Dr. Klaus Depner graduated in Veterinary Sciencefrom the School of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany in 1988. He thenworked in Namibia as head of the virology laboratory at the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Windhoek, where he encountered African Swine Fever (ASF) for the first time.
     He returned to Germany in 1993 and worked until 1997 as a Senior Scientist at the European Reference Laboratory for Classical Swine Fever (CSF)at the Institute of Virology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover. In 1998, hebecame head of the German National Reference Laboratory for CSF and ASF at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) on the Island of Riems.
     In 2007, Dr. Klaus Depner went for one year to FAO in Rome to be in charge of‘Transboundary Animal Diseases’ (TAD) in Eastern Europe and Caucasus. During that time ASF entered Georgia and spread over the Caucasus, and he did the first epidemiological investigations for ASF in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and was involved in the efforts to control and eradication of the disease.
     From 2008 until 2010,he worked as a legislative officer in the area of animal health and zootechnics in Brussels at the European Commission (DG-SANCO) with responsibility forthe notifiable pig diseases.
     In 2010, hereturned to the FLI and became first a member and in 2014 head of the International Animal Health Team within the Institute of Epidemiology.
     He has conducted several epidemiological investigations for ASF in the Baltic States, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Belorussia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine and participated at EU level in the development of ASF control and eradication programs for the affected Member States.
     Since 2012, Klaus Depner has also been member of the Animal Health and Animal Welfare Panel in EFSA involved in different scientific opinions concerning animal health.