Professor Dirk Pfeiffer is Chow Tak Fung Chair Professor of One Health at City University’s Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences. Dirk 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. Following this Dirk 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 1987, Dirk 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 appointed as Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Epidemiology in 1996. Dirk joined the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) of the University of London in 1999 as a Professor in Veterinary Epidemiology. From 2015 to 2017, Dirk took on the part-time role of Chief Epidemiologist at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) of the UK Government. Since November 2016, he has been Chair Professor of One Health at City University’s newly established Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences. He continues to hold a part-time position at the RVC. Dirk is also an Adjunct Professor at the China Animal Health & Epidemiology Centre, Qingdao, China.
Dirk also has and has had extensive membership of Advisory Committees and Expert Panels: Chair of Applied Epidemiology Technical Working Group of OIE/FAO Network on Avian Influenza (OFFLU), Paris, France (from 2017); Chair of Animal Health Surveillance Governance Board for England and Wales, UK (2015-2016); European Commission's DG SANTE Surveillance Task Force (2009 to 2016); Member of editorial board of the international scientific journal BMC Veterinary Research (since 2005); Associate editor of the international scientific journal Spatial and Spatiotemporal Epidemiology (since 2009); International Advisory Committee for Review of Food Safety and Biosecurity Programmes of Singapore's Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (since 2002); Chair of AHVLA review surveillance panel (2012); Chair of Epidemiology and Wildlife Risks sub-group of Defra's bovine tuberculosis Science Advisory Body (2008 to 2013); Member of Research Sub-committee of Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, London, UK (from 2011-2015); Member of International Scientific Peer Review Panel for National Institute of Animal Health for National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Japan (2011); Member of the Scientific Panel for Animal Health and Welfare of the European Food Safety Authority, Parma, Italy (2003 to 09).
Dirk’s research has been widespread and varied, but with a special emphasis on translation of science into policy, 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.
Dirk has co-authored 237 peer-reviewed publications associated with an ISI WoS h-index of 41 and Scopus h-index of 45 (both as of January 2019).
Current funding as principal investigator: 30 Mill HK$ for AFCD SADF funded project on the development of health and production programmes for pig and poultry farms in Hong Kong; £1.7 Mill for a BBSRC/DfID funded project entitled 'Controlling and monitoring emerging zoonoses in the poultry farming and trading system in Bangladesh: an interplay between pathogens, people, policy’. In addition, he holds various other grants totalling about about 10 Mill HK$.
Past funding: approximately £10.5Mill research funding as principal investigator for various projects, including risk-based surveillance, biosecurity on beef cattle farms in the UK, development of HPAI H5N1 risk reduction strategies for Asian and African countries, MRSA in companion animals, African swine fever epidemiology in Europe and Africa, antibiotic usage in pig production, development of a global animal and production atlas and development of predictive spatial risk models for Rift-valley fever in Africa.
Dirk's publications and associated citation metrics are available through ResearcherID, Scopus, ResearchGate and Google Scholar.
T. Vergne, A. Meyer, T.L. Pham, D.A. Elkholly, K. Inui, P. Padungtod, S.H. Newman, G. & D.U. Pfeiffer (2019):
Optimising the detectability of H5N1 and H5N6 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses in Vietnamese live-bird markets.
Scientific Reports 9, Article number: 1031 (2019). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-37616-1
Younjung,K., Paritosh,K.B., Mohammad,G., Mahmudul,H., Rashed,M., Yu-Mei,C., Steve,E., Mohammed,A.S., Nicola, S.L., Ian, H.B., Natalie, M., Hoque,Md.A., Debnath,D.C., Pfeiffer,D.U. and Fournie,G. (2018):
Prevalence of Avian Influenza A(H5) and A(H9) Viruses in Live Bird Markets, Bangladesh.
Emerging Infectious Disease journal 24, 2309. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2412.180879
Brunton,L.A., Prosser,A., Pfeiffer,D.U. and Downs,S.H. 2018.
Exploring the Fate of Cattle Herds With Inconclusive Reactors to the Tuberculin Skin Test.
in Veterinary Science 5, 228. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2018.00228
Høg,E., Fournié,G., Hoque,M.A., Mahmud,R., Pfeiffer,D.U. and Barnett,T. (2018):
Competing biosecurity and risk rationalities in the Chittagong poultry commodity chain, Bangladesh.
