Dirk Pfeiffer

Dirk Pfeiffer graduated from Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany in 1984 with a Degree in Veterinary Medicine. He went on to complete a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine at the same university in 1986. In the following year he went on to do a Postgraduate Diploma in Tropical Veterinary Medicine at the Free University of Berlin, which involved fieldwork in Kenya, Somalia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

In 1988 Dr. Pfeiffer moved to Massey University, New Zealand to complete a PhD in veterinary epidemiology and remained there for 11 years, where he became a Lecturer in Production Medicine and Epidemiology in 1992 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Epidemiology in 1996. Dr. Pfeiffer joined the Royal Veterinary College in London in 1999 as a Professor in Veterinary Epidemiology, and has held an Honorary Professorship at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine since 2000.

Dr. Pfeiffer’s research has been widespread and varied, but with a special emphasis on evidence-based veterinary medicine, analytical epidemiology, advanced multivariate techniques, spatial and temporal analysis of epidemiological data, development of animal health information systems, computer modelling of animal disease, and field ecological research methods.

Current and past projects include research on African swine fever virus; animal welfare research; avian influenza in Africa and Asia; antibiotic usage in pig production and in companion animals; development of predictive spatial risk models for rift-valley fever in Africa; control of tickborne diseases in redline zone of Kruger National Park; the role of wildlife in the epidemiology of paratuberculosis; and tuberculosis in wild possums in New Zealand.

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