Faculty

Nutrition, health, and management of feedlot cattle.

Fish Ecology; Conservation Science; Ecosystem Ecology; Global Change; Macroecology; Fisheries Management; Freshwater Mussels

Areas of interest include low-stress handling for improving human-animal interactions, strategies for mitigating agonistic interactions in socially housed animals, and enhancing cat health and behavior care in both a home and veterinary setting.

Equine reproduction; Pathophysiology of placental development in the equine; Parental gene expression in the placenta;  Reciprocal paternal and maternal interaction in the equine's placental development; Host-pathogen interaction during placentitis; Assisted reproductive technique; Biotechnology of reproduction

Regulation of ovarian function and development of reproductive programs in cattle, antimicrobial stewardship in livestock, genome microbiome interplay regulating cows health and productivity.

Equine genetics and genomics; camelid genetics and genomics.

Enhancing the nutritional and health value of animal-sourced foods for human consumption; Developing nutritional and management strategies to enhance the level of bioactive nutrients in animal-sourced foods; Examining health effects of functional/nutritionally enhanced animal-sourced foods using cell culture, animal models and clinical trials; Studying how animal-sourced foods foster human health (i.e. prevent chronic diseases and nutrient deficiencies), and their role in food security.

Research interests are focused in three major areas: 1) Using "traditional" epidemiological techniques and GIS and spatial statistics to understand how avian diseases move in time and space. 2) Using Next Generation Sequencing technology to gain insights into the virulence and survivability of pathogens including Salmonella and Campylobacter. 3) Gaining a better understanding of 'micro'-commercial (i.e. small scale poultry production) with respect to environmental sustainability, poultry health, and food safety.

Applying genetic and genomic techniques to answer ecological or evolutionary questions about wild populations, conservation of threatened and endangered species, genetic management of conservation and commercial aquaculture, animal polyploidy.

Improving nutrition of ruminant livestock through study of microbes of the rumen; increasing supply of microbial protein available to animal digestion; discovering biochemical pathways that microbes use to ferment carbohydrates in feed.