Investigating husbandry and management factors that affect the welfare and productivity of agricultural animals.
The feasibility of novel systems of production, or aspects of production systems, using a wide variety of animal based and environmental measures
Methods of measuring and improving animal welfare
Reducing the impact of social and environmental stressors
Current Projects
OneWelPig: Using a 'One Welfare' framework to develop alternative high welfare pig production systems. Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Research Stimulus fund (2022-2026)
Earwel: Elucidating etiology and risk factors for ear lesions on Irish pig farms (2021-2025). My role: Task leader
TailBiteAdvice: An ICT-based real-time advisory tool to minimise tail biting in fattening pigs (2021-2024).
MonoGutHealth: Training and research for sustainable solutions to improve gut health and reduce losses in monogastric livestock using bioactives and early life nutrition (2021-2025).
PigNoDock: Development and implementation of a tail biting risk assessment tool on commercial pig farms (2019-2023).
Education
BA Biological Sciences, University of Oxford (2000)
MSc Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare, University of Edinburgh (2004)
