Dr Romain Pizzi

Romain is president of the British Veterinary Zoological Society, and President of the Scottish branch of the British Veterinary Association. He is an international expert in wildlife surgery, having pioneered numerous world first wildlife operations, from the first keyhole surgical removals of diseased gallbladders in moon bears rescued from illegal bile farms in Vietnam, to the first robotic-assisted surgery on a wild animal, a tiger. He was elected an honorary life member of the human surgeons Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ALSBGI), for his work on minimally invasive surgery in wildlife. He was previously the pathologist at the Zoological Society of London, a specialist veterinary surgeon at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland for a decade, an honorary assistant professor in zoo and wildlife medicine at the University of Nottingham for 15 years, and specialist veterinarian at the Scottish national wildlife rescue centre for 18 years. He is currently active in conservation projects in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia, focusing on capacity building. His species expertise ranges from tree snails, to orangutans; sun bears to elephants. He regularly performs specialist surgery for a number of zoos and wildlife centres in the UK, as well as internationally. His book “Exotic Vetting”, commissioned by Harper-Collins on wildlife veterinary medicine, was published in March 2022.