Speakers
Scientific Committee
Dr Alberto Back – President
Dr. Elena Mettifogo
Professor Dr. Dayse Lima da Costa Abreu
Dr. Alberto Back – President (Mercolab)
Alberto Back graduated as Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil, in 1977. He obtained both his Master’s degree (1988) and PhD (1998) in Veterinary Pathobiology from the University of Minnesota, USA, where his doctoral research focused on the development of new vaccines for the control of Salmonella in poultry under the supervision of Kakambi V. Nagaraja. He completed his postdoctoral research at the University of Minnesota in 2000. Alberto Back is the author of the Manual of Poultry Diseases, Technical Director at MercoLab, and serves as a national and international consultant in poultry health, providing expertise in poultry disease prevention, diagnosis, and control.
Dr. Elena Mettifogo
Elena Mettifogo graduated as Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL), Brazil, in 1988. She obtained her specialization in Animal Health from UEL in 1990, with a thesis focused on subclinical bovine mastitis caused by Corynebacterium bovis in Northern Paraná, Brazil. She completed her Master’s degree in Veterinary Microbiology at the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ) in 1996, where she reported the first isolation of Mycoplasma bovis associated with bovine mastitis in Brazil. Elena Mettifogo received her PhD in Sciences (Microbiology) from the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) in 2003, with research focused on genomic typing of Mycoplasma gallisepticum. She completed postdoctoral research at Embrapa – CNPGC and FMVZ/USP, working on recombinant proteins of Brucella abortus and the genetic diversity of enteric viruses in poultry. She also holds an MBA in Agribusiness from ESALQ/USP. Elena Mettifogo is the owner of Laboratti Veterinary Diagnostics, a laboratory based in Londrina, Brazil, specializing in classical and molecular diagnostic methods. With extensive experience in microbiology, her main areas of expertise are mycoplasmology, virology, and the diagnosis and control of infectious diseases in poultry and cattle.
Professor Dr. Dayse Lima da Costa Abreu
Dayse Lima da Costa Abreu graduated as Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Brazil, in 1991. She obtained her Master’s degree in Veterinary Medicine, with a concentration in Veterinary Pathology, from the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) in 1998, and her PhD in Veterinary Medicine, with a focus on Veterinary Hygiene and Technological Processing of Animal-Origin Products, from the same institution in 2008. Dayse Lima da Costa Abreu is Full Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of UFF, where she teaches courses in Poultry Health and Basic Laboratory Techniques and coordinates the Poultry Health Laboratory. Her research focuses on poultry health, with emphasis on avian mycoplasmosis, salmonellosis, pathogenic Escherichia coli, and antimicrobial resistance in bacteria isolated from poultry and poultry products. She is also a permanent faculty member of the Graduate Program in Veterinary Medicine at UFF, in the area of Veterinary Hygiene and Technological Processing of Animal-Origin Products.