Melba G. Bondad-Reantaso

Dr. (Ms.) Melba G. Bondad-Reantaso Dr Melba B. Reantaso, Ph.D. (Ms), has close to 30 years combined experience in research, training, diagnostics, extension and international aid and development work on aquaculture, management of health of aquatic organisms and biosecurity. She retired early as Senior Aquaculturist in 2002 after 18 years of government service at the Fish Health Section of the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Dr Reantaso worked for the Network of Aquaculture Centre in Asia and the Pacific (NACA, Bangkok, Thailand) from 1999-2002 as Regional Aquatic Animal Health (AAH) Specialist and Coordinator of an FAO project with 21 countries participating that resulted to the establishment of aquatic animal health programme of NACA; and led the investigation of koi herpesvirus, at that time, in Indonesia. She migrated to the USA and worked (2002-2004) at the Cooperative Oxford Laboratory a joint facility of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the NOAA National Ocean Service) responsible for the histopathological analyses from an active surveillance for oysters diseases. She joined FAO in 2004, led international disease investigation task forces on epizootic ulcerative syndrome in southern Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo and acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease in Viet Nam. She has M.Sc., Ph.D. and post-doc credentials all on diseases of aquatic animals: post-doc fellow (Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University; adviser: Prof. Kishio Hatai) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; Ph.D. (University of Tokyo; adviser: Prof Kazuo Ogawa) as a Monbusho scholar and an M.Sc in Biology (De La Salle University; adviser: Dr James Richard Arthur) as a recipient of a project scholarship grant from International Development Research Center of Canada. She earned her B.Sc. in Zoology from the University of the Philippines in Los Banos. She serves as referee to various peer-reviewed journals and co-editor of Diseases in Asian Aquaculture series (DAA V, VI and VII). She was founding member and served as Chairperson (2002-2005) and Secretary/Treasurer (1999-2002) of the Fish Health Section, Asian Fisheries Society and currently Senior Adviser. She travels extensively (at least 70 countries to-date) in pursuit of scholarly and career goals in aquaculture development and biosecurity. She maintains a global network of experts. She spearheaded the development of a new initiative called Progressive Management Pathway for Improving Aquaculture Biosecurity, a paradigm shift in managing health of aquatic species through a risk-based, collaborative and progressive approach. She is Team Leader of Food Safety, Nutrition and Health team at the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of FAO since 2021; aside from supervisory tasks, she leads FAO work on biosecurity, disease risk assessment, surveillance, national/regional aquatic organisms health strategies, AMR in aquaculture; develops and implements capacity development activities, projects, training courses, seminars/conferences; conducts investigations of disease outbreaks and mass mortality events in aquatic populations; and represents FAO in relevant bodies, committees, advisory board, etc.. Since joining FAO in 2004, she has been involved in developing and implementing around 50 projects (national, regional and global levels), totaling over USD 30 million.
ORCID: Melba Bondad-Reantaso (0000-0002-2380-3549)
GoogleScholar: Melba G. Bondad-Reantaso
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Melba-Bondad-Reantaso
Linkedin: Melba Reantaso


Back to home