Livestock Welfare

Simon is a senior researcher in Animal Behaviour and Welfare and Animal and Veterinary Sciences. His main research interest lies in understadning the causes and consequences of individiual differences in social behaviour (pigs) and the response to human handling (beef cattle). Alongside colleagues, his research also addresses long-standing welfare issues by assessing the role that selective breeding can play in producing animals more suited to the environments in which they are housed.

Mike is a Professor of Livestock Informatics and Team Leader for Animal Breeding & Genomics at SRUC. His main research area of interest is dairy cattle breeding and identification of appropriate selection goals that meet as many stakeholders requirements as possible. The number of traits incorporated into the selection goal for all species is increasing which brings challenges when traits have unfavourable correlations. Of particular note is the mobilization of body energy by dairy cows - some is desirable since it adds to efficiency in both economic and environmental terms.

Alistair is Chair of Animal Behaviour & Welfare at SRUC, with a primary focus on understanding the biology of positive welfare using behaviour as a starting point, but also using other disciplines and techniques as applicable including physiology, neurobiology, molecular biology and genetics. His team are also interested in the causes and consequences of ‘positive’ behaviour such as play in farm animals and for this have been studying differences between individuals and litters of pigs.

Francesca is a research scientist at the Moredun Research Institute, where she currently provides veterinary pathology expertise for Moredun research projects covering a number of bacterial, parasitological and viral diseases of sheep and catttle.

David is a principal scientist at the Moredun Institute, and has a longstanding interest in retroviral pathogenesis and his current research focusses on understanding the pathogenesis of ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma and the development of diagnostic tests for controlling disease.

Frank Katzer is a molecular parasitologist at the Moredun Institute working on protozoan parasites of veterinary and public health importance.