Experienced vet, Graeme Cooke, has been named as the UK’s new Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer, a role he will take up in January 2017.
Coming from a livestock farming background, Mr Cooke has worked in a variety of clinical practice types with extensive experience in both rural and urban communities.
He also has previous Defra experience, having been the department’s senior policy advisor planning disease outbreak preparedness in the early 1990s before leaving to undertake a wide range of animal health and welfare tasks.
Welcoming the appointment, the UK’s Chief Vet, Nigel Gibbens, said that Mr Cooke (pictured above) will “strengthen the animal health team in Defra to serve the interests of the whole of the UK as part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to maintaining our high animal health and welfare standards”.
