H5N1 Bird Flu:

Dr. Lizette Durand VMD, PhD, USPHS is the Chief Veterinary Officer in CDC’s Influenza Division. Dr. Durand joined the CDC in 2012 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer, jointly assigned to the CDC Influenza Division and the Department of Defense (DOD) U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 6, where she worked on influenza seasonality and the timing of influenza A(H5N1) in poultry and humans. Dr. Durand later served as the HIV Case-Based Surveillance SME for the Division of Global HIV/Prevention where she provided technical assistance to multiple countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Dr. Durand left CDC in 2018 to focus on global health security policy for the HHS/Office of Global Affairs (OGA). During her time with OGA, she was assigned to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, where she worked on aligning global health security activities and policy between HHS and DOD, in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr. Durand returned to CDC in 2022 and was most recently supporting HIV outbreak response activities with the Division of HIV Prevention. Dr. Durand earned her Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry and her Doctor of Philosophy degree in microbiology from the University of Chicago. She attended veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania, concentrating on international public health. During her career, Dr. Durand has participated in numerous outbreak responses, including a vampire bat rabies outbreak in Peru, the 2012 H3N2v influenza outbreak, MERS-CoV, Ebola, Zika, COVID-19, and mpox.

Dr. Michael Lappin is a veterinary internist, a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, holds a PhD in Parasitology, is Director of the Center for Companion Animal Studies at Colorado State University School of Veterinary Medicine and Chair of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association One Health Committee. He is also currently a Professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University.

Dr. Scott Weese is a veterinary internist, a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He is a Professor at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Director of the University of Guelph Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, Chief of Infection Control at the Ontario Veterinary College Health Sciences Centre, and is a member of numerous national and international committees dealing with infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, including the Quadripartite (WHO, WOAH, FAO, UNEP) Global Leaders Group on AMR.

Dr. Steve Weinrauch is the Chief Veterinary/Product Officer of Trupanion and founder of MightyVet 501(c)(3). Before joining Trupanion, Steve built and ran three veterinary practices in the Seattle area. He has published his research in numerous peer-reviewed journals, and he is licensed to practice in both the U.S.A. and the European Union.