Dr Luigi Iannetti, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise, Coordinator of ERFAN WG “Animal Welfare“- SADC Region

Luigi Iannetti is a Veterinarian (cum Laude graduated) from the University of Naples (UNINA, Italy) and holds a PhD in Clinical and Pharmacotoxicological Sciences and a postgraduate in Inspection of Food of Animal Origin from the same university. He is employed at IZSAM, Teramo, since 2007, where he is Senior Veterinarian since 2017. His work is both related to the activities of the Hygiene and Technology of Food and Feed Unit, where the Italian National Reference Laboratory for Listeria monocytogenes is based, and to the activities of the Human-Animal Relationship Laboratory, where the OIE Collaborating Centre for Animal Welfare is based. This includes scientific and technical support to the Competent Authorities, designing of monitoring plans, managing of research projects. He participates as technical expert for the Italian Ministry of Health (MoH) to the DG-SANTE Working Group on Microbiological Criteria and he was also part of the European Listeria Typing Exercise Study Group (ELiTE) of ECDC. He designs challenge test studies in traditional Italian meat and dairy products and develops predictive models of pathogens growth in foodstuffs. He has been involved in a number of training activities both at national and international level, including being short term expert in twinning projects on Food Safety and Animal Welfare funded by the European Union and by the OIE (Republic of Northern Macedonia, Lebanon, South Africa, Tunisia). He reviewed articles for a number of international scientific journals such as Food Control, Journal of Food Safety, Epidemiology and Infection, Animals. He is author of more than 40 papers on peer-reviewed international journals and 20 abstracts from international scientific conferences.