Sustainability and food security are two terms that are commonly used in relation to the UK agricultural sector. In a changing climate, there is a need to reduce the impact of endemic diseases on livestock health, welfare and productivity. The brown stomach worm, Teladorsagia circumcincta, is the most prevalent livestock roundworm parasite in the UK and has a major economic impact on the sheep industry.
Farming practices are evolving in response to intensification, diversification and climate change. As farm management has changed, pathogens of livestock have also adapted to optimise their reproduction and transmission opportunities. Our work, supported by Animal and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB), has focused on the control and biology of the economically important roundworm Nematodirus battus; a gut roundworm which annually threatens the health and welfare of young lambs across the UK. Our research has explored how Nematodirus behaves on commercial sheep farms.
Along with so many other things, Covid-19 scuppered our plans to travel the length and breadth of the UK delivering sheep health road-shows in association with NSA and SRUC. Nevertheless, we were all keen to ensure that these important messages were still delivered so we agreed to embrace modern technology and try online webinars to inform all those interested on the risks posed by these “iceberg” diseases.
Iain leads BioSS activities in the area of Animal Health and Welfare. As part of this. He manages BioSS consultancy inputs to the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department Research Programme 2: "Profitable and Sustainable Agriculture – Animals", as well as consultancy contracts relating to animal science from other organisations. In recent years our clients have included the Institute for Animal Health, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Deer Commission Scotland and a number of commercial companies.
Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland
JCMB, The King's Buildings,
Peter Guthrie Tait Road,
EDINBURGH, EH9 3FD, Scotland, UK
Future Farming Systems
Epidemiology Research Unit
Plot 10, An Lòchran
Inverness Campus
Inverness
IV2 5NA
Research interests:
•My major area of work since joining SRUC has been on verocytotoxigenic E. coli O157, with particular responsibility for field work in this area. Together with colleagues at the ERU and with consortium partners from other institutions, I am currently writing up the results of a prevalence survey of E. coli O157 among British farms that produce cattle intended for the food chain.
SRUC Research, Future Farming Systems
Epidemiology Research Unit
An Lòchran
Inverness Campus
Inverness IV2 5NA
My research interests include:
Animal & Veterinary Sciences,
SRUC,
Roslin Institute Building,
Easter Bush, Midlothian
EH25 9RG
Karen is a Principal Research Scientist leading a group working on pathogenic mycobacteria at Moredun. Her current research interests are in the areas of molecular pathogenesis, identification of biomarkers for diagnosis and infection, bacterial genomics and transcriptomics and molecular epidemiology. The ultimate research goal of the group is to improve diagnosis and control of Johne’s disease through a range of multi-disciplinary approaches.
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.
Naomi Fox is aquantatitive ecologist in the Disease Systems Team within Animal and Veterinary Sciences at SRUC. Her main research interests include biotic and abiotic drivers of parastite transmission, approaches to modelling disease systeams and impacts of climate change on disease risk. Naomi is also an associate at Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS).