Dairy Sheep & Goat Conference 2019

“Challenges Old and New”
– our fourth annual conference, February 2019

Conference Speakers

In order of appearance:

Yoav Alony Gilboa DVM Cert SHP MRCVS graduated from Jerusalem University in 1996, working in farm practice in Israel with small ruminants until 2003. He then spent 5 years at The Royal Veterinary College, London as senior farm clinician before moving to Friars Moor Livestock Health in Dorset. He is a member of the British Sheep and Goat Veterinary Societies, holds a RCVS Certificate in Sheep Health and Production and is an Israeli specialist in small ruminant health and production.

Josephine Child BVetMed MRCVS graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 2011. She worked in neighbouring Wiltshire for 5 years before joining the Friars Moor team in October 2016. Josephine grew up in rural Sussex, where she gained her first exposure to beef and sheep work, helping out with lambing and developing a keen interest in herd and flock health. Since then she has progressed to include all aspects of farm animal practice although her particular interests lie with sheep lameness and parasitology. Since joining Friars Moor she has become an intergral part of the small ruminant team, working closely with members of our commercial Flock club and we hope will continue to develop this role.

Cindy Wolf DVM is a graduate of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine and is an expert in small ruminant medicine and production.  She is an educator and promoter of small ruminants. She recently retired from training veterinary students for the past 33 years at the University of Minnesota at the College of Veterinary Medicine where her favorite activity was teaching students ambulatory medicine and surgery on small ruminant farms of all sizes.  She is active in organized veterinary medicine as the small ruminant representative  on the American Veterinary Medicine Association’s Animal Welfare Committee, US Animal Health Association, chairs the Student Educational Opportunities committee for the American Association of Small Ruminant Practitioners, and is co-chair of the American Sheep Industry Association Animal (Sheep) Health Committee.  She now practices as a solo veterinary practitioner and raises sheep, goats and beef cattle with her family in southeastern Minnesota.

James Patrick Crilly MA VetMB CertAVP DipECSRHM MRCVS graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2010. After a short period of charity work in North Africa, he worked in mixed practice in the Scottish Highlands. He undertook a residency in farm animal health and production (sheep) at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh 2013-2015. He gained his RCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice and became a Diplomate of the European College of Small Ruminant Health Management in 2016. He currently works in first opinion large animal practice in southern England, and is a guest lecturer at the University of Cambridge.

Barry Larkham-Jones BVMS MRCVS (HIPRA). Raised on a beef and sheep farm in Scotland Barry qualified from the Dick Vet in 2009. His first year was spent in his local mixed practice before deciding to make the move to a farm animal only veterinary practice in Shropshire. He then had a 5 year stint as a bull stud vet with Genus Breeding before joining Hipra in 2018. His passion lies in improving animal health and welfare whilst enhancing farm profitability.

Rosie Reyneke BVM&S BSc(VetSci) MRCVS graduated from the Royal Dick Veterinary College in 2009. She then spent a few years working in mixed veterinary practice in Lincolnshire before moving to New Zealand in 2012. Whilst in New Zealand she spent several years working in farm animal practice, then moