IGA Blog

Profile – Jonathan Chirisa

7/28/2019

Country Representative for Zimbabwe

Jonathan (Jon) Chirisa is a passionate Savanna goat breeder in Zimbabwe. Jon is CEO of Tradegrid Systems Inc., a trade and investment consulting company, and a seasoned tradesman in three disciplines with experience in the construction of agricultural, industrial mining and manufacturing plants across the globe. This extensive experience with numerous world-class companies has given him an insight into the world of industry.

Profile – María Eva Muñoz Mejías

7/27/2019

Country Representative for Spain

Eva graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Córdoba, Spain. She has been working with several local goat breeds of the south of Spain for more than ten years. Nowadays Eva is part-time professor of animal production at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, and she has founded a company specialized in the conservation of animal genetic resources and genetic improvement.

Want to learn more about our other Country Representatives? Click here.

Profile – Juan Boo Liang

7/26/2019

Regional Director for Southeast Asia

Juan Boo is a senior research fellow of the Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security (ITAFoS), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). He obtained his B. Agric. Sc. from the University of Malaya, his M.Sc. from James Cook University of Northern Queensland, Australia and his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Profile – Dr. M.S.A. Kumar

2/26/2019

Associate Editor for Health and Welfare

Dr. M.S.A. Kumar earned his veterinary degree (BVSc) and subsequently a master’s degree (MVSc) in anatomy with University Gold Medals from the Mysore Veterinary College, in Bangalore, India. He was a dairy cattle veterinarian for three years and went to Nigeria to teach veterinary anatomy at the Ahmadu Bello University for two years and also served as an external examiner for anatomy at the University of Nigeria. He joined Kansas State University to earn an MS degree in veterinary physiology and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Florida in neuroendocrinology. He taught anatomy and surgical anatomy as well as renal physiology at the University of Florida and moved to Boston to join the Veterinary College associated with Tufts University. He has been teaching and directing the veterinary anatomy program at Tufts University for three-plus decades, and maintained an active lab conducting research on neurochemistry. Dr. Kumar published extensively in the field of neuroscience and also published two textbooks on canine anatomy (Linus Learning Publishers, NY). He is currently a professor of anatomy in the department of medical education, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston.

Profile – Dr. Bruce McGregor

2/8/2019

Associate Editor for Hair and Wool

Bruce McGregor has devoted his life to animals, environmental management and community organizations. Bruce has training in agriculture, land management, wool science, textiles and organization leadership. He has investigated animal production systems in advanced technology societies and subsistence transhumance societies including products from superfine Merino sheep, Angora goats, cashmere goats, alpacas, and other animals.

His initial focus was on the effects of nutrition management on wool and meat production. His extensive collaborations include animal health, genetic improvement, animal welfare, and new industry development. Bruce’s work included substantial efforts in farmer extension training in new industries to translate research findings into practical outcomes. His industry research evolved to include the fundamental drivers of enterprise profitability and animal fiber physical properties. Postgraduate training and subsequent research investigated the role of wool and cashmere fiber quality on textile processing, textile product quality and human sensorial assessment of wool knitwear.

Since 1992, Bruce has been a reviewer, a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee and an Associate Editor with Small Ruminant Research. He is the author of over 600 research, technical and advisory publications. He is a long-term member of the International Goat Association and has attended 8 of their International Conferences.

Bruce is an IGA member and former member of the Board of Directors.

Profile – Dr. S. Yan Landau, SRR Editor-in-Chief

2/6/2019

S. Y. Landau earned his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. titles at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University (Rehovot, Israel). He served as a nutritionist with the Sheep and Goats division of the Extension Service, Ministry of Agriculture (1978-1996) and in 1996, after a post-doc at West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV), he joined the Department of Natural Resources of the Agricultural Research Organization (ARO, the Volcani Center). Yan has spent sabbatical leaves at Utah State University (Logan, UT) and at CIRAD (St Pierre, La Reunion). His research interests are the nutrition of free-ranging domestic and wild herbivores, near-infrared spectrometry (NIRS) in agricultural and food sciences, plant secondary metabolites, self-medication in grazing animals, and integrated rain-fed semi-arid production systems. He was the founder (2012) and leader of the joint-venture of ARO and the Edmond de Rothschild Natural Park, termed “GoatWise” on all aspects of goat grazing in Mediterranean woodland. He was the recipient of grants from national (Ministries of Agriculture, Health, Environmental Quality, Commerce and Industry) and international (US: BARD, IALC, and MERC; France-Israel) sources of funding. He tutored 18 M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, authored or co-authored 88 papers in refereed literature, 15 book chapters, more than 60 popular articles and 120 papers and abstracts in symposia proceedings. He has served as Associate Editor for Nutrition for two terms and been nominated Editor-in-Chief of Small Ruminant Research (Elsevier) in 2016.

