Baptiste Dungu
Biography
Baptiste Dungu holds a veterinary Degree (DVM) and a PhD in Veterinary Microbiology & Vaccinology from the University Lubumbashi (DR Congo) and University of Pretoria, South Africa respectively. Author of over 40 peer reviewed publications and few book chapters, he has specialized in research, development and access to livestock diseases control tools and strategies, in the form of diagnostic assays, vaccines and epidemio-surveillance strategies.
He established in the early 1990 the first nucleic acid-based diagnostic laboratory at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, South Africa, where several new PCR tests got developed and used as diagnostic tools. He later established and managed the Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) laboratory in the early days of this zoonosis. Working already on several zoonotic diseases such as Rift Valley Fever and Brucellosis, and major viral diseases, he headed the Foot and mouth disease vaccine development and manufacturing Institute, before becoming the head of operations and R&D for the Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) in 2002. In 2008 he moved to Edinburgh Scotland to head R&D for the international charity GALVmed, which supports the availability and access of vaccines and medicines to livestock keepers in developing countries.
In 2019, he returned to South Africa to occupy his current position of Chief Executive Officer of the OBP, the South African State-owned livestock vaccine manufacturing company and one of the largest on the African continent.
Baptiste is also one of 6 members of the World Organization for animal Health (OIE) Scientific Commission, serving also on several diseases’ ad hoc groups. He is also a board member of the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network. His contribution to One health has therefore been through his extensive work on major zoonotic diseases such as RVF, BSE, brucellosis, rabies, Trypanosomosis and neglected zoonotic diseases such as Porcine cysticercosis (linked to neurocysticercosis), all of which require a one health approach for their control.