hosts and the risks that these viruses might pose to the human population, with a global context.  This internationally-collaborative high-impact research spans huge diversity from implementing surveillance in wild birds in the Republic of Georgia, analyzing emerging highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses, to using state-of-the-art computational techniques to analyse influenza virus antigenic and genetic evolution, to assess pandemic risk, and to inform international stakeholder on vaccine strains. Her recent research publications encompass avian, swine and human influenza viruses as well as Newcastle Disease. She is also Research coordinator for the Livestock Production and Health Management group at the RVC. Alongside her role at the RVC, Nicola is the Deputy Director of the OIE/FAO International Reference Laboratory for avian influenza, swine influenza and Newcastle Disease at APHA-Weybridge.

In her roles, she also provides consultancy to a range of stakeholders but specifically including the European Commission, OIE, FAO, EFSA, ECDC, WHO and PHE. She serves on the OIE expert group for the Control of Equine Influenza who meet annually to decide on global equine influenza vaccine strain selection. She is also an OFFLU (OIE/FAO) Executive committee member 2016-2019, and a member of the OFFLU swine influenza virus group who globally co-ordinate swine influenza virus surveillance and who aim to strengthen and coordinate influenza surveillance in pigs worldwide, providing up-to-date expert scientific advice to OIE, FAO and WHO. Additionally, she is a member of the OFFLU avian influenza network consisting of avian influenza experts who address priority influenza-related issues, the OFFLU wildlife group who assess emerging infectious disease in wild animals and she contributes data and analyses biennially to the OFFLU WHO Vaccine Composition Meeting submission for the human seasonal influenza vaccine.