Dr Trevor Drew

Prof Drew is Director of the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP), which brings together human and animal health, disease protection and biosecurity measures, to better protect Australia to prevent, prepare for and control highly infectious diseases of animals as well as zoonotic diseases. The activity being undertaken by CSIRO at the ACDP is tripartite, reflecting a multi-sectorial, one-health approach to disease preparedness across the three sectors of humans, animals and the environment which they share.

The ACDP, formerly known as the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL), is delivering to the needs of the Departments of Agriculture, Water and Environment, Health and Defence, as well as the livestock and fisheries sectors of Australia, in the areas of zoonotic disease as well as the diagnosis of exotic diseases of terrestrial and aquatic animals. This includes Australia's national response the area of diagnosis of exotic diseases of terrestrial and aquatic animals, including those also affecting man.

The Centre is a National Facility and part of an international network of laboratories able to handle some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens. The ACDP is an International Reference Laboratory for a number of diseases and Collaborating Centre for the region. It also serves as an important centre for research carried out within other CSIRO Business Units, including Health and Biosecurity, Agriculture and Food, Land and Water and Data 61.

Trevor was born in Cornwall in the UK and, following his undergraduate studies in microbiology, he studied for his Masters in applied immunology at King's College and Brunel University, London. He completed his PhD in molecular virology, as part of a research collaboration between the UK Veterinary Laboratories Agency and the Central Veterinary Institute, the Netherlands, completing in 1995.

Prior to becoming Director of AAHL in 2018, Prof Drew was Lead Scientist and Head of the Virology Department at the UK Animal & Plant Health Agency, with responsibility for managing the UK surveillance programme for exotic viral diseases of livestock, along with an extensive portfolio of research in that area, delivering to the policy needs of their agriculture ministry. He also has an extensive record of overseas work, including extended secondments on behalf of overseas aid projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Bangladesh and Nepal. He is a specialist in viral diseases of pigs and has published a number of peer-reviewed research papers on this subject.

Prof Drew is also a regular contributor to the work of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), where he has held a position as Reference Expert for a number of viral diseases. He has also been a member of numerous Ad Hoc Groups and has undertaken several missions. He was a Guest Professor at Jilin University from 2009-2014 and is currently a Visiting Professor of Virology at the University of Nottingham, UK.