I am interested in the health of farmed livestock - focusing on cattle and sheep but recently expanding to include farmed deer and South American camelids - and also in the interplay between animal and human/public health within the One Health context. I hope to pursue new areas of work following on from the activities I have completed in the current Strategic Research Programme, specifically looking at the role of non-livestock species or atypical livestock species in the epidemiology of pathogens relevant for Scottish producers. This includes situations in which the influence of climate and/or changing movement patterns or farming practices may lead to changing risk for Scottish livestock.

I have worked for over a decade on projects investigating the role of livestock in the epidemiology of human STEC infection in Scotland and further afield, and also on both AMR and AM usage in farmed species. I have contributed to projects on surveillance approaches in animal health, including a GB-wide survey of AMR in healthy cattle entering the food chain, and am currently part of the SRUC team developing a surveillance system for AMR in the UK healthy dog and cat populations, with funding from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.

Before joining SRUC in 2012 I worked for just under five years as a vet in predominantly mixed general practice in Northern Ireland and briefly in Scotland.