Dr Akiko Kamata
Dr Akiko Kamata has joined the EMPRES group of the Animal Health Service, returning to the service where she served as an Associate Professional Officer from 1994 to 1996. Dr Kamata assumed duties as Animal Health Officer (Infectious Disease Analysis and Early Warning) on 19 January 2004. From Japan, Dr Kamata completed her undergraduate and Master’s degrees in veterinary medicine at the Kitasato University, Japan. During the past five years she has worked at the Animal Quarantine Service and Chief Veterinary Office, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan. Dr Kamata has a strong interest in geographic information systems (GIS) and reporting systems for the improvement of animal health and progressive control of transboundary animal diseases. She is currently in charge of developing and deploying TADinfo, the FAO animal disease database. Her work encompasses infectious disease analysis and early warning initiatives within the Animal Production and Health Division of FAO.
Dr Giancarlo Ferrari
Dr Ferrari joined the EMPRES group of the Animal Health Service as Project Leader of GTFS/INT/907/ITA (Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases in Central Asia), with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as primary beneficiary countries, in August 2004. The project is supported by the Italian Government’s contribution to the Special Programme for Food Security Trust Fund. Dr Ferrari is a veterinarian graduated from the Faculty of Pisa, with further academic work in biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Rome. He previously worked at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Regioni Lazio e Toscana (Rome), beginning in 1987 as a virologist and subsequently serving as an epidemiologist and as Head of the Epidemiology Unit.
