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Peadar Lawlor

Principal Research Officer – Pig Management and Nutrition

Research Interests

 Peadar Lawlor currently leads projects focussing on:

  1. Optimising nutrition and management of suckling and newly weaned pigs (PigNutriStrat, MonoGutHealth).
  2. Probiotics to substitute for in-feed medication and for competitive exclusion of MRSA (ExcludeMRSA, ProSwine).
  3. Optimising liquid feeding for grow-finisher pigs (WetFeed2).
  4. Macro-algae extracts as feed ingredients and feed additives (CIRCALGAE).

His past research includes; novel feed additives and ingredients, sow nutrition and management, reducing pre-weaning mortality, improving feed efficiency, Salmonella control, safety of genetically modified feed ingredients, alternatives to in-feed antibiotics, pre-slaughter factors affecting meat eating quality, pre-natal muscle development, manure management and energy generation from pig manure.

Current Projects

CIRCALGAE: (Funded by Horizon Europe, 2022-2026) ‘CIRCular valorisation of industrial ALGAE waste streams into high-value products to foster future sustainable blue biorefineries in Europe’. Implementation of a cascade approach based on sustainable technologies to preserve the intact bioactivity of algal molecules. These biomolecules will be used to produce valuable active ingredients for food, feed and biomedical applications. Teagasc’s role is to evaluate the feeding value and health benefits in pigs of 2-3 suitable ingredients produced from the waste-streams. The innovations will be assessed for sustainability and economic feasibility. CIRCALGAE EU Project | Home

PigNutriStrat: (Funded by DAFM, 2020-2024) ‘Novel nutritional and management strategies to reduce antimicrobial reliance and antimicrobial resistance on Irish pig farms’. This project aims to study solutions to reduce in-feed AMU in piglets. Among the solutions to be tested will be improved sanitisation, competitive exclusion, stocking density, feeder space allowance, split suckling, supplementary milk, milk replacers, feed additives and diets with low acid-binding capacity and protein content.

MonoGutHealth: (Funded by the EU Marie-Curie programme, 2021-2025) ‘Training and research for sustainable solutions to improve gut health and reduce losses in monogastric livestock using bioactives and early life nutrition’. This is an EU funded project including 6 countries and 11 projects to explore nutritional strategies and bioactive ingredients to optimize perinatal development of the microbiome and the immune response of monogastrics to ultimately reduce AMU. https://monoguthealth.eu/

WetFeed2: (Funded by Teagasc, 2020-2024). ‘Realizing the full potential of liquid feeding to reduce feed cost per kg gain in pigs’. This project builds on results from the previous project WetFeed. WetFeed2 aims to improve feed efficiency, and hence the feed cost per kg gain, of liquid fed pigs by minimising feed wastage and  preventing spoilage of liquid feed in mixing tanks, pipes and troughs.  Optimum feeding management (No. feed splits/day, trough sensor positioning), system hygiene, feeding system infrastructure (restricted long-trough vs ad-libitum short-trough and trough positioning) will be determined.

ExcludeMRSA: (Funded by JPI-EC-AMR Joint Transnational Call for Proposals 2017 & Irish Health Research Board). ‘Preventing transmission of MRSA from livestock to humans through competitive exclusion’.  This EU project involves partners from 3 countries where bacteria that compete with MRSA will be isolated and applied to piglets as nasal drops with the purpose of reducing MRSA transmission to other pigs and humans by reducing shedding and consequently limiting environmental contamination.

ProSwine: (Funded by Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation Fund Programme). ‘Development of a probiotic Bacillus pumilus as a substitute for in-feed medication for pigs’. This project is a collaboration between Teagasc and WIT and will develop a fully validated and licence ready probiotic feed additive as an alternative to in-feed medication for one or more stages of pig production.

Education

  • PhD. in Agricultural Science, University College, Dublin
  • Master of Agricultural Science, University College, Dublin
  • Bachelor of Agriculture Science, University College, Dublin
  • Diploma in Leadership Development, Irish Management Institute

Professional Membership

  • Adjunct Professor, College of Health and Agricultural Sciences, University College Dublin.
  • Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Galway.
  • Past member of the chemical safety sub-committee of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
  • Past member of EFSA scientific panel on additives and products/substances used in animal feed (FEEDAP).
  • Grant Reviewer for: Peer Review College of the Danish Council for Strategic Research - The Danish Agency for Science, Technology & Innovation; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation); BBSRC, UK; Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO); Enterprise Ireland; EU.
  • Advisory Board Member: EU FP7 project ‘Monitoring of animals for feed-related risks in the long term’(MARLON); FIRM funded project ‘FIRMPORK’.
  • Pig Technical Advisory group member of Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
  • Member of Agricultural Science Association, Pig Health Society, American Society of Animal Science, British Society of Animal Science, European Federation of Animal Science .
  • Conferences organised include: Livestock Waste (International), NUIG, 2016; Salmonella Control in pigs, Ashtown, 2016;  GreenFarm project Conference, Grange, 2017; Pre and post natal nutrition conference (International), Moorepark, 2017.

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