BioSocieties. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41292-018-0131-2
Kim,Y., Dommergues,L., M’sa,A.B., Mérot,P., Cardinale,E., Edmunds,J., Pfeiffer,D., Fournié,G. and Métras,R. (2018):
Livestock trade network: potential for disease transmission and implications for risk-based surveillance on the island of Mayotte.
Scientific reports 8, 11550. https://doi.org/10.1073/10.1038/s41598-018-29999-y
Fournié,G., Waret-Szkuta,A., Camacho,A., Yigezu,L.M., Pfeiffer,D.U. and Roger,F. (2018):
A dynamic model of transmission and elimination of peste des petits ruminants in Ethiopia.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711646115
Vince,L., Kleter,G.A., Kostov,K., Pfeiffer,D.U. and Guitian,J. (2018):
The applicability of animal health surveillance systems for post-market monitoring of potential adverse effects of genetically modified (GM) feed.
Food and Chemical Toxicology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2018.04.034
Mellor,K.C., Meyer,A., Elkholly,D.A., Fournié,G., Long,P.T., Inui,K., Padungtod,P., Gilbert,M., Newman,S.H., Vergne,T., Pfeiffer,D.U. and Stevens,K.B. (2018):
Comparative epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 and H5N6 in Vietnamese live bird markets: Spatiotemporal patterns of distribution and risk factors.
Frontiers in Veterinary Science 5, 51. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2018.00051
Muellner,P., Hodges,D., Ahlstrom,C., Newman,M., Davidson,R., Pfeiffer,D., Marshall,J. and Morley, C. (2018):
Creating a framework for the prioritization of biosecurity risks to the New Zealand dairy industry.
Transboundary and Emerging Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.12848
Moyen,N., Ahmed,G., Gupta,S., Tenzin,T., Khan,R., Khan,T., Debnath,N., Yamage,M., Pfeiffer,D.U. and Fournie,G. (2018):
A large-scale study of a poultry trading network in Bangladesh: implications for control and surveillance of avian influenza viruses. BMC Vet Res 14, 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-018-1331-5
A full list of publications is available at: CityU Scholar.
Dirk teaches Epidemiology mainly at postgraduate level, including teaching of specialist courses at advanced level.
He has produced the following teaching videos:
Pfeiffer,D.U. (2015): Predictive value of a diagnostic test result. VET Talks video lecture.
Pfeiffer,D.U. (2015): Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. VET Talks video lecture.
One Health: An introduction by Professor Dirk Pfeiffer
Dirk has authored, edited or co-authored the following textbooks or textbook chapters:
Pfeiffer,D.U. (2010): Introduction to Veterinary Epidemiology. Wiley-Blackwell. 132pp.
(out of print but copyright has been returned to the author and the text is therefore now available for free download here)
Pfeiffer,D.U. (2009): Analysis of spatial data. Chapter 26. In I.R. Dohoo, W. Martin and H. Stryhn (eds): Veterinary epidemiological research. 2nd ed. AVC Inc., Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Pfeiffer,D.U., Robinson,T.P., Stevenson,M., Stevens,K.B., Clements,A.C.A. and Rogers,D. (2008): Spatial analysis in epidemiology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 208pp.
Pfeiffer,D.U. (2008): Animal tuberculosis. In P.D.O.Davies, P.F. Barnes and S.B. Gordon (eds) Clinical tuberculosis. 4th ed. Hodder Arnold, London, UK, 519-528.
Kaneene,J.B. and Pfeiffer,D.U. (2006): Epidemiology of Mycobacterium bovis. In C.O. Thoen, J.H. Steele and M.J. Gilsford (eds): Mycobacterium bovis infection in animals and humans. 2nd ed. Blackwell Publishing, Ames, Iowa, USA, 34-48.
Dirk has also designed and taught international training courses in veterinary epidemiology, risk analysis and spatial analysis in Austria, Australia, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Malawi, Mongolia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Vietnam and United Kingdom. He has coordinated a two year Field Epidemiology Training Programme for Veterinarians in China since 2011.
- BALZAC
People: Dirk Pfeiffer, Guillaume Fournié, Natalie Moyen
Behavioural Adaptations in Live poultry trading and farming systems and Zoonose Control in Bangladesh
- China Field Epidemiology Training Programme for Veterinarians (FETPV)
People: Dirk Pfeiffer, Javier Guitian, Julian Drewe, Barbara Haesler, Timothée Vergne
China FETPV seeks to improve animal and public health using scientific and risk based approaches to the control of transboundary animal diseases and emerging infectious diseases.