Professor Bassirou Bonfoh

Professor Bassirou Bonfohis a Togolese veterinarian and holds a DVM and a PhD in biology. He worked for 5 years in West Africa (The Gambia, Guinée Conakry, Mali, Liberia), as livestock development program coordinator with Vétérinaires Sans Frontières. He went for a 4 years epidemiology postdoctoral fellowship at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) and Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) on health risks and determinants of dairy sector development. He led later 4 years a research group on "Avenues of extensive livestock production system" in the Horn Africa, West Africa and Central Asia in the framework of the NCCR North-South where he contributed to validate the One Health concept on zoonosis control. Since 2009, he is Managing Director of Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire (CSRS, www.csrs.ch). He is currently the Director of the consortium Afrique One "Ecosystem & Population health: expanding the frontiers in health" funded by the Wellcome Trust. He has developed modules on soft skills for researchers in Africa (www.afriqueone.net) comprising research administration management and governance, research design and science communication and contributed to develop the “Participatory Risk Analysis” methods for animal source food in informal sector.

B. Bonfoh is guest lecturer at University of Lomé (Togo), University of Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) and at the Pan African veterinary school in Senegal and member of scientific advisory board of several agriculture and health research institutes and initiatives in Africa.