Chair Funded Projects & People
On Going Projects
- Mismothering in beef cattle
- Characterizing the issue, identifying risk factors, and evaluating current approaches in Western Canada.
- Investigating the relationship between cow temperament, maternal behavior, and productive and reproductive traits in beef cattle across a 3-year period.
- Evaluation of Stock people/producers’ Cattle Handling Attitudes and Perspectives Toward Cattle Handling Training and Welfare of Beef Cattle in Western Canadian Cow-calf Operations
- Remote monitoring technology
- Predicting calf health
- Prediction of siring capacity and health in beef bulls
- Health and welfare impact on dams and calves transitioning from ranch to feedlot and qualitative exploration of stakeholders’ opinion on adoption of preconditioning in Alberta beef
- Assessment tools for the assessment of pain expressions
- Trimming management strategies on beef bull lameness
- Evaluating the welfare of beef cow-calf pairs after calving assistance and impacts of pain mitigation
- Numerous invited presentations to producer and scientific groups, provincially, nationally, and internationally. Stories about our research projects have been published in trade magazines such as the Western Producer, Alberta Beef, Canadian Cattlemen and the Globe and Mail. Many of these stories are picked up by other agriculture media and reprinted across the country. Research supported by the AC Chair has also been highlighted on local TV and Radio.
- This past summer attendees at the Calgary Stampede learned about our research activities through the “ask the vet” video which was played during events held at the GMC stadium.
- Events highlight animal health and welfare research projects involving the Anderson-Chisholm Chair in Animal Care and Welfare such as;
- Beef Improvement Federation (approx. 700 producers from across North America)
- International Association of Agricultural Journalists, 150 journalists to visit W.A. Ranches at the University of Calgary and the University of Calgary’s Veterinary School.
- Online certificate program has been developed with a focus on Beef Cattle Health and Welfare. This non-credit certificate program will be available to all youth and give them a background in major topics in beef health and welfare. The certificate is composed of eight online lessons that youth can work through at their own pace.
- Experiential workshops that mirror and enhance the learning youth receive from the online lessons. These workshops are held at W.A. Ranches
- Cattle handling workshop
- Calving and calf health
- Injections, vaccinations, and cattle lameness
People
The Chair supports the development of many individuals in becoming experts in animal care and welfare
Dr. Christy Goldhawk
Research Associate
Dr. Goldhawk supports the activities of the chair, W.A. policies, website development, lab management, and research on beef cattle welfare. She has been with the program since the fall of 2019. Her research focus includes topics such as qualitative assessment of stakeholder perspectives, design and validation of emergent technologies for remote monitoring of cattle behaviours, standards benchmarking, and behavioural studies of beef cattle and rodeo animals. She has a PhD with Dr Pajor, and has worked internationally on animal welfare from production to public.
Dr Rachael Coon
Postdoctoral Associate
Dr. Coon is studying the behaviour and welfare of beef cattle on pasture and has been with the team since the summer of 2023. She received her PhD in Animal Biology from the University of California Davis and her MSc in Animal Biosciences from the University of Guelph. Her research interests include using remote monitoring technologies for assessing animal health and welfare, measuring the strength of animals' desires, and improving husbandry practices to alleviate unnecessary suffering.
Emma Roux
PhD Candidate
Emma joined the team in 2022 to study mismothering in beef cattle as a part of her PhD. She is an agricultural engineer from France with a specialization in livestock farming systems who is passionate about animal behaviour, particularly how it can be studied and used to improve the welfare of production animals. Emma completed her MSc in Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences between 2019 and 2021. Her research experience includes livestock guardian dogs' temperament in the French Alps, weaning strategies in cow-calf contact dairy systems, and providing larvae as enrichment to laying hens in Sweden.
Vinicius Camargo
PhD Candidate
Vinicius joined the group in 2022 to study beef bull management. In his PhD, Vinicius uses remote monitoring technologies, machine learning and non-machine learning models to investigate the causes of variation in siring capacity in multiple-sire breeding groups and for early detection of negative health events. Vinicius is a DVM from Brazil, where he worked as a beef cattle practitioner and earned his MSc. in Animal Science from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. His previous research experience includes bioeconomic assessment of beef cattle production systems and cow-calf management.
Mostafa Farghal
PhD Candidate
Mostafa is a Ph.D. candidate who started in 2021 and focuses on pain assessment in beef calves. His journey in animal welfare started in 2015 as a practicing vet who also taught vet students in Egypt. In 2019, Mostafa earned a master's in sheep behavior and welfare with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Minia University in Egypt. Mostafa’s entire work is dedicated to improving animals' quality of life
Eva Mutua
PhD Candidate
Eva is a PhD student who started with the group in Sept 2022. She holds a bachelor’s in veterinary medicine from the University of Nairobi and an MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare from the University of Edinburgh. Her current research focuses on evaluating maternal behaviour and cow temperament, exploring their interaction and stability over time. She harbours a deep interest for research particularly in the cow-calf sector and in human-animal relationships.
Sanjaya Mijar
PhD Candidate
Sanjaya started in July 2021 focusing on resiliency in calves, effects of weaning on cows, and understanding different stakeholder perspectives of preconditioning. He is a veterinarian from Nepal, who served as a veterinarian under the Department of Livestock Services in Nepal for over four years with the opportunity to providing clinical services to livestock, especially large animals, along with the development and monitoring of livestock development plans, and extension of livestock services to the stakeholders within the community. He was honored with a Fulbright Scholarship in 2017 to pursue his master’s degree in veterinary public health. By taking a holistic approach, his dedication is to support the efficiency of the beef production system while safeguarding the well-being of cattle.
Nathan Lutevele
MSc Student
Nathanael is a veterinarian from Tanzania. His current research interest is in low stress cattle handling practices in beef cattle and understanding of producers’ cattle handling attitudes.
- Summer Students
- Kelsey Chapman
- Alycia Webster
- David McPhee
- Jackson Cooper
- Justin Ross
- Lauren Stoffregen
- Lindsey Ackert
- Nita Hynes
- Teryn Gilmet
- Kim Stewart
- Zia Janmohamed
- Karlee Schultz
- MSc
- Abby Hodder
- Cecilia Lucio Rodriguez
- Jessica Davis-Unger
- Haley Silas
- Lindsey Arkangel
- Marlena Knauss
- Emily Morabito
- Julian Cortes
- PhD
- Christy Goldhawk
- Anice Thomas
- Lisa Gamsjager
- Jennifer Pearson
- Daniela Melendez
- Melissa Moggy
- Laura Solano
- Barbara Wolfger
- Kajal Devani
- Postdoctoral Associates
- Christy Goldhawk
- Anice Thomas
- Desiree Soares
- Jennifer Pearson
- Sonia Marti