Second Annual Meeting  February 2026

The Second Annual Meeting of the OH-ALLIES project was held on Friday February 27^th 2026 at the Department of Agriculture’s Backweston campus.  The day kicked off at 9, and after an opening address from the Head of DAFM Laboratories, Dr. Rob Doyle, there was a talk from two guest speakers.  Dr Trude Lynstad, a vet from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and Dr Bjørnar Ytrehus, a vet from the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, jointly presented an update on the surveillance work being carried out in Norway as part of the 11-Member State OH4Surveillance project.  OH4Surveillance is a sister-project of OH-ALLIES, both funded through the same EU4Health Programme funding call.  Norway do surveillance on three of the same priority pathogens as are done in OH-ALLIES, so their presentation was very interesting for OH-ALLIES participants, as were the OH-ALLIES updates for the Norwegians.  Once our guest speakers had finished, updates and progress from the OH-ALLIES project were presented. 

As well as project participants, there were external stakeholders in attendance representing a number of different stakeholder organisations.  The plenary session continued until one PM when all attendees enjoyed a well-deserved lunch and some networking time.