The former chief veterinary officer at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been appointed to the board of Animal Health Ireland (AHI).

AHI confirmed that Martin Blake has been appointed to its board. Blake's appointment was ratified at the AHI annual general meeting (AGM).

The former department chief vet is a graduate of University College Dublin (UCD), and holds a degree in veterinary medicine and a master’s degree in business administration.

His career in the Irish agri-food sector spans several decades, including his tenure as chief veterinary officer of Ireland from 2011 to 2024. During this time, he led national policy and operations across animal health, animal welfare, food safety, and veterinary public health.

Blake is currently a member of the board of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI); an adjunct full professor at the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine; a member of the Governance Review Committee for the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH); and a member of the EU Advisory Committee on Public Health Emergencies (ACPHE).

The former chief vet has also served on several other boards including the Veterinary Council of Ireland (VCI), the Irish Equine Centre, and the WOAH Platform for Animal Welfare for Europe.

Between 2019 and 2022, Blake also chaired the 'European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease' (not to be confused with the European Commission that is the executive branch of the EU) which is under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN).

Commenting on the appointment, AHI chairperson James Lynch said: "I am delighted to welcome [Blake] to the board of Animal Health Ireland. [His] veterinary and management expertise will be a great asset to AHI.

"I look forward to working with [Blake] as we continue our work to contribute to the sustainability of the animal health sector," Lynch added.

AHI is an industry-led, not-for-profit partnership between livestock producers, processors, animal health advisers, and the government.

It provides knowledge, education and coordination to establish effective control programmes for non-regulated diseases of livestock, including bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), and Johne’s Disease.

It also leads programmes such as Beef HealthCheck, Pig HealthCheck, Parasite Control, CellCheck, and CalfCare.