About
Flavia Zendri received her degree in Veterinary Medicine (DVM) in 2015 from the University of Bologna, Italy, after which she spent a few months as a postgraduate trainee in Veterinary Pathology, Microbiology and Antimicrobial Resistance at the State Veterinary Laboratories of Rome (IZSLT – Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e Toscana).
In 2016 she moved to the United Kingdom to undertake a Master’s degree (MD) in Veterinary Public Health at the University of Glasgow, writing a dissertation on the transmission dynamics of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus between people and companion animals. She then worked some time in veterinary mixed practice in the Scottish countryside before commencing, in 2018, the standard Residency program under the European College of Veterinary Microbiology (ECVM) at the University of Liverpool supervised by Dr. Dorina Timofte. Flavia trained in the Liverpool Veterinary Microbiology Diagnostic Laboratory (VMDL) for four years where she was involved in diagnostic, research and teaching activities.
Her main professional interests are the diagnosis and control of veterinary infectious diseases, novel approaches for routine diagnostic application, FT-IR spectroscopy (IR Biotyper), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), molecular epidemiology of AMR bacteria, infection control in veterinary hospitals amongst others.
Flavia was the first enrolled ECVM Resident and is the first to obtain the ECVM Diploma by examination, in September 2022. Following her Residency, Flavia became Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool for her continuing research collaborations with the Department, particularly in the field of veterinary infection control. During this time, Flavia also went on an adventure to South America volunteering as a veterinary surgeon at a wildlife animal sanctuary for three months, working especially with primates and Amazon birds.
In May 2023, Flavia was appointed Lecturer in Veterinary in Clinical Veterinary Microbiology at the University of Liverpool on a Teaching and Research (T&R) pathway, returning to the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology (VAPP) working in the VMDL. To fulfil the new research role, Flavia also decided to enroll on a part-time PhD started on March 2024 alongside the lectureship. Her PhD titled "Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance in Companion Animal Clinical Infections and Veterinary Environments in the UK" has the dual aim to generate standardised AMR surveillance data in clinical isolates from dogs & cats obtained from UK-based veterinary diagnostic laboratories (funded by VMD-NBN) and to estimate the occurrence of hospital-acquired infections in companion animal UK veterinary facilities in the UK and to map their spread across animal, human and environmental sources.
At the University of Liverpool, Flavia is also member of Biosecurity and infection Control and of the Mentorship Committees of the School of Veterinary Science.
Professionally, Flavia is also member of the European Network for the Optimization of Veterinary Antimicrobial Treatment (ENOVAT), of the ESCMID Study Group for Veterinary Microbiology (ESGVM) and the European Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (EAVLD). In addition, she is Chair of the Residents Committee of the European College of Veterinary Microbiology (ECVM) and coordinates the Residents journal clubs and other activities like the ECVM Training School.