Assoc. Prof., PhD, Yanko Ivanov is a Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, responsible for animal breeding, animal health and policies in the agro-food chain. His whole activity is closely connected to the prevention, control and eradication of cross-border diseases on animals and zoonosis on a national and international level. He has subsequently held the positions: Head of the National Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Diseases and Exotic Animal Diseases, Director of the National Research Veterinary Medical Institute, Deputy Director General and General Director of the Veterinary Service of Bulgaria and Chief Veterinary Inspector of Bulgaria.
He is a part-time lecturer at the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Forestry in Sofia. From 1995 to 2001, he was a member of the FAO Science Group of the European Commission for the control of foot-and-mouth disease and a member of the Standing Technical Committee and later on a member of the Executive Committee and a Vice-President of this committee. As a FAO expert, he was on many missions in various countries: China, Mongolia, Thailand, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and others. He was a FAO regional coordinator for the Balkan peninsula regarding avian influenza.
He has managed projects that were funded by the EU for the eradication of swine fever and rabies in the Republic of Serbia, of avian influenza in the Republic of Turkey and for the establishment of the Veterinary Information System of the Republic of Serbia.
He speaks English, Russian and Serbian.
He is married and has two children.