Katinka de Balogh, DVM, PhD

Katinka was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Colombia and Peru. She studied veterinary medicine in Germany and researched for her doctorate ticks and blood parasites on goats in Jamaica. She specialised in tropical animal production and health in France and in Veterinary Public Health (VPH) in the Netherlands. After a short career as a zoo-veterinarian, she worked for over 9 years in Africa as a District Veterinary Officer in rural Zambia and as lecturer at the veterinary faculties in Zambia and Mozambique. Before joining the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2002 she worked at the World Health Organization and at Utrecht University (the Netherlands). At FAO she held various positions related to livestock policy, organization of rapid response mission at FAOs Crisis Management Centre and leading FAO’s global work on VPH.  Between 2016-2021 she was the Senior Animal Health and Production Officer at FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific based in Bangkok, Thailand. Katinka always had a special interest in rabies prevention and control and has been the initiator of the step-wise approach towards rabies elimination (SARE). In 2022 she retired from FAO and since has worked as lecturer and One Health and rabies advisor for various universities and organizations including, FAO, WHO, the World Bank, World Organisation for Animal Health and European Food Safety Authority. She also is currently a Board member of Veterinarians without borders (WVB/VSF)-Canada.