Dr. Zahida Fatima, Ph.D., D.V.M., M.Sc(Hons)., is Principal Scientific officer (Animal Health) at Animal Sciences Division, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC). She received her Bachelor degree in Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) from the College of Veterinary Sciences, Lahore in 1999.Then she proceeded for MSc Hons in Clinical Medicine and Surgery at College of Veterinary Sciences and earned her degree in 2002. She joined PARC in 2002 as Scientific Officer in Animal Health Program, National Agricultural Research Center. Initially she worked as a team member of the FAO funded project for the eradication of Rinderpest from Pakistan in which she was trained as a master trainer of Participatory Disease Surveillance (PDS) and arranged several meetings with rural people especially female farmers and training workshops under PDS, including regional training workshops. Then she worked in different projects for control of Bird Flu/Avian Influenza (AI) in Pakistan and main focus was on investigation of field outbreaks of AI, collection of epidemiological information and appropriate sampling for laboratory investigation, and performing different lab tests including HA, HI,ELISA for sero-monitoring/virus detection.
Dr. Fatima secured HEC indigenous Scholarship and has completed her Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Public Health in 2016 from University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences , Lahore. Her current responsibilities are to develop research projects in collaboration with research scientists in Pakistan and promote collaborations with national and international agencies to work for mutual funding and monitoring and evaluation of different projects in the areas of Animal Health and Animal Production. Some of her research interests are focused on understandings of the epidemiological basis of different infectious, emerging/re-emerging, and zoonotic diseases under One Health approach. She has a passion to work in the area of epidemiology and public health, One Health, and AMR to find the mitigation strategies and ultimately provision of better living environment for both, humans, and animals and ensuring the food security and safety in the region.
Dr. Fatima was selected for ONE HEALTH Fellowship sponsored by United States National Academies Of Sciences (US-NAS) at host institutes Washington State University/ CDC, Kenya (2019) .She is also a graduate of Field Epidemiology and Training Program(FELTP),Pakistan which is sponsored by CDC and NIH.
Moreover, she has been selected for many International Epidemiological /zoonosis trainings/OH certification courses and conferences to present her research work and talk on One Health. In 2019, UK academy of medical sciences invited her to be a steering committee member to support a project and host a workshop at London to explore the research required to better prepare, prevent and respond to epidemics.
Dr. Fatima recently completed three projects funded by Health Security Partners(USA),National Academy Of Sciences, US and GHD/EMPHNET mainly focused on One Health trainings to female veterinarians/Professionals and surveillance of zoonotic Diseases like Avian Influenza and Brucellosis etc.
Dr. Fatima also served UN-FAO as Veterinary Epidemiologist /National expert on Animal Identification and worked for the control of transboundary Animal diseases surveillance and piloting the Pakistan Animal Identification and traceability system.