Khalid Shahin

Dr Khalid Shahin is an aquatic veterinarian with more than 14 years of experience in aquatic animal health, specialising in disease diagnostics, fish immunology, and pathobiology. He began his career in Egypt in academia, where he worked on diseases of warm-water finfish and crustaceans. He was awarded a government scholarship from Egypt to pursue his PhD, which h ecompleted through a collaborative programme spanning the University of Stirling, the Moredun Research Institute (Edinburgh), and Fish Vet Group Asia (Benchmark Animal Health) in Thailand. His doctoral research focused on francisellosis in Nile tilapia and led to the development of vaccine candidates and rapid diagnostic tools.

Following his PhD, Khalid completed a postdoctoral fellowship in aquatic animal medicine and epidemiology at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. At UC Davis, he contributed to the identification of emerging and novel pathogens, including a novel iridovirus species in tilapia from Hawaii. He also investigated major disease events, including the first documented outbreak of piscine lactococcosis in California,
supported surveillance of invasive species in California using eDNA-based diagnostics, and led genomic characterisation of pathogens from farmed and ornamental fish species as well as aquatic mammals. His work during this period included koi herpesvirus (KHV), carp edema virus (CEV), Edwardsiella spp., Flavobacterium spp., Francisella, Streptococcus spp., Klebsiella spp., and others. He further advanced vaccine development by contributing to the first subunit vaccine against francisellosis and co-developing a live attenuated vaccine for Streptococcus iniae. 

After relocating to Canada, Dr Shahin worked as a scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO-InterVac) in Saskatchewan, where he studied avian immune responses. He later moved to Atlantic Canada to serve as a Study Director at the Center for Aquaculture Technologies (now ONDA), developing disease models and evaluating
commercial vaccines and nutritional products.

Dr. Shahin currently leads the Diagnostic Laboratory at Pharmaq Analytiq in the United Kingdom. In this role, he works with a multidisciplinary team of veterinarians, pathologists, molecular biologists, and microbiologists to investigate and diagnose diseases affecting farmed fish for UK and international clients, applying advanced diagnostic technologies to
support health management in aquaculture. Dr. Shahin has completed professional training in several countries, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the United States, and Thailand.

He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed to reference texts on fish diseases and health management.