Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária was formed in 1830 as the Royal School of Veterinary and adopts its current name during 1989. In 1930, FMV (then known as Escola Superior de Medicina Veterinária – ESMV) was one of the four founding Schools of the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa , recently merged with the Universidade de Lisboa under the umbrella of  Universidade de Lisboa (www.ulisboa.pt).

FMV is located in modern facilities since 2000, where it pursues its mission of work for the quality and development of Animal Sciences, in particular, in the area of Veterinary Sciences, as stated in its Statutory Decree.

Research in different areas is developed within the Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Sanidade Animal (CIISA). CIISA was formed in 1991/1992, to develop, integrate and articulate innovative research activities conducted at FMV. It has been and will be playing an increasingly important role in the development and innovation of research activities, by funding internal projects and allowing the identification of relevant research areas that may be considered for external funding. Major impacts of CIISA research are expected in the development of novel diagnostic strategies and therapies, innovative biotechnological products, new sustainable production systems and to significantly improve food safety and nutritional quality of animal products.

Research on African swine fever (ASF) has been carried out at the Infectious Diseases Laboratory since late 70’s under the guidance of Prof. Professor Carlos Martins, the coordinator of the project. The group has been contributing to a better knowledge on different aspects of on viral-host interactions, towards: the characterization of porcine immune responses relevant in protection; the study on the impact of infection on host nuclear compartments and specific pathways during in infected target cells and the study of  some uncharacterized viral proteins to provide new strategies for the rational development of vaccines and antiviral treatments.