Team

Willem Schaftenaar
Willem qualified in 1978 at Utrecht University and worked for 26 years as head of the veterinary
department at Rotterdam Zoo. Since 2000 he is the vet advisor of the EAZA Elephant TAG. Willem has
given workshops and clinics for veterinarians in Myanmar and India. He has supported the Elephant
Conservation Center of Dak Lak in Vietnam by hands-on clinical work. During the past years, Willem
developed a website for veterinarians in charge of elephants (https://www.elephantmedicine.info).W

Linda & Christian Schiffmann
Linda qualified in business administration and worked in a dental practice. In addition she is an
animal trainer with particular interest in zoo and wildlife species.
Christian is a veterinarian and zookeeper with particular interest in elephants. He is member oft he
EAZA Elephant TAG and the IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group.
Together with Willem, Linda & Christian initiated the working group Elephant Dental Vets (EDV).

Hanne Kortegaard
Denmark
Dentistry

Zoé Vlaming
Zoé graduated in 2013 from Utrecht University. Since then, she has worked around the world,
gaining extensive international experience. Among other positions she was Head Veterinarian at a
wildlife rescue center in Thailand. Zoé has practiced in several small animal clinics and currently
works as a vet in four zoos in the Netherlands.

Aleksandr (Aleks) Semjonov
Aleks is a senior clinician in veterinary anaesthesiology at the Estonian University of Life Sciences. His research has focused on zoo and wildlife anaesthesiology and on investigating novel anaesthetic combinations in several species of wild animals. Aleks also works as a practicing anaesthesiologist for zoo and wild animals around the world. He has broad clinical and scientific experience in long-term anaesthesia of wild carnivores, elephants, giraffes and marine mammals for dental, ophthalmic and surgical procedures. His specific passion is pain management for invasive procedures for zoo and wild animals. 

Christian Wenker
Christian is an experienced zoo vet and the head of the veterinary department at Zoo Basel. He is an expert in African elephant anaesthesia and gained a massive knowledge during various tusk treatments in sub-adult and adult elephants.

Margherita Gracis
Dr Margherita Gracis is a veterinarian specialized in Veterinary Dentistry, Oral Medicine and Oral Surgery. She is an AVDC (American College of Veterinary Dentistry) Board Certified Veterinary Dentist,  and EVDC (European College of Veterinary Dentistry) European Veterinary Specialist in Dentistry. Her main clinical activity is based in Milan, in Nothern Italy.