Yan is an IGA member and serves on the Board of Directors.

Profile – Dr. Mamta Dhawan

11/20/2018

Country Representative for India

Mamta is a veterinarian with over 20 years of varied experience ranging from international organizations like GALVmed, South Asia Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Programme (FAO and National Dairy Development Board of India joint programme), Animal Husbandry Department of Rajasthan, and various animal welfare organizations.

Profile – Dr. Yoshiaki Hayashi

11/9/2018

Country Representative for Japan

Yoshi is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture at Meijo University. He is the Country Coordinator for the Asian Australasian Dairy Goat Network and the current Secretariat for the Japan Goat Network. Yoshi is also a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Conference on Sustainable Animal Agriculture for Developing Countries.

Profile – Dr. Hsiu-Luan Chang

9/14/2018

Country Representative for Taiwan

Hsiu-Luan is Professor of Animal Science at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST). She holds a bachelor’s degree (BSc) in Animal Husbandry from the National Taiwan University, Taiwan. She also received her Master of Science (MSc) and Doctoral degrees (Ph.D.) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, in 1988.

After a brief stint at the same university, UI, as a post-doctoral researcher, she moved back to Taiwan and joined Taiwan Livestock Research Institute (TLRI) in 1989-2004 with research responsibilities. Her research focused on animal breeding and genetic evaluation of livestock to promote the genetic progress of pig, dairy cattle, goat and chicken industry in Taiwan. She also coordinated the national germplasm preservation program for farm animals from 1989 to 2004 before transferring to the NPUST.

Profile – Marisia Geraci

8/14/2018

Country Representative for South Africa

Marisia has been the CEO for HPSA (Heifer Project South Africa) since 2009 and worked previously (2001 to 2009) for Heifer International.

Profile – Dr. Osman Mahgoub

8/6/2018

Country Representative for the Sultanate of Oman

Osman is a professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University, Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences. He holds a BSc in Veterinary Science and MSc in Meat Production from the University of Khartoum, Sudan and a Ph.D. from Lincoln College, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Profile – Dr. Vicki McLean

8/1/2018

Country Representative for New Zealand

Vicki graduated from the University of California Davis with a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine and a Master’s Degree in Epidemiology and Population Medicine. She spent three years teaching at the University of Missouri Veterinary School before immigrating to New Zealand. She was a lecturer and a farm services clinician at the only veterinary teaching institution in New Zealand. She lectured at Massey University Veterinary School in NZ for four years and concurrently obtained a Ph.D. in dairy cattle mastitis with emphasis on Streptococcus uberis mastitis. Vicki went into private practice for nine years working in the Waikato Region of the North Island of NZ. In practice, she worked on species including small animals, but her main work was with dairy goats, dairy cattle, beef, sheep, and pig operations. She treated the individual animals, but always focused on the prevention of further clinical cases. In the last few years of private practice, half of the clients she had were commercial dairy goat farmers. After three years of doing contract health audits for all the Dairy Goat Cooperative Ltd (DGC) farms, they decided to employ Vicki full time.

Profile – Heather Rose Briggs

7/30/2018

Country Representative for United Kingdom

Heather is a mature, part-time, self-funded Ph.D. candidate at the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds. Her interest in goats stems from work done in translations for a number of specialist researchers on the caprine species. She holds an MSc in Agricultural Economics from Wye College, University of London and is a freelance agricultural journalist regularly working for numerous national and international agricultural trade publications. She also has experience as manager of an agricultural cooperative based in Spain and exporting fruit and vegetables to the UK and the Netherlands. Her doctoral research involves investigating links between sustainable intensification and vertical farming. She is also an international cheese judge, judging at the Nantwich International Cheese Awards and the World Cheese Awards.

Profile – Luca Rapetti

7/17/2018

Country Representative for Italy

Luca is an associate professor in Animal Nutrition and Feeding at the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences - Production, Landscape, Agroenergy, of the University of Milan. He carried out several researches, mainly at the experimental farm of the Department, aimed at evaluating the requirements of dairy goats and the nutritive value of feeds and diets, with a view to sustainability and quality of production.

Luca is a member of the Cheese Tester National Organization. He is mainly involved in goat cheese evaluation. In few words, from forage to cheese!

Want to learn more about our other Country Representatives? Click here.

Profile – Dr. Irfan Daskiran

7/13/2018

Country Representative for Turkey

Irfan has over 25 years of experience and expertise in livestock production. He received his Master of Science and Ph.D. in animal husbandry and breeding & selection systems from Ankara University, Turkey.

He started his career as an Agricultural Engineer in Turkish Agricultural Bank for ten years and later transferred to the Yuzuncu Yil University, Faculty of Agriculture, Animal Sciences Department as an Assistant Professor in Van, Turkey. Irfan worked as a Lecturer and Researcher in University and managed the Vocational School of Bitlis for two years.

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