Dr D. B. WALLACE, ERFAN Focal Person, Agricultural Research Council, South Africa | ARC · Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute– SADC Region
David Wallace completed his PhD degree in Genetics at the University of Pretoria in 2005, after obtaining various degrees in Microbiology and Biochemistry at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He joined the Agricultural Research Council-Onderstepoort Veterinary (Research) Institute (ARC-OVI) in 1994 as a Research Fellow. In 2000 he was promoted to Senior Researcher and in 2010 to Project Manager for the “Viral-vectored Vaccines” unit in the Vaccines and Diagnostics Development programme. He has managed projects involving the use of poxviruses, mainly lumpy skin disease virus, as vectors for recombinant vaccines against livestock diseases of veterinary importance, and projects on new molecular-based diagnostic test development. He is active in projects uplifting emerging farmers through helping initiate various socio-economic studies, training and knowledge dissemination.
He is currently co- and Principle Investigator on a number of locally- and internationally-funded research projects, and is an OIE Reference Laboratory expert on lumpy skin disease and recognised as an expert on Rift Valley fever. He has also been an extraordinary lecturer in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, since 2005 for post-graduate student supervision.
David is the overall co-ordinator for activities linking the ARC-OVI to ERFAN and is an active member of the Vector-borne Diseases (VBD) working group relating to Rift Valley fever (and, lumpy skin disease).
