Dr. Amedeo Manfrin is working since 1999 about aquaculture and fish/crustacean diseases. Experienced in the sector of fish bacterial pathogens and vaccines production, above all about salmonids and Mediterranean species. He is also involved in fishery and aquaculture products control, in collaboration with our headquarter labs. Partner of several national and international project, on fish health, welfare, sea-food safety and organic aquaculture, good skilled on project cycle management, reports writing, projects drafting and initiatives identification. Lecturer on Infectious Diseases, therapy and profhilaxis of fish – Post Graduated Degree in Veterinary Medicine – University of Padova. Training courses preparing and performing to various kinds of beneficiaries, mainly fish farmers and veterinarians, for fish diseases, sea food and zoonoses control. Responsible of the National Reference Laboratory for crustacean diseases in compliance with Directive 2006/88 EU.
Quality Assurance expert according to EN ISO/IEC 17025 and EN ISO/IEC 9001:2000, member of Quality Assurance Unit and Qualified Team Leader in laboratory’s audit according to ISO 19011. Expertise on dealing with international (Standing Committee On Food Chain and Animal Health, OIE Aquatic Animal Diseases Working Group, Standing Committee on Animal Welfare Strasbourg, private expert of European Food Safety Authority, private expert of FVO – DG SANCO inspection teams on fishery products –Philippines,2006, ornamental fish – Malaysia,2011 and aquaculture production – Greece 2017) national (Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture) and local institutional authorities. The experience obtained working at institutional level as well as at peripheral level in several issues gave me the opportunity to manage meetings and skills on mediating between different positions. Natural tendency on problem’s solving and short cut solutions finding. Good experience in specific legislation on aquaculture and animal health conditions for the placing on the market and import of fish and their products and on minimum measures for the prevention, control and eradication of exotic and non exotic diseases.
Dr. Athanasios Samaras is a biologist (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) with a master’s degree and PhD in fish physiology (University of Crete). In his PhD, he studied the dynamics of cortisol in a farmed fish species, the European seabass, with particular emphasis on the effects of environmental, genetic, and husbandry parameters. He has participated in more than 20 research and educational programs focusing on ichthyology, fish physiology with an emphasis on the regulation of fish stress responses, as well as the welfare of farmed fish. His research interests focus on the short- and long-term effects of chronic stress on fish performance and the investigation of individual differences in these responses. He has received 7 competitive scholarships during his undergraduate, postgraduate studies, as well as during his doctoral and post-doctoral research.
During his academic and professional career, he has collaborated with researchers from various fields, both in Greece and abroad, has published 22 scientific papers and one book chapter (h-index = 11), while his work has been presented at more than 15 international and domestic conferences. He has served as an adjunct lecturer at the Hellenic Mediterranean University, the University of Ioannina, and the University of Crete. He has co-authored the certified by the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food national “Guide for the Welfare of Farmed Fish”, and the “Welfare assessment study for European sea bass: a scientific approach towards improvement of welfare status and welfare assessment of on-growing European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)”.
Dr. Mikolaj Adamek, a Research Associate at the Fish Disease Research Unit, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany, specializes in fish immunology and virology, particularly in carp diseases. With a PhD in Agricultural Sciences from the Inland Fisheries Institute, Olsztyn, he has conducted pioneering research on carp immune responses to Cyprinid herpesvirus 3. Dr. Adamek leads innovative projects in developing siRNA treatments for viral infections in fish, and his diagnostic assays are essential for managing fish diseases in aquaculture. He is a renowned speaker at international conferences, shaping research and practices in fish farming.
Angeliki Mitropoulou, Scientific Associate, Member of the Cure4Aqua project team
She is a PhD candidate at the Department of Environment of the University of the Aegean, holds a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management and International Relations from Cardiff University in Wales and a degree in Marketing and Communication from the Department of Marketing and Communication of the Athens University of Economics and Business. She has worked in the private and public sector. She is collaborating with Prorata and the University of Crete for the implementation of the research project entitled “Curing EU Aquaculture by co-creating health and welfare innovations (Cure4Aqua)”.
Anna Holčáková, holding a Master’s degree in Social Geography and Regional Development from Charles University (Czechia), has valuable experience as a project manager for the Cure4Aqua project funded by Horizon Europe and coordinated by BCAS. Prior to this, she gained extensive expertise in project management at the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. In her current capacity, Anna is responsible for data collection and management, budget oversight, project activities coordination, and project cycle management.
Michail Pavlidis, Biologist, is a Professor of “Biology-Physiology of Marine Organisms” at the epartment of Biology, University of Crete, Greece. He was also Docent Professor in “Aquaculture-Biotechnology of Broodstock Management” at the University of Kuopio (now University of Eastern Finland), Kuopio, Finland. He received his M.Sc in Public Health at the School of Public Health and Hygiene, Athens and his PhD in Biology, University of Athens, Greece.
His current research is focusing on the molecular, neuro-endocrine and environmental interactions involved in the regulation of the stress response, in relation to individual differences in coping strategies, and on the development of non-invasive reliable welfare indicators in fish species. He is currently coordinator of the Erasmus Plus Joint Master Degree in “Aquaculture, Environment and Society”. He coordinates the FELASA Accredited Course “Care and use of laboratory animals: mice, rats and zebrafish”. Co-editor of the books “The Welfare of Fish” (Springer, 2020) and “Sparidae: Biology and aquaculture of gilthead sea bream and other species” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). Member of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for the assessment of welfare of European sea bass and gilthead sea bream. Since March 2017, is a National Representative at the SCAR (Standing Committee on Agricultural Research) FISH Strategic Working Group. Since September 2020 is a vice rector of Research and Development at the University of Crete.
Natasha is the Fish Policy and Research Manager at Compassion in World Farming, part of an international team working to improve the welfare of aquatic animals via lobbying, public campaigning, and food business engagement. Natasha provides research and technical support for the project, which aims to progress fish welfare legislation in the European Union.
Before joining Compassion, Natasha gained a BSc in Biological Sciences at the University of Reading, and an MSc and PhD in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter. Her doctorate research focused on the social behaviour of farmed animals, as related to their welfare and productivity. For her master’s research Natasha studied the behaviour of European fiddler crabs, investigating the mechanisms of animal communication networks.
Ivona Mladineo is a DVM that for over 20 years has been working in the field of fish diseases and welfare, in particular studying economically important marine and zoonotic parasites. She is the head of the Laboratory of Functional Helminthology, Institute of Parasitology in Czechia. Collaborating on many national and international projects, she is now the coordinator of the Horizon Europe project Cure4Aqua.