Page 49 - Eclipse - Autumn/Winter 2022

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Page 49 - Eclipse - Autumn/Winter 2022
P. 49

MOVERS AND SHAKERS



        Professor Christine Nicol wins medal


        for poultry welfare science



                                            Fraser Gordon Memorial Trust was    silver lining, as the rapid rise in welfare
                                            established in 1982, the year I started   science has produced more data than
                                            my PhD. I would never have imagined   ever before, allowing informative meta-
                                            then that I would one day receive the   analyses and suggesting rational targets
                                            honour of being a Memorial Lecturer.   for welfare improvement.
                                            At the first poultry science conference   Christine is an award-winning animal
                                            I attended, another delegate, learning   scientist who, as well as her role at the
                                            that my PhD was on the subject of   RVC, has held honorary appointments at
                                            hen welfare, asked me rather cuttingly   the Universities of Oxford and Lincoln.
                                            what I was going to do ֱwhen I grew   The Robert Fraser Gordon Memorial
                                            upֱ. Forty years on, I will leave it to the   Trust was established in remembrance
                                            audience to decide whether it was   of Dr Robert Fraser Gordon, who
               rofessor Christine Nicol     worth me persisting!ֱ               throughout his career gave unstintingly
               presented the prestigious    She addressed the rapidly changing   of himself to the poultry industry and
               Gordon Memorial Trust Lecture   landscape in which hens are kept   the veterinary profession. Each year
       Pat this yearֱs WPSA conference      and how, although this resolves     the Trust selects a person who has
        in April. Within her lecture ֱWhither hen   some welfare concerns, it is not fully   made distinguished contributions to
        welfare?ֱ, she commented: ֱThe Robert   addressing others. Although there is a   poultry science.



        Dr Charlotte Burn and Ria Popat ֱ


        Winners of the Animal Technology and

        Welfare 2021 Journal prize




                ongratulations to Dr Charlotte   The paper has been published in
                Burn and Ms Ria Popat, who   the free, open access journal Animal
                won the Animal Technology and   Technology and Welfare, which covers
        CWelfare 2021 journal prize. The    animal science and technology,
        prize was awarded for their publication   management and education, and
        entitled ֱA tunnel is not enough:   promotes best practice for animal
        mice benefit from in-cage provision   welfare in research.
        of a communal shelter as well as a
        handling tunnelֱ. The research found
        that laboratory mice sheltered three times
        more when they had a dome-shaped
        shelter large enough to huddle together
        inside, compared with when they only had
        a tunnel shelter in their cage.
        The prize is awarded annually to
        the author of the ֱbest original
        peer-reviewed paperֱ in the journal
        Animal Technology and Welfare. It   The research described in the
        commemorates Marjorie (Sandiford)   paper was funded via a vacation
        Whittingham, who served on the      scholarship awarded to Ria Popat by
        Institute of Animal Technology      the Universities Federation for Animal
        council for 11 years, making exceptional  Welfare during her BSc Bioveterinary
        contributions to the organisationֱs work.    Sciences degree at RVC, and was
                                            supervised by Dr Burn.


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