Fellowship - Fallen stock

Summary of benefits

Short-term outputs

Quarterly disease reports were written every three months during the fellowship and used in AHDB disease bulletins and articles for farming press. 12 short disease alerts were also created from the information collated and disseminated via social media to warn farmers when certain diseases were likely to occur.

Information and guidance has also been disseminated to undergraduate (veterinary and animal science) students, post-graduate farm animal residents and qualified veterinary surgeons.  

Mid-term outputs

A post-mortem manual for farm vets, aimed to assist with the process of performing post-mortems on-farm, has been created. This manual is available for vets to download free-of-charge on the AHDB website. (LINK)

Farmer meetings organised by veterinary practices, the NSA or AHDB were delivered throughout the residency.

Long-term outputs

Emerging disease expertise has been gained by the fellowship resident who will be working in farm animal diagnostics and become part of the country's emerging disease expertise.

CPD was delivered to veterinary surgeons during this residency, covering production limiting diseases of sheep and on-farm post-mortems with common disease presentations.

In addition, the fellow has provided support and training at all levels, including veterinary students, agricultural students, farmers, veterinary surgeons and specialist farm vets, to improve outcomes of farm post-mortems in the future.

The Challenge

Pathology expertise underpins disease diagnosis, monitoring and surveillance and is vital for the health and welfare of the UK beef and sheep industries. Traditionally dependent on government funded laboratories, the UK now faces a shortage of farm animal pathologists with no structured educational scheme in place to replace the rapidly declining pool of expertise. In 2015, the extent of the problem was highlighted by BBSRC when they listed veterinary pathology as a vulnerable skill.

The Project

• To ensure farm animal pathology expertise continues to exist
• To create a sustainable training course for future farm animal pathologists
• To support current practising farm animal veterinary surgeons in their disease diagnosis and post mortem skills
• To ensure efficient and economical on-farm post-mortems benefit the producer
• To create data that provides information for the producer allowing treatment and preventative measures to be delivered in a timely manner

A veterinary surgeon will be trained in farm animal veterinary pathology, with a focus on beef and sheep. The time of the resident will be split 50:50 between the University of Nottingham (UoN) and Farm Post Mortems Ltd (FPM).

The resident will work closely with cattle and sheep specialists at the University of Nottingham to undertake a number of smaller research projects during the residency. Data generated at Farm Post Mortems Ltd will be used to create new knowledge on existing endemic disease, with the aim of creating further guidance for the producer.

The Resident

Katie Waine