Prof (Dr.) Mohinder Oberoi

Dr Oberoi is a retired professor of virology and former dean of the College of Veterinary Science at Punjab Agricultural University. He has led the Sub-Regional ECTAD unit and coordinated monitoring of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) activities and outputs related to transboundary animal diseases and other highly pathogenic emerging diseases in the SAARC sub-region. In addition, he has immense experience in dealing with the international donor community and multilateral agencies in all matters related to transboundary animal diseases and other highly pathogenic emerging disease control programs and activities.

As SAARC Regional Coordinator of FAO, Dr. Oberoi was responsible for the smooth implementation of the avian influenza program at subregional and country levels. This included establishing the subregional laboratory and surveillance networks, liaising with institutions for a Letter of Agreement, assuring the timely provision of inputs, and liaising with concerned persons at central and provincial levels.

He was also a regional advisor to the FAO for South and Southeast Asia for EID and AMR programs.

Dr Oberoi is the honorary chairman of the National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases Research Advisory Council, Bhopal, India.

Prof (Dr) Abdul Samad Abdul Hameed

Dr Samad is a renowned herd health and veterinary medicine expert with 40 years of experience. He is also the former Dean of Bombay Veterinary College, Mumbai. Dr Samad is credited internationally for his extensive work on developing targeted veterinary drugs and ICT applications (e.g., IoT, Tele-veterinary, animal traceability, etc.) for Veterinary Service Delivery. He is a pioneer worker in institutional development and established India’s first Veterinary Nuclear Medicine Centre with support from the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.

He holds many patents; few are translated into products, and some are in the pipeline.

Dr.Samad is currently a member of India’s National Advisory Commission on milk production and farmers’ issues established by the Indian Dairy Association, New Delhi.

Dr Mamta Dhawan

Dr. Mamta Dhawan is a veterinarian with more than 25 years of diverse global experience in the development sector, focusing on animal health and welfare, policy and advocacy, gender mainstreaming, and livelihood based on livestock. Over the years, her work has contributed to the cause of animal welfare and livestock production, especially in goats & backyard poultry being reared by poor and marginalized farmers. She has actively championed the cause of pro-poor livestock policies and supported the issue of grass-root animal service providers. Dr Dhawan is passionate about gender equality and believes that livestock production can increase tremendously if women livestock keepers access the same resources and information as men.

As an international consultant, she has provided consultancies to international organizations like International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization of UN (FAO), Rome, Livestock Veterinary Innovation Fund (LVIF), IDRC Canada, and Brooke Hospitals for Animals UK, and national organizations like Creative Agri solutions for Johar project of World Bank in Jharkhand, Skyquest in Ahmedabad.

She is involved in philanthropic work that includes being the Vice President of the Board of Directors of Anthra, an NGO based in Pune, working in the field of Livestock and women empowerment, especially in pastoralist communities. She is also the country representative for India for the International Goat Association- an international NGO based in the USA working for the welfare of goats and livelihoods based on them and is Director on the governing board of Brooke Hospitals India, an international charity that works for the welfare of working equines.

Lt Col (Dr) Harish Kumar Tiwari

A Ph.D. Veterinary Epidemiology from Murdoch University, Western Australia, Dr. Tiwari has rich and varied animal health experience. He is currently contributing as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Asia Pacific Consortium of Veterinary Epidemiology (APCOVE), The University of Sydney, in the DFAT-funded project on strengthening the veterinary workforce in Asia Pacific for Infectious Disease Detection and Response. He started his career as a veterinary officer in a milk cooperative and later moved to the Indian Army, where he worked for about 16 years. Dr. Tiwari’s research interests include One Health, zoonoses, capacity building for health security, and development projects in developing countries. He recently won the prestigious Wellcome Trust DBT India Clinical and Public Health Intermediate Fellowship to Implement One Health approach to eliminate dog-mediated rabies in India’. The project is likely to commence in September 2022. Further, he is also involved in OIE consultancy in Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific for evaluation of the Southeast Asia China Foot and Mouth Disease campaign (SEACFMD)

Maj (Dr) Mohd Iftasham Qureshi 

Maj (Dr) Qureshi is a senior veterinarian with a distinguished career in the Indian Army. He is a Federation Equestrian International (FEI) approved Permitted Treating Veterinarian (PTV) and Official Veterinarian for Eventing. Dr. Qureshi is skilled in large and small animal practice and has supported public and private sector projects related to ICT for precision livestock farming and herd health management. Dr. Qureshi also has substantial administrative experience focusing on strategic planning and human resources management and has completed PG Diploma in Business administration and Human Resource Management.

Dr Miftahul Islam Barbaruah

Dr. Barbaruah is a veterinarian development worker with twenty-five years of experience and expertise in development planning, project management, advocacy, capacity building, and animal disease risk management. His research and development activities related to veterinary service and livestock sector development acknowledge transdisciplinarity as an approach and aim to integrate veterinary science with social science for sustainable development. As a PVS-VPP expert, he regularly contributes to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and FAO of the UN. He is currently leading the team at Vet Helpline India Pvt Ltd – a development consulting company.