Dr. Dilip Bhandari named recipient of 2026 AVMA Global Veterinary Service Award

(SCHAUMBURG, Illinois) June 24, 2026-The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) today named Dr. Dilip Bhandari, senior director of programs at Heifer International, as the winner of the 2026 AVMA Global Veterinary Service Award.

A veterinarian who has spent more than 25 years extending animal health care to rural and underserved communities across Asia, Africa and Latin America, Dr. Bhandari is recognized for building community-based animal health systems that have become a model for delivering veterinary services where few veterinarians are available.

The Global Veterinary Service Award was established initially as the XIIth International Veterinary Congress Prize after the 1934 International Veterinary Congress (former name of the World Veterinary Association), recognizing outstanding service by an AVMA member who has contributed to international understanding of veterinary medicine. It was renamed in 2019 in honor of the visionary international leadership exemplified by Dr. René Carlson and Dr. Leon Russell, both past presidents of the AVMA and World Veterinary Association. The AVMA Committee on International Veterinary Affairs selects the recipient.

"I am honored to receive this recognition from the AVMA," said Dr. Bhandari. "The award also reflects Heifer International's commitment to improving animal health and sustainable livestock development for smallholder farmers worldwide. I share this recognition with the communities, colleagues and partners who make this work possible."

"Dr. Bhandari has dedicated his career to ensuring that animals-and the families who depend on them-have access to quality veterinary care, no matter how remote the community," said Dr. Michael Q. Bailey, president of the AVMA. "By training local animal health workers, advancing One Health and championing international collaboration, he has strengthened the veterinary profession far beyond any single country. He truly embodies the spirit of this award."

A graduate of Tribhuvan University in Nepal, Dr. Bhandari began his career training community-based animal health workers in his home country before joining Heifer International in 2006. Today he leads animal health, livestock and One Health programs from the organization's U.S. office in Little Rock, Arkansas, guiding work across the more than 20 countries where Heifer operates. Throughout, he has focused on a single challenge: how to bring reliable, affordable animal care to smallholder farmers who live far from the nearest veterinarian.

His answer has been to build local capacity. Dr. Bhandari is an internationally recognized authority on Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs)-village representatives trained to provide basic animal first aid, vaccination and preventive care under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian. He later helped develop the Community Agro-Veterinarian Entrepreneur (CAVE) model, which equips these locally rooted providers to deliver animal health services as a sustainable livelihood. Many CAVEs are women, making the approach a driver of community leadership and economic opportunity as well as animal health.

Among Dr. Bhandari's contributions to the global veterinary community are:

• Authoring the Community Animal Health Worker's Manual (2009), a training framework adopted across more than 15 countries to prepare village-based workers who extend veterinary care into underserved areas.
• Developing and scaling the Community Agro-Veterinarian Entrepreneur (CAVE) model, bringing animal health services-often delivered by women-to rural communities that lack access to veterinarians.
• Serving as the primary author of Heifer International's global One Health strategy and creating manuals and trainings now used by technical staff across the organization's programs worldwide.
• Being appointed by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) to the group that developed global guidelines, standards and curriculum for community animal health workers (2023-2024).
• Contributing to the WOAH/FAO Global Control and Eradication Strategy for Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), a fatal disease of sheep and goats targeted for global elimination by 2030.
• Serving on the board of directors of the International Goat Association, advancing research, training and improved veterinary services across many countries.

Colleagues credit Dr. Bhandari with translating complex principles into practical, lasting change, such as helping a Nepali woman grow her herd from a handful of goats, a Cambodian family scale a small poultry flock or a Bangladeshi household build a healthier cattle operation through better housing, feed, vaccination access and biosecurity. By embedding animal welfare, zoonotic disease prevention and One Health into everyday practice, his work has strengthened both animal and human health in the communities Heifer serves.

To learn more about the AVMA Global Veterinary Service Award and past recipients, visit https://www.avma.org/awards.

To learn more about Heifer International, please visit https://www.heifer.org.

For more information, contact Michael San Filippo, senior media relations manager, at 847-732-6194 (cell/text) or [email protected].