Welcome Letter

Dear Colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to invite you to participate in GeoVet 2019, a unique conference where national and international experts in the field of spatial epidemiology will share knowledge, discuss current challenges and find opportunities to collaborate to provide innovative solutions in animal health, public health and food safety.

For more than 15 years, the GISVet/GeoVet conferences have been instrumental in sparking ideas, developing new approaches and allowing for spatial epidemiologists to present their work. We hope to continue and expand this legacy by organizing GeoVet 2019 with an exciting scientific and social program, in which we have included two key novelties:

• An increased multi-disciplinary focus to maximize the interaction between spatial epidemiologists working in veterinary science and other spatial scientists (e.g. geography, environmental sciences, engineering, social sciences, computer science, etc.) to cross-fertilize ideas and find novel approaches.
• Emphasis in Research-industry-government networking, with discussion panels and workshop activities to discuss challenges and explore opportunities to accelerate the incorporation of spatial epidemiology advances in operational decision-making tools to inform policy and to solve complex worldwide animal health and food safety problems.

We will also be using new technologies such as the Whova app, to facilitate interaction between participants, to provide easy access to the program agenda and presentations, and to maximize the benefits of networking and social events.

Under the leading title of “Novel spatio-temporal approaches in the era of Big Data”, the conference will cover aspects such as data management systems, novel data science, statistical and modeling approaches, spatio-temporal network analysis, challenges of Big Data applications, real-time use of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing for disease surveillance and policy making in veterinary science, veterinary public health, food safety and wildlife epidemiology, among others.

We believe that GeoVet 2019 will have a significant and positive impact on animal health and agricultural systems, as it will provide tools to more efficiently allocate risk-reduction measures to mitigate the impact of animal health problems locally and globally.

We are committed to offering you a unique conference experience. Please contact us at GeoVet19@ucdavis.edu if you have any questions.

Warmest Regards,

Dr. Beatriz Martínez López, DVM, MPVM, PhD.
Chair of the GeoVet 2019 Organizing Committee

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