Meet the Ambassador..

Guest blog by Ambassador Mabel Aworh

I am an Epidemiologist with a decade of experience in veterinary epidemiology, public health, research and leadership, amongst others in government and four of these years were in Food safety Programme. I have led research and survey teams, and currently have 13 publications in peer-review journals. I am a member of the Antimicrobial Resistance Technical Working Group in Nigeria and head of Nigerian delegates to the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods since 2015. I am desirous of making a difference through research especially in addressing gaps identified during our Nigerian AMR situation analysis with ultimate goal towards improving the health of the African people by enhancing food safety and reducing the burden of AMR. I am a goal-getter irrespective of the challenges with good interpersonal skills and a passion for learning. My current research is titled ‘Multi-Drug Resistant Escherichia Coli in Humans, Poultry and Poultry Environment in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria: Potential Risk for Human Health’. This research was born out of the desire to address AMR research gaps in the human-animal-environment interface.

As the AMR Surveillance Pillar lead for the Animal Health Sector in Nigeria and a member of the National AMR Technical Working Group I coordinate AMR Surveillance activities in Animal Health. We are still in the preliminary stages of setting up the surveillance system as we have designated our AMR reference lab, identified sentinel labs and developed the surveillance guidelines.

As the Fleming Fund Animal Health Fellow for AMR Surveillance, I helped launch the UK’s investment in Nigeria in February 2020 by giving a speech at the British High Commissioner’s Residence in Abuja. Efforts are being made to conduct a pilot study for resistance pathogen in food producing animals to generate baseline data for our AMR surveillance system,

Currently a PhD student and my AMR research, I was a Visiting Scholar at Department of Population Health and Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA for four months.

As the head of Nigerian delegates to the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods and Codex intergovernmental task force on Antimicrobial Resistance, I coordinate codex activities related to these two committees on behalf of the Department of Veterinary & Pest Control services. I am Nigeria’s representative for the Codex E-working Group tasked with the review of the draft Codex Guidelines for Risk Analysis of foodborne Antimicrobial Resistance.

I was part of the team that conducted the AMR Situation Analysis in Nigeria in 2016 and supported the development of Nigeria’s AMR National Action Plan 2017 – 2022 that is currently being implemented.

As a volunteer graduate of the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (NFELTP), I currently support the programme by teaching and mentoring past graduates and current residents of the program on AMR research projects.