Michelle Stafford

Project title: HoloRuminant: The role of microbiomes in the health, welfare and productive performance of beef and dairy cattle.

Overview: HoloRuminant is a project aiming to elucidate the function of ruminant associated microbiomes and how they interact with the host to influence their health, welfare and productive performance. Michelle will analyse samples taken from various anatomical regions (the nasal, vaginal, rumen, fecal, mammary gland and blood samples) of dairy cows and their environment from birth through first lactation. From the samples, she will then extract and sequence DNA using next generation sequencing. This research will broaden the understanding of the correlation between microbial populations and the overall health and performance of animals. This is a longitudinal research project, which in the future will prove to be a benchmark dataset for natural inhabitants of dairy cows microbiome as it changes throughout their life. The data gathered from this project will also allow for future innovation in dairy production systems.

Michelle has a first class honours Bsc in Microbiology from University College Cork. During this time Michelle gained experience in genetic engineering, molecular biotechnology and computational biology. Michelle is from a tillage farming background with experience on her grandparent’s dairy and beef farm. Michelle enjoys playing rugby and camogie, with Ballincollig RFC and Aghada respectfully.

Programme Area: Animal and Bioscience 

Supervisors: Dr David Kenny, Dr Frank Buckley, Dr Sinead Waters, and Dr Tom Moore 

Location: Teagasc Grange, Co. Meath

Funding Source: EU Horizons 2020, 101000213