VIP Brings Hope and Healing to Malawi this Summer

This past July, NorthStar VETS was back in Malawi, Africa to check up on the villagers our team had been helping there. Here is the summary report from Villages in Partnership.

“NorthStar VETS sent its Theriogenologist, Dr. Manoel Tamassia, to work with farmers and their livestock. He was joined by Pat Boland, veternarian for National Rural Poultry Centre in Malawi, along with others to discuss best practices. It is challenging to convince a farmer to care for an animal when their family is hungry. Feeding livestock will pay off in the long term, but long term planning is not a mindset when short term circumstances are dire.”

“NJ State apiarist, Tim Schuler, returned to Malawi, thanks once again to NorthStar VETS. He continued to learn from, work and share knowledge with Malawian bee keepers. They harvested much honey and all enjoyed the spoils.”

The mission of Villages in Partnership is to build partnerships between villages in the developed world and villages in Malawi to bring about life-changing development for all. The organization works with local development experts in Malawi to implement programs designed to simultaneously address the inter-connected web of root causes of extreme poverty: lack of access to clean water, food insecurity, poor health care, inadequate education, insufficient infrastructure, and lack of economic opportunities.

Manoel Tamassia, DVM, MS, Ph.D, DACT
Dr. Tamassia left engineering school to attend veterinary school at the Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Brazil, where he graduated in 1989. With a strong interest in animal reproduction, he moved to Columbia, Missouri to start an internship in theriogenology, continuing his training by completing a residency in theriogenology and a master of science degree in reproductive physiology. Dr. Tamassia remained at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine as an assistant instructor, during which time he completed the requirements for the ECFVG program (DVM equivalency for foreign graduates). He then moved to the University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Medicine working in the production animal and theriogenology section for three years.

Dr. Tamassia returned to Brazil in 1997 where he practiced and taught large-animal reproduction until he moved to Paris, France to continue his education at the Institut National Agronomique de Paris. For four years he worked with in-vitro fertilization and cloning, finishing his graduate studies and PhD in 2003. He returned to the U.S. to be an assistant professor in theriogenology at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois. In 2009, he was awarded Diplomate status in the American College of Theriogenology and joined NorthStar VETS, where he provides comprehensive reproductive medical services for all species. Dr. Tamassia also serves as the State Veterinarian for NJ under Governor Christie and oversees the NJ State Animal Health Diagnostic Lab.