Food Animal Health Management
The OVC has a long-standing record of excellence in food animal health management research. These efforts are led by a strong team of internationally recognized experts in the areas of dairy, beef, swine, small ruminant and poultry health management.
Projects range from clinical trials to large scale epidemiological investigations carried out at research stations and commercial farms. Unique skills are applied to answer questions involving infectious and metabolic disease, reproduction, and animal welfare.
Collaborations at the local, national and international levels make the program successful. Researchers work with primary producers, veterinary practitioners, commodity group organizations, key service providers and research scientists. Agricultural partners help fund research programs and create a focus on research that is practical to producers and veterinarians.
A strength of the research programs lies in the outstanding group of graduate students who fuel research efforts. These students are enrolled in MSc, PhD and DVSc programs and represent a tremendous mix of domestic and international DVM and non-DVM students. This program helps mold these enthusiastic and talented young people into the next generation of researchers and agricultural industry leaders.
Researchers:
Beef
Dr. Jeff Caswell: Professor; Diplomate, ACVP
- Innate resistance to opportunistic bacterial infection; Pathogenesis of infectious diseases of the respiratory system; Bacterial pneumonia
Dr. Jessica Gordon: Assistant Professor
- Youngstock; Transition dairy cow; and Beef cow health and management
Dairy
Dr. Todd Duffield: Professor
- Metabolic Disease in Dairy Cows; Impact of Ionophores in dairy cattle; Impact, prevention, and management of production limiting disease; Pain management of dairy cattle including disbudding, surgery, dystocia
Dr. David Kelton: Dairy Farmers of Ontario Chair in Dairy Cattle Health; Professor
- Infectious and metabolic diseases of dairy cattle, including Johne's Disease, bovine mastitis, and bovine lameness
Dr. Stephen LeBlanc: Professor
- Dairy cattle health and performance; Dairy cattle reproduction and metabolic health
Dr. David Renaud: Assistant Professor
- Improving the health and welfare of calves; Identifying risk factors associated with mortality at milk-fed and grain-fed veal operations; Exploring novel strategies to reduce antimicrobial use in the veal sector; Evaluating the utility of navel disinfection in dairy calves; Identifying new technologies to improve calf health and welfare
Dr. Charlotte Winder: Assistant Professor
- Pain management in ruminants; Health management and performance of youngstock; Knowledge translation and transfer; Knowledge synthesis
Poultry
Dr. Michele Guerin: Associate Professor
- Poultry health management; food safety/zoonotic diseases/veterinary public health; poultry welfare; food quality; environmental issues related to poultry management
Small Ruminants
Dr. Cathy Bauman: Assistant Professor
- Ruminant health management
Swine
Dr. Bob Friendship: Professor
- Sow reproduction and longevity; On-farm control of Salmonella, prevalence of MRSA and influenza and Streptococcus suis and other zoonotic pathogens on pig farms; Antimicrobial resistance; Interaction of enteric diseases and nutritional factors; Surveillance and epidemiology of swine diseases
Dr. Terri O'Sullivan: Associate Professor
- Swine health management
Dr. Zvonimir Poljak: Associate Professor
- Spread of infectious diseases in swine; Mapping the occurrence of PRRS virus genotypes in Ontario; Assessing the frequency of direct and indirect contacts in Ontario swine herds and other aspects of pig movement; Within-area spread of influenza; Within-herd spread of respiratory pathogens in growing pigs
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