The GBADs consultation meeting was held from the 1 st – 3 rd April convened by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Department for International Development and hosted by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), Paris, France. Prof Jonathan Rushton directed the meeting and was supported by Hannah Davies, Camille Bellet, Perry Rothman-Ostrow and Ben Huntington.

The 3- day meeting was a major step towards the implementation of the GBADs programme.

Prof Rushton described why an accurate assessment of The Global Burden of Animal Diseases is essential for optimal decision making when investing in animal health and introduced the methodology that will be used.

The major GBADs collaborators, who hail from universities, research organisations and NGOs across 5 continents, presented detail of how the methodology will work and be implemented. Also in attendance were representatives of GBADs funders and user groups bringing the total number of participants to over 60 people. In the remainder of 2019, Prof Rushton and team will be presenting the GBADs concept to donors with the aim of initiating this exciting programme in 2020.