Meet Dan Horton, Professor and Head of Virology at the APHA

Dan Horton is Head of Virology at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and a visiting Professor of Veterinary Virology at the University of Surrey. Dan has a great interest in wildlife and nature leading him to seek a career first as a exotics and wildlife vet after he graduated. Spending time in this environment led Dan to develop an interest in animal disease, researching the epidemiology of their infections, with a particular focus on zoonoses. After 15 years in research and helping to develop the University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine, he now leads a department of over 120 scientists at the APHA working on a range of animal and zoonotic viral diseases. The department plays a key role in APHA’s mission to protect the UK from the impact of animal diseases and safeguarding UK food security, including diseases such as Avian Influenza, rabies, Sars-CoV-2, swine fevers and vector borne diseases. An exciting new challenge is implementing the APHA’s new Sustainable Futures strategy preparing for what the future might look like in the face of land use change and a growing global population. This involves planning and problem solving to ensure that the specialist facilities and skills within APHA are fit for purpose, ready to respond to local, national and international disease outbreaks of the future.

A large part of Dan’s job involves working with scientists within APHA and supporting these teams to be able to respond and deliver during disease outbreak scenarios.

‘The scientists employed within my department have such a specialist set of skills and an important part of my job is to be available to support them to fulfil their potential, particularly when we are facing high pressure disease outbreak situations’.

Dan takes great pride in his role and is a great believer that you can be kind and considerate whilst also being a good leader. He champions sustainability within his leadership style, recognising the importance of supporting staff mental health and wellbeing. His approach focuses around being thoughtful of the external and internal pressures that his employees may be facing at work and in their personal lives.

Dan says

‘it is so important to treat people as people, being there for them and acknowledging and understanding their concerns. I can’t fix all the problems, but I hope that being available and willing to listen, I can work with my employees to find practical solutions. Although I do recognise that this can sometimes be a bit of a juggle alongside available resources and conflicting priorities’.

Professional resilience is something that he has had to develop over the years and thinks the so called ‘balance’ of work and life is different for everyone. His work is a true vocation for him, but he understands that time with his family is vital for helping him to sustain the pressures that his work brings. Dan is a dad to two boys and loves nothing more than spending his spare time heading out into the wilderness, wild camping, biking, climbing, and adventuring with them both. Being in nature feels truly restorative, bringing a sense of calm and perspective. So much so that he has more recently taken up ultra distance running. He likes the gritty multi-day ultra races, having completed the Dragons back, a brutal 380km 6-day race across Wales and more recently the Northern Traverse, a 300km non stop journey from the West coast of the Lake District to the East Coast of the North York Moors. These have helped to put day to day life into perspective, where the environment can be very humbling, reminding you of your place within the world.

‘These long distance runs have shown me that everyone has a lot more potential than they often realise. At school I was terrible at sports and I’m still a very mediocre runner. But what I lacked in talent I made up for in sheer determination. I have started to take on longer runs which I previously didn’t think were possible, recognizing that when you think you can’t continue, there is almost always a bit extra available to give. I have found that my ultra running journey has helped me at work, giving me the inner confidence that I can deliver on what is needed and am able to use this to motivate others’.

When asked what sustainability means to him, Dan explained that he takes a bigger picture approach. He is acutely aware that we live on a planet with finite resources and that there is currently unequitable prosperity.

‘We can’t ignore the role that animals have in our current economic and societal system. The majority of people are dependent on agriculture and livestock for food and we need to consider how we can support this as we continue to run out of planetary resources. As vets we therefore have a fundamental role in championing sustainable food systems. We have an even bigger role in finding out how we can feed people as efficiently as possible, reducing the impact of animal diseases, and most importantly putting animal welfare at the forefront of everything that we do.’

Dan feels veterinary professionals can take a really active role in the sustainability agenda through education and taking an evidence-based approach, and that veterinary professionals need to be part of the sustainability debate, as we have a good understanding of the relationship between the environment, natural resources and human prosperity.

‘We need to contribute to the discussion, in particular focusing on what we are going to do to preserve the limited resources that we have left and how we can answer difficult questions such as ‘how many people can the planet actually sustain?’.

If Dan had a magic wand that he could use to make one improvement to drive sustainability in the veterinary profession he would use it to make more wands to give to others! He acknowledges that it is important not to get paralysed by guilt, indecision and hopelessness but instead focus on our own spheres of influence to encourage sustainable change. If we can empower those in positions of influence to make small sustainable decisions this will hopefully lead to bigger picture sustainable decision making. His mantra is ‘Progress, not perfection'… a good motivator to keep him going as a leader, a father and family man, but also when tackling his ultra marathon challenges.