Romain Pizzi
Wildlife Veterinary Surgeon
Dr Romain Pizzi BVSc MSc Phd DZooMed DipECZM MANZCVS(Surg) FRES FRGS FRSB FRCVS, is a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Recognised Specialist in Zoo & Wildlife Medicine, and the world’s leading expert in wildlife surgery. He has travelled the globe pioneering many world-first operations in endangered wild animals. He has operated on everything from elephants to tarantulas, across the world from Ethiopia to Indonesia.
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Anaesthetising a fish, x-raying a frog and hospitalising a walrus are all in a day’s work for the world’s wildest veterinarian.
Travelling from the rainforests of Sierra Leone to the jungles of Borneo, Romain Pizzi has caught, anaesthetised, diagnosed, operated on, medicated, and then released some of the world’s most endangered wild animals.
From disease testing Polynesian snails to keyhole surgery in Sumatran orangutans; from endoscopy in sharks to ultrasound on a chimpanzee. Sometimes this is high tech work, such as the first robotic surgery in a tiger, or giant panda cloning attempts. Sometimes the situations are more primitive, from brain surgery on a bear with an mattress pump, or operating on a vulture using an old spoon.
In Exotic Vetting, Romain recalls his many interesting patients, while taking readers on a tour of the challenges of treating the world’s amazing spectrum of wild animal species
Solving problems
Capacity Building Internationally
Training wildlife veterinarians working in more than 30 countries with everything from bears to orangutans, building local capacity and expertese to best treat confiscated wildlife as fast as possible
Generating Scientific Evidence
Researching the best, new, and less invasive treatments to treat, rehabilitate, and return animals from chimpanzees to cheetah back to the wild, with over 200 scientific research studies published
pioneering treatment
Romain has perfromed many World-First surgical operations on wildlife, ranging from keyhole surgical removal of diseased gallbladders in moon bears rescued from illegal bile farms in Vietnam, to the first robotic-assisted surgery in a wild animal, to treat a tiger.
Background
Romain was born and grew up in South Africa, where he qualified as a veterinary surgeon. He has been an honorary professor in zoo and wildlife medicine at the University of Nottingham for 15 years, and has taught and mentored wildlife veterinarians from around the globe. He was a specialist surgeons at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland for a decade, provided the veterinary service at Scotland’s National Wildlife Rescue for 18 years and was previously the pathologist at the Zoological Society of London’s London Zoo. He has worked with conservation charities, wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centres, and zoos across the world in over 30 countries. His work has featured on TV on the BBC, Animal Planet, National Geographic, CNN and international print media.
Romain is currently the President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA) Scottish Branch, and President of the British Veterinary Zoological Society (BVZS), the specialist society for veterinarian caring for wildlife, zoo animals, and non-traditional companion animals. He is charity director of Wildlife Surgery International, a charity trustee of the Animal Welfare Foundation, and serves oo Defra’s Animal Welfare Committee. He lives in Scotland, with his specialist vet cardiologist wife and their two young children.