Young Poultry Veterinarian award winner announced
Dennis Umali, a Filipino veterinarian, was awarded the accolade at the meeting, which took place in Manila, The Philippines on 20 and 21 October and was attended by over 350 poultry veterinarians and poultry health scientists from across Asia.
Umali was praised for his already exceptional career, which includes five years in Japan, before returning to the Philippines where he is currently an assistant professor and scientist at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of the Philippines Los Banos. He is currently developing an Integrated Health Management System designed to help poultry farmers in the tropics in the early detection of production and health problems in their flocks.
Nigel Horrox, president of the WVPA, said: “In selecting Dr Umali as this year’s winner the selection committee were impressed with what Dennis has already achieved, in what promises to be a spectacular career, and the motivational enthusiasm he exudes when teaching students at various levels, coupled with the fact that he gives over and above what is expected of him. He epitomises all that is good in his generation of poultry veterinarians – in fact, he is the perfect ambassador for our profession.”
James Kim of Zoetis, who presented the award, added: “Dennis is a worthy winner and someone his professional colleagues should be proud of. He joins the select group of previous winners who come from Malaysia, South Africa, the UK and the USA, with whom Zoetis is proud to be associated.”
Umali said of this accolade: “This award was such a surprise to me and it is pleasing to know that younger poultry veterinarians can be recognised in this way. It will motivate me as a poultry veterinarian to focus even more on helping the students I work with here in the Philippines.”
The event also saw the presentation, in absentia, of the 2nd WVPA-Merial Innovation in Vaccination Award to Professor Mohd Hair Bejo from Malaysia for his work, including the commercialisation of a Gumboro disease vaccine for hatchery use in Asia.
Merial’s global avian technical services director Andreas Herrmann highlighted the importance of such vaccines to the poultry industry and the professor’s parallel career in academia, where he has supervised numerous postgraduate students, many of whom have focused on aspects of immunology and vaccination.
