Dr Faith Peta is a virologist and vaccinologist currently serving as the Vaccine Production Manager for the Foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccine at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute (OVI) of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC). Following her qualification and registration with the South African Veterinary Council as a veterinary technologist in 1998, she was employed in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Pretoria, where she served as a junior diagnostician responsible for the diagnosis of poultry diseases using serological, bacteriological and virological tests. She moved to the OVI in 2001 to form part of a team that established the nucleic acid based diagnostic laboratory for bacterial diseases and later completed her B Tech degree in 2002. Dr Peta then took up a production technologist position at the Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) programme of OVI, serving as the head of the tissue culture plant to produce FMD vaccines from 2004 - 2011. Following persistent challenges with the vaccine manufacturing process, owing to old vaccine production infrastructure, a research initiative was instituted in 2011, to develop and implement new and scalable production technologies. It was under this research initiative that she was able to conduct studies that enabled her to complete a master’s degree (Veterinary Technology) and PhD (Medical Virology) degrees in 2014 and 2022, respectively. The output of her two studies culminated in the registration of the SAT type oil adjuvanted FMD vaccine (Onderstepoort FMD vaccine) produced using new technologies, as a stock remedy under the Fertilisers, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act, 1947 (Act 36 of 1947). Additionally, the ARC-OVR will start the construction of a new vaccine production factory in 2024, based on these vaccine manufacturing technologies. In her current position, Dr Peta oversees the management of all technical vaccine production activities, including personnel and infrastructure management. In addition, she is involved as part of the team tasked with the design of the new BSL-3 vaccine manufacturing factory and has developed user requirements specifications (URS) for the design of this new factory. She has also developed technical specifications for the procurement of single-use vaccine production infrastructure, to the value of approximately $ 2.9 million (US dollars) that will enable the institute to meet the national FMD vaccine demand, while the new factory is under construction. She participates in the Vaccine Innovation and Manufacturing Strategy (VIMS) initiative, spearheaded by the national department of Science and Innovation and BioAfrica, geared towards the development of the national vaccine manufacturing capacity.