Robert Friendship

DVM, MSc (Guelph)

 @uoguelph.ca
 Office: Pop Med Bldg. 103
 519-824-4120 Ext.54022

Profile

Bob has been involved in swine health management for over four decades, joining the faculty at OVC in May 1979 and retiring in July 2023. His career responsibilities involved teaching, research, clinical service and extension education. He became a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners in swine health management in 1995. He is currently a member of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, the College of Ontario Veterinarians, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, and a lifetime member of the Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians and the Ontario Association of Swine Veterinarians. He has been an active participant at the International Pig Veterinary Society (IPVS) Congresses over the years, helping to organize the 2010 meeting in Vancouver and providing the keynote opening address at the 2022 IPVS meeting in Rio de Janeiro. He is or has been on the editorial board of numerous journals including Pig Health Management, Journal of Swine Health Management, Animals, and the Canadian Veterinary Journal. He has participated as a speaker or an organizer of a large number of meetings and conferences for veterinarians, pork producers and others in the swine industry over the decades and is currenting the chair of the 2025 Ontario (London) Swine Conference.
Throughout his academic career, Bob has sought to encourage DVM and graduate students to become interested in the swine health and his research has focused on applied methods to improve the health and welfare of pigs.  
 

Research Interests

Dr Friendship has established an international reputation in swine health management, including work in enteric problems such as gastric ulcers and postweaning colibacillosis as well as improvements in reproductive efficiency and welfare. His current research focus has involved sow parturition and peripartum sow and piglet health.

Teaching

Dr Friendship was involved in teaching fourth-year DVM swine health management clinical rotations, involving on-farm visits. In addition, he taught swine health management lecture courses to undergraduate and graduate students. He has been a graduate supervisor, co-supervisor or advisory committee member for dozens of graduate students and currently is a co-supervisor for one PhD student.

Professional Experience & Honours

• Howard W. Dunne Memorial Award for outstanding service presented by the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, 2003.

• University President’s Distinguished Professor Award for teaching excellence, 2006.

• Pfizer Award for Research Excellence to faculty member of OVC, 2011

• Ontario Pork Award -outstanding contributions to Ontario pork industry, 2019 

• Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians- lifetime achievement, 2022

Selected Publications

Book Chapters (recent)
Friendship RM. (2024) Surveillance and Decision Making in Swine Health Management. In: Production Diseases in Farm Animals, edited by Gross J. Published by Springer Nature. pp 587-595.

Peer-Reviewed Journals (recent)
Henry M, McDonald W, Friendship RM, Greer AM,  Poljak Z. Development and validation of farm and provincial level swine flow simulation model using discrete events and Ontario swine farm and provincial input data. Can J Vet Res 2024; 88:3-11.

Amezcua MR, Friendship RM, Farzan A. An investigation into fecal shedding of Streptococcus suis serotypes in nursery pigs. Can Vet J 2024;65:75-78. 
Jaramillo-Jaramillo AS, Blanvillain-Rivera V, Coulson TJD, Farzan A, Friendship RM, Labbe A. Effect of a Lactococcus lactis culture supernatant on diarrhea and performance parameters of piglets in the post-weaning period and on the expression of the faeG gene in-vitro. Can Vet J 2024;65:259-266.
Gregory N, Farmer C, Friendship RM, Huber L-A. The effect of moderate energy and protein restriction during gilt development on changes in body weight and backfat depth and subsequent lactation performance. J Anim Sci 2023;101:351 doi:10.1093/jas/skac351

Keay S, Poljak Z, Alberts F, O’Connor A, Friendship R, O’Sullivan TL, Sargeant JM. Does vaccine-induced maternally-derived immunity protect swine offspring against influenza A viruses? A systematic review and meta-analysis of challenge trials from 1990 to May 2021. Animals 2023 doi: 10.3390/ani13193085

Hill S, Amezcua MR, Ribeira, E, O'Sullivan, T, Friendship, R. Sow hematological parameters in late gestation and an investigation as to whether these parameters are predictors of stillbirths. Can Vet J. 2024;65:45-48.

Tran H, Friendship R, Poljak Z. Classification of group A rotavirus VP7 and VP4 genotypes using Random Forest. Front. Genet. 2023; 14. doi:10.3389/fgene.2023.1029185

Goodman MR, Amezcua MR, Friendship R, Farzan A. Investigations into the effects of Escherichia coli vaccination and diet composition on post-weaning diarrhea and growth performance in pigs. Can Vet J 2023;64:329-336

Sudan S, Fletcher L, Zhan X, Dingle S, Patterson R, Huber L-A, Friendship R, Kiarie EG, Li J. Comparative efficacy of a novel Bacillus subtilis-based probiotic and pharmacological zinc oxide on growth performance and gut responses in nursery pigs. Scientific Reports 2023.

Tran H, Friendship R, Ojkic D, Poljak Z. Assessment of seasonality of rotavirus PCR detection in swine from Ontario and Quebec between 2016-2020 using submissions to a diagnostic laboratory. Can J Vet Res. 2022;86(4):241-253.

Henry M, Shoveller A, O'Sullivan TL, Niel L, Friendship,RM. Effect of varying levels of dietary tryptophan on aggression and abnormal behavior in growing pigs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2022; 9.

Henry M, O'Sullivan TL, Shoveller A, Niel L, Friendship RM. A case of tail-biting on a multi-site swine operation in Ontario. Can Vet J, 2022;63 (8), 835-840.

Enouri S, O'Sullivan TL, Ramkissoon S, Friendship RM, Gu Y, Johnson RJ. Pharmacokinetics of combined administration of iron dextran with meloxicam or flunixin meglumine in piglets. Can Vet J, 2022;63, 727-734.

Hill S, Amezcua MR, Ribeira E, O'Sullivan TL, Friendship RM. Defining the effect of oxytocin use in farrowing sows on stillbirth rate: A systematic review with a meta-analysis. Animals, 2022;12, 1795. 
 

Search PubMed for additional publications by Dr. Friendship.