Dr Gudrun OVERESCH

WG2 leader

Head Subdivision Reference and Antimicrobial Resistance at the Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology, University of Bern, Switzerland.

“European harmonized antimicrobial susceptibility testing as the basis of targeted antimicrobial therapy in veterinary medicine plays a key role in combating antimicrobial resistance in the future”

She studied veterinary medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany and received her doctoral degree (PhD) in the field of veterinary immunology at the immunology unit in 1997.  She worked more than 10 years full time in different veterinary diagnostic and food hygiene laboratories in Germany and get a broad training and expertise in the field of veterinary and food safety microbiology. Since 2008, She is head of the Swiss national reference laboratory for zoonoses (e.g. brucellosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, listeriosis, yersiniosis, tularaemia), epizootics and antimicrobial resistance (ZOBA) at the Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology at the University of Bern, Switzerland. She is responsible for the national antimicrobial resistance monitoring in livestock reported to EFSA as well as for the monitoring of antimicrobial resistance in relevant veterinary pathogens. This international engagement on zoonoses and antimicrobial monitoring affaires is completed by my activities in relevant European organizations focused more on clinical veterinary microbiology and diagnostics. She is board member of the European Association of Veterinarian Diagnosticians (EAVLD), committee member of the VetCAST (Veterinary committee for susceptibility testing) subcommittee by EUCAST and active member of the European study Group on Veterinary Microbiology (ESGVM). In 2020, she got the approval as a de facto diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Microbiology (ECVM).