Louise Dufour-Zavala
Hall of Honor

Louise Dufour-Zavala was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She earned her bachelor’s in animal science from Macdonald College (McGill University) in 1982 and her D.M.V. from the University of Montreal in 1987, followed by a Masters of Avian Medicine from the University of Georgia in 1989.

She joined Select Laboratories in Gainesville, GA in 1989 as its first technical services veterinarian. Her five years with the company provided several opportunities to support the poultry industry throughout North and South America.

In 1994, she joined Avian Farms International, Inc. in Waterville, Maine. This marked her first deep dive into laboratory work, as this primary breeder company had its own laboratory for in-house flock surveillance. Working on Salmonella control and ALV-J eradication introduced another dimension to her career as a poultry veterinarian.

In 1997, Louise and her family moved back to the Southeast where she joined the Georgia Poultry Laboratory Network (GPLN) in Oakwood, GA as Head of Clinics. Working with a team of veterinarians and technicians in both the field and in the laboratory fostered strong productive relationships with the Georgia Poultry industry, and several partners such as the Georgia Poultry Federation, the Georgia State and US Departments of Agriculture, including the NPIP, and the UGA researchers and diagnosticians.

When she became Executive Director of GPLN in 2007, she continued leading the organization toward securing the necessary funding for all laboratory activities. She became not only the face of the lab, but also its driving force and motivation for achieving multiple accreditations, leading disease prevention and investigation initiatives, coordinating preparation and response efforts for HPAI, and creating a poultry industry educational diorama. To this day, few things are more important to her professionally than serving Georgia’s poultry industry.

Her professional affiliations include active membership in the American Association of Avian Pathologists (AAAP). She received the Lasher-Bottorff Award in 2016 and served on the Board of Directors on two occasions. She chaired the Epidemiology Committee and more recently, the Committee Review Committee. She also served as editor of the 5th edition of the Isolation and Identification of Avian Pathogens Manual and has published on industry control programs for laryngotracheitis in Avian Diseases.

Louise has been married to Guillermo Zavala for over 30 years, and has two daughters, one stepson, and three step-grandchildren.