Management Committee

An elected management committee (or board) provides strategic direction and oversight for Wildlife Health Australia.

Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources representative:	Australian Chief Veterinary Officer Mark Schipp (Chair)
Animal Health Committee representative:	Chief Veterinary Officer - Victoria Charles Milne
Individual member representative:	Hume Field
Organisational members representatives:	Wildlife Disease Association Australasia (represented by Andrew Peters) Wildlife Health Surveillance Victoria (represented by Pam Whiteley) Australian Veterinary Conservation Biologists (represented by Chris Bunn)
	Up to an additional two individuals at the discretion of the Management Committee.

Mark Schipp

Mark Schipp was appointed Australian Chief Veterinary Officer in 2011.

Dr Schipp represents Australia at the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) where he is also an elected member of the OIE Council and Vice-President of the World Assembly of Delegates.

Prior to taking up his role as Australian Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Schipp held positions responsible for delivery of inspection and certification of animal products exported from Australia. Earlier he was responsible for negotiating market access for Australian food products.

Dr Schipp served two terms overseas as Agriculture Counsellor in Seoul, South Korea and in Beijing, China.

Mark is a biology and veterinary graduate of Murdoch University.

Charles Milne

Charles Milne is the Chief Veterinary Officer of Victoria.

Following completion of his studies at the Royal Veterinary College Charles spent 2 years in practice in Fife, Scotland before joining the State Veterinary Service as a Veterinary Officer. Here he gained practical experience in disease control including, BSE, TB and Salmonella, animal welfare and meat hygiene. After promotion to a policy role as veterinary Adviser to the Scottish Government he was responsible for providing expert technical advice on animal welfare, international trade and zoonotic disease. In 2001 Charles managed the pre-emptive cull response to the Foot and Mouth outbreak in South West Scotland and following a short term as Divisional Veterinary Manager in Ayr was appointed as Chief Veterinary Officer Scotland in 2003. During his tenure as CVO he managed 6 outbreaks of exotic animal disease including FMD, Bluetongue, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease. In 2009 Charles was appointed as head of the Food Standards Agency in Scotland responsible for food safety policy and operation as well as policy on diet and nutrition. During this time he managed the government response to the horse meat substitution for beef scandal in Scotland.

Charles was appointed CVO Victoria on 1 July 2014 and is currently responsible for animal disease and welfare in Victoria. He has recently completed a review of the greyhound industry in Victoria following concerns relating to live baiting during the training of some dogs.

Hume Field
		Dr Hume Field is an international authority on emerging diseases associated with bats. His expertise encompasses veterinary epidemiology and environmental science. Hume played a key role in the identification of bats as the natural reservoir of Hendra virus (1996), and provided the first insights into the disease ecology of both Hendra virus and Australian bat lyssavirus. He was a member of the international taskforce investigating the Nipah virus outbreak in Malaysia (1999) and participated in two WHO/FAO missions in China investigating the origins of the SARS outbreak (2003). He developed and coordinated the Wildlife Epidemiology component of The University of Sydney’s MPH program (2004-5), was an Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre research program coordinator (2003-09), and Visiting Professor of Zoonoses at the University of Malaysia, Sarawak (2010-11). Concurrently, he was Principal Epidemiologist (Emerging Diseases) with the Queensland Government (1996-2013), latterly as Principal Scientist with the Queensland Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases. Hume's primary research focus remains the ecology of henipavirus and SARS coronavirus infection. He has an extensive publication record. Currently Hume works with EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based NGO that studies the relationship between wildlife, ecosystems and human health, as Science and Policy Advisor for China and Southeast Asia.

Andrew Peters
		Andrew is the current chair of the Wildlife Disease Association Australasian Section. He is a veterinarian who completed his PhD examining protozoal diversity and evolution in Australo-Papuan birds. He is employed as a Lecturer in Veterinary Pathology at Charles Sturts University's School of Animal & Veterinary Sciences where he divides his time between teaching, research and clinical diagnostics. Andrew has an interest in developing wildlife health capacity in PNG and views low regional animal health capacity as a threat to Australia's biosecurity.

Pam Whiteley

In the 1970s Pam Whiteley was appointed as first Veterinarian then Vet/Curator at Healesville Sanctuary, Zoos Victoria, in the 1980s did her masters at the US National Wildlife Health Center and University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA and in the 1990s worked with CSIRO AAHL and the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industry, Attwood.

In July 2008 Professor Ian Beveridge, Associate Professor Andrew Vizard and Pam Whiteley, with support from the Hermon Slade Foundation, established Wildlife Health Surveillance Victoria at the Faculty of Veterinary Science with Pam as coordinator. Wildlife Health Surveillance Victoria collaborates with the Victoria public, communities (LandCare, Wildlife Carers, Bird observers, Field Naturalists etc) and governmental and other organisations to improve our understanding of the normal patterns of morbidity and mortality in free ranging endemic populations of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.

Chris Bunn
		Chris represents the Australian Veterinary Conservation Biology, a special interest group of the Australian Veterinary Association. Their members have wide-ranging interests and careers, from private practitioner seeing the odd wildlife case, to zoo veterinarian, to researchers and policy makers. Chris was employed as a veterinarian by State and Federal governments (1963-2009). While with the Federal government he initiated funding and governance arrangements for a newly formed Australian Wildlife Health Network. The aim of the network was to develop a national coordinated surveillance system and an information centre for wildlife health. Chris was a member of the World Organisation of Animal Health (OIE) wildlife subgroup for four years.

About Us Links

Meeting Summaries

WHA AGM Minutes

Management Committee

Mark Schipp

Charles Milne

Hume Field

Andrew Peters

Pam Whiteley

Chris Bunn