Profile
Dr Elizabeth (Annie) Cook is a Veterinary Epidemiologist. She is based at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, and holds an honorary Post-Doctoral Research Associate position in Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Liverpool. Dr Cook is passionate about One Health research specifically the epidemiology of diseases at the wildlife-livestock-human interface. Her role on the HORN project is to develop and lead One Health projects as well as training and supervising graduate students
Dr Cook is originally from Australia where she studied veterinary science (Doctor Veterinary Medicine equivalent) at the University of Sydney. She also has a MSc in Wild Animal Health from the Royal Veterinary College and a MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. During her Masters studies she conducted One Health research projects in Uganda and Kenya. Dr Cook’s PhD in epidemiology is from the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD research focused on the epidemiology of zoonotic diseases in slaughterhouse workers in western Kenya.
Dr Cook has 18 years of work experience in twelve countries. Before embarking on a research career she spent ten years in clinical veterinary practice in Australia and the UK. She also worked internationally leading animal welfare projects for the UK based charity, Worldwide Veterinary Service. Dr Cook has extensive experience in managing large field teams. She also manages the lab for the Zoonoses and Emerging Disease group at ILRI. She has experience supervising graduate level students and also teaches courses in Epidemiology.
She has been based at ILRI since 2010. Her research projects include:
- Vaccination trial for wildebeest-associated Malignant Catarrhal fever in cattle
- Emerging pathogens in bats and rodents in rural Kenya
- Zoonotic disease prevalence in African (Cape) buffalo
- Investigating zoonotic diseases in dairy cattle in Tanzania
- Investigating control methods for porcine cysticercosis
- Determining the genetic basis for tolerance to Corridor disease in cattle