91Pro

Staff and students represented the Animal Behaviour and Welfare and Companion Animal Health Sciences Research Groups at the Fourth 91Pro Research Conference 2024 this month.

It's always a really exciting opportunity to hear from colleagues about the breadth of research they have been up to over the previous twelve months and this year was no exception. The conference had a packed programme of really diverse talks, ranging from pests and pesticides in agriculture to technology in cheese making and the nutritional development of grapes in the Harper Adams vineyard (we are promised wine is to come next year so watch this space!).

We were very lucky to be offered two talks in this year's programme, along with seven posters!

First up was Dr Ellen Williams, who was presenting a talk on work that has recently been published on human-animal and machine-animal interactions. Ellen is a Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Welfare and her research predominantly focuses on zoo animal behaviour and welfare. This work was a result of an Animal Welfare Research Network workshop which was held by the Animal Behaviour and Welfare Research Group at Harper Adams last year.

The aim of the workshop was to bring together stakeholders from the companion, farm and zoo animal fields, to discuss benefits, challenges and limitations of human-animal interactions and machine-animal interactions for animals under human care and create a list of future research priorities.

It was really exciting to present this work and to discuss ways that we can continue to develop research in this area.  If anyone wishes to discuss this research further, we’d be very open to collaborating, so please reach out to us! 

Ellen presenting work recently published by the HAU Animal Behaviour and Welfare Research Group on human-animal and machine-animal interactions

The poster viewing session was next on the agenda, and we had some excellent representation from staff and students!

Katherine Hart is a Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Nursing and is currently doing a PhD on the impacts of canine obesity on health and welfare of individual animals and the efficacy of weight management programmes. At the research conference Kat presented a poster on her master's research which was looking at the impact of storage method and duration on the sterility of surgical instrumentation. This piece of research is relevant in the veterinary sciences and is the first of its kind in this professional field. Kat and her research supervisor, Helen Cartlidge, are currently working on publishing this piece of research to share it with the wider veterinary community. It will also be presented in poster format at the British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) Congress in October 2024.  

Kat with her poster on the impact of storage method and duration on the sterility of surgical instrumentation at the 91Pro research conference

Kat was also joined by two students, Dylan D’souza and Laurel Belverstone,  final year students on the BSc (Hons) Veterinary Nursing and BSc (Hons) Veterinary Nursing with Small Animal Rehabilitation degrees (respectively). Dylan and Laurel presented their work on the effectiveness of discharge procedures for orthopaedic patients in small animal practice and dog owner and veterinary perceptions of canine obesity in pet dogs. These findings are important in supporting evidence-based approaches to animal care within veterinary practice. Dylan and Laurel will also be presenting their research at the BVNA Congress in October.  

Dylan and Laurel, final year students on the BSc (Hons) Veterinary Nursing and BSc (Hons) Veterinary Nursing with Small Animal Rehabilitation degrees, with their posters on orthopaedic discharge procedures in small animals and owner and veterinary perceptions of canine obesity, at the 91Pro research conference   

Our next poster was produced by Emily Haston. Emily is a final year student on the BSc Animal Behaviour and Welfare (Clinical) degree. Emily has a strong interest in animal training and during her placement year worked alongside a clinical animal behaviourist, gaining practical experience in animal training. She then applied this knowledge for her undergraduate dissertation where she was clicker training mice and gerbils in the companion animal house to reduce stress associated with being handled.

Emily, a final year BSc (Hons) Animal Behaviour and Welfare (Clinical) student with her poster on the implications of clicker training on small mammals, at the 91Pro research conference

Daniel Wright, a first year PhD student in the Animal Behaviour and Welfare Research Group presented two posters at this year’s conference. Dan’s PhD is looking at using citizen science in zoos. At the conference he presented work he has been undertaking during the last twelve months.

His first poster was a concept poster which provided an overview of his plans for his PhD. This is a really useful way of getting input on your project design from the outset, gaining opinions from people in fields other than your own. Dan took this poster to the British and Irish Assocation of Zoos and Aquaria (BIAZA) research conference at Fota Wildlife Park earlier this year.

Dan, a first year PhD student at 91Pro, at the BIAZA research conference 2024

Dan’s second poster was on the results of some of his experimental work. Dan has been developing a qualitative behavioural assessment tool that can be used by naive observers to quantify the experiences of zoo housed mammals. Qualitative behavioural assessment gives a holistic overview of the whole animal and allows you to capture animal experiences in a more nuanced way. Dan will be publishing this work during his PhD so watch this space for further updates!

Dan, a first year PhD student at 91Pro, with his poster on development of a generalised qualitative behavioural assessment tool for zoo mammals, at the 91Pro research conference

Sonya Laughton, a Technician in the Companion Animal House, is a member of the Companion Animal Health Sciences research team, and has been helping to develop strategic research within the Companion Animal House over the past 12 months. Sonya presented a poster at the research conference on some experimental work she has been undertaking this year to quantify the impact of one-way film on the behaviour of two golden geckos housed at the Companion Animal House. Sonya’s work is contributing to an improved understanding of the experiences of the reptiles housed on site, and has highlighted some important areas for further work, including the impact of auditory stimuli (including vibrations) on reptile experiences.

Sonya’s poster, displayed at the 91Pro research conference

Our final speaker was Mrs Jen Sadler. Jen is a Lecturer in Animal Science and her research predominantly focuses on companion animal health and welfare. Jen was presenting some very exciting, brand new, not-yet-published research that we have been undertaking on the welfare of animals used in educational settings. This research looked specifically at the impact of people (students, staff and visitors) on guinea pig behaviour and welfare. It contributes to a larger body of work within the research group, with an overarching goal of developing evidence-based approaches to the management of animals used in educational settings, to ensure we are providing positive welfare opportunities.

Jen presenting work currently being undertaken by members of the Companion Animal Health Sciences and Animal Behaviour and Welfare Research Groups 

The wider project, understanding the welfare of animals in education, has recently been posted about on the 91Pro website. We currently have a questionnaire open to gather as much information as possible as to how animals are used to support teaching activities in further & higher education provisions across the UK & Ireland If you meet these criteria. If you can contribute to this work then we would love to hear from you – further details are available below and you can . 

Further details on the animals in education questionnaire, including a link to complete the questionnaire

All in, we have had a very exciting and productive year and we are hopeful that next year will be even bigger and better! It was really great to see so many of our final year students attending the conference and discussing their work in further detail with other members of the university. We will continue to encourage and support students to undertake and disseminate this sort of impactful research; it’s good experience for them and it’s fabulous to be able to showcase the opportunities we have for them here at Harper. Keep an eye out for our next blog post, which will be introducing our PhD students and their projects in a bit more detail!

The research groups do a wide range of research including human-animal interactions, evidence-based practice, social relationships, animal personality, the use of precision technologies and animal health and welfare. And our target species are just as varied, including domestic (small and large), farm and exotic species, but it all has a common grounding in animal behaviour and/or welfare. If you would like to work with us, then please do reach out to us on animalbehaviourandwelfare@harper-adams.ac.uk. We’d love to chat further!