Karen A. Email and Phone Number

I workeda as the Chief Quarantine Officer/ Veterinarian III at Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the Philippines’ Competent Authority for fishery and aquatic resources and was assigned at the Fisheries Inspection and Quarantine Division. My task is to oversee the national implementation of the laws and regulations related to the domestic and international tradeand the conduct of the audit inspections of exporters and importers on their compliance to standards and regulations and conducts investigative audit for export refusals. I was an official signatories for the issuance of Health Certificates, Local Transport Permit and Export Commodity Clearance and the endorser for the online issuance of Sanitary and PhytoSanitary Import Clearance. I am also one of the members of the Food Safety Regulatory Coordinators and conducts inspections and auditsto ensure the compliance to international standards such World Trade Organization (WTO), World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported Fishing (IUUF), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN-FAO), ISO Standards (17020:2012, 17025:2005, 9001:2015) and FSSC 22000.I also have a background on aquatic disease detection and was previously assigned at National Fisheries Laboratory Division (NFLD) for 5f years, I worked as laboratory analyst for disease diagnostics (necropsy, parasitology, bacteriology and microbiology, histopathology and molecular examinations) for disease surveillance. We collect aquatic animal disease information nationwide and prepare the country’s quarterly aquatic animal disease report submitted to WOAH and NACA. I prepare the electronic-based six monthly aquatic report for submission to the OIE- World Aquatic Disease Information System. Im a deputized Fish Examiner and assist in the conduct of fish examination/necropsy allegedly caught by explosives and currently part of the Technical Working Group in the making of BFAR’s Fish Examiner’s Training Manual.FOr 2 years, I was a Fish Health manager in Feedmix Specialist Inc., a private integrated aquaculture company (Milkfish, Pomapano, siganids) and freshwater (Tilapia, Jade Perch) fish farms and developed fish health program protocols to identify and prioritize critical areas and species that need immediate health management, review and revision of protocols for monitoring and surveillance and analyze results of monitoring and surveillance and issue timely reports and initiate corrective actions, including treatment, culling, isolation of animals.