Shivaprasad, known as Prasad, was born in Kolar, India. He obtained his BVSc in 1969 and MVSc in 1971 both from India, PhD in Poultry Genetics from The Ohio State University in 1977 and an MS and residency training in Veterinary Pathology from Purdue University in1980. He was a faculty member in Veterinary Pathology at University of Illinois for 5 years and in Avian Pathology at Cornell University for 4 years.  Since 1989 he has been a Professor of Avian Pathology with the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, Fresno branch till 2009 and now in Tulare, University of California, Davis. He is board certified by ACPV.

He is a member of professional organizations (AAAP, AVMA, AAVLD, AAV, and WPDA), serves on the editorial board of Avian Diseases and J of Avian Medicine and Surgery, and was an associate editor of J of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation for five years and Avian Pathology for two years. He is co-editor of AAAP Avian Disease Manual and associate editor of the book, Manual of Poultry Diseases published in Paris, France. He has prepared six slide study sets for AAAP. He serves on many committees and has been chairman of the Histopathology and Case Report Interest group in AAAP for more than 15 years. 

He has been involved in avian diagnostics, teaching and research for more than 38 years. He has discovered many novel infectious agents, most notably Hepatitis E virus in chickens and Muscovy duck parvovirus in ducks in USA, Novel Picornavirus in turkeys and Avian Bornavirus in psittacines. He has published 160 papers, 42 book chapters and presented more than 400 papers in national and international conferences.  He is a passionate teacher and has traveled to more than 30 countries on invitation primarily for teaching. 

A few of his awards include, senior author of the best paper published in the J of Veterinary Pathology for the year 2011, Lasher-Botorff award by AAAP and the dedication of the 16th ‘Hafez’ International Conference on Turkey Diseases in Berlin, Germany. 

He has been married to his wonderful wife, Kathy for 41 years and they have three children. He enjoys playing golf, national and international travels and photography.