Liesl De Boni is the veterinary epidemiologist for the provincial veterinary services of the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, based in Johannesburg. She qualified as a veterinarian in 2011 at the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Pretoria, and started working in companion animal practice. Liesl started an 18-month residency with the South African Field Epidemiology Training Programme in 2018 and completed a master’s degree in epidemiology the next year at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand. This manuscript represents her research project done in partial fulfilment of the degree. Her main research interests are zoonotic diseases, One Health and veterinary epidemiology. She embraces collaborations with colleagues in related sectors. Liesl was elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Southern African Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine in 2021.