Sarne De Vliegher

Professor dr. Sarne De Vliegher, DVM, MSc, PhD, Dipl. ECVPH

Sarne De Vliegher (°1973) graduated as a veterinarian from Ghent University in 1998. He defended his PhD-thesis on heifer mastitis in 2004 in Ghent after having worked at the Atlantic Veterinary College of the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada for some months. In that same year he finished an MSc in Veterinary Epidemiology and Animal Health Economics at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and obtained a degree as a judicial expert from Ghent University. In 2006 he became a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Public Health. In the meantime, he worked in the bovine veterinary practice of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine for 7 years.

He is now a full professor teaching veterinary law, professional ethics and practice management at the Department of Internal Medicine, Reproduction and Population Health (www.rohh.UGent.be) (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine). He is heading M-teamUGent and is co-founder of and partner in MEX^TM.

He was president of the US-based National Mastitis Council in 2020 after having served 10 years as a board member. He is co-editor-in-chief of M²-magazine and published a handbook on bovine udder health. In 2018 he received the Westagro award from the American Dairy Science Association.

Between 2013 and 2016 Sarne served as the president of the Flemish Regional Council of the Belgian Board of Veterinarians and as vice-president of the Belgian Council of Veterinarians after having been a board member of both organisations between 2010 and 2013, illustrating his keen interest in the different aspects of the veterinary profession. In 2023 he resumed as board member of the Belgian Council.

In 2020 he established the Institute for Law and Ethics in Veterinary Medicine and is a co-promoter of the Research Chair on Animal Law, Ethics and Welfare, in close cooperation with the University of Leuven. Since 2023 he is heading the effort to establish a B2C animal welfare label in Belgium.