Steven McOrist graduated as a veterinary surgeon at the University of Melbourne and worked at diagnostic laboratories for farm animals in Australia for 5 years. He received a Commonwealth Scholarship and transferred to the United Kingdom for the PhD program at the University of Edinburgh, under the supervision of Dr. Gordon Lawson. He continued at the University of Edinburgh School of Veterinary Studies as the senior researcher and team leader in the research program into proliferative enteropathy in pigs. This team was the first to successfully culture the aetiological agent, to name the causative agent Lawsonia intracellularis, and the first to fulfill Koch’s postulates.

He later served as the director of veterinary and technical services for the Asian-Australian agribusiness group, QAF (Bunge) Industries. He has worked in academia with Associate Professorship roles in the USA (Tuft’s University, MA) and the University of Nottingham, U.K, where he had leadership roles in their research and teaching programs in microbiology, enteric diseases and swine medicine. He recently returned to pig farm management and pig health and biosecurity consultancy work, based in Asia-Pacific.