Gateway Team Members
Daniela Battaglia (Coordinator)
Daniela Battaglia is currently Livestock Production Officer in the Animal Production and Health Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Within the organization she is responsible for the ctivities in support of Animal Welfare. Prior to joining the FAO in 2001, Daniela worked for nine years for the European Commission (Directorates-General evelopment, Directorates-General External Relations and the Europe-Aid Co-operation Office). During that period, she was involved in a wide range of activities and co-operation programmes and projects in the fields of animal production and health; livestock and rural development, mainly in Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East. Daniela has also worked for some years in the field of livestock and rural development in several countries: Peru, Bolivia, Suriname, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Israel and Tunisia.
Klaas Dietze
Klaas Dietze joined the Animal Production Service at FAO in October 2008. He graduated as a veterinarian from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover, Germany. In his Ph.D. thesis in chemical analytics he dealt with meat quality aspects of different sheep breeds as well as poultry meat.
In his current position, besides collaborating with Daniela Battaglia in her work on animal welfare, he is addressing all aspects of pig production and dealing with the livestock sector in the interdisciplinary work on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Before joining FAO he was working as a researcher at the University of Kassel, Germany, Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences, Department of Animal Nutrition and Animal Health. During this time his work was focusing on preventive animal health issues including animal welfare and the status of animal health in organic farming systems in Europe with a special emphasis on pig production. Additionally he has been gathering practical experience working in veterinary farm animal practice in Germany as well as during externships at veterinary faculties in the United States (Ohio State University – camelid medicine) and Costa Rica (Universidad Nacional – parasitology, farm animal medicine and wildlife management).
Maria Ferrara
Since March 2005, Maria Ferrara has been working as Seconded National Expert at the European Commission, Health and Consumers Directorate General, in Unit D5 “Animal Welfare” in charge of developing Community policies and legislation on animal welfare.
Maria is responsible for following the scientific developments supporting European policies in animal welfare as well as for international activities to raise awareness and create a greater consensus on animal welfare in Trading countries with the European Union (such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina). She coordinates the working relationship on animal welfare issues between the Commission and international organisations such as OIE and FAO.
Since 2002 she worked in Italy in the “Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale”, OIE Collaborating Centre for Veterinary Training, Epidemiology, Food Safety and Animal Welfare. Born in 1977, Maria graduated in 2001 as a veterinary surgeon at the University of Teramo with a thesis on the effects of dietary supplementation with antioxidants and unsaturated fatty acids on the oxidative stress in sportive horses during eventing competitions. She has a post-graduate degree in “Food of Animal Origin Inspection”.
Annamaria Pisapia
Annamaria Pisapia is currently the Trade Policy Assistant for RSPCA, WSPA, Compassion In World Farming and Eurogroup for Animals. In the frame of this position she has collaborated with the European Commission in organizing the international Conference on Global Trade and Farm Animal Welfare, which took place in Brussels from 20 to 21 January 2009.
Annamaria is also European Food Representative for Compassion in World Farming in Italy, her home country, where - in the frame of Compassion’s campaign supporting the 2012 European ban on battery cages - she has been working on securing winners for the Good Egg Awards, the prizes for the companies that source only cage-free eggs or commit to do it by 2012.
She served several years as Regional Coordinator of Emilia Romagna for the Italian organization LAV, developing locally national and international animal welfare campaigns, coordinating local branches and lobbying the Regional Parliament (Assemblea Legislativa Regionale), where she founded in 2006 the Counselors’ Intergroup for Animal Rights.
Annamaria Pisapia graduated in History at the Bologna University and worked three years at the Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte of Frankfurt am Main in Germany, in the frame of a scholarship in European Legal History.
Francesco Proscia
Francesco received his Degree in Veterinary Medicine from Perugia University, Italy; after 4 years working for several general practices, in October 2005 he joined FAO as Consultant for the Animal Production Service assisting the veterinary public health group with a project to support countries with economies in transition and developing countries in capacity building for surveillance and prevention of BSE/TSE and other zoonotic diseases.
He spent one year in UK working on meat and hygiene inspection and properly involved in BSE/TSE processing procedures, cattle and sheep ante/post-mortem inspections and zoonotic diseases detection. Francesco received his MSc Degree in Food Safety and Quality at the Agricultural Faculty of the University of Parma then he joined the Parmalat Spa Dairy Company.
From January 2009 he is working for FAO Animal Health and Production Division, providing consultancy on the Animal-Human Interface Programme, distributing relevant information, bulletins etc. through the network on veterinary public health and feed/food safety and collaborating to the FAO Farm Animal Welfare Gateway.
Giada Sciortino
Animalist since ever, Giada is currently involved in dog sheltering and adoption campaigns. Giada worked for several years in a dog shelter as coordinator and veterinary assistant, in charge of puppy and skill dog daily treatments. She took part in a project raising awareness on responsibilities towards stray dogs among youngsters. Graduated in Foreign Languages and Literatures, Giada is working as consultant, involved in web-based dissemination of farm animal welfare documents and publications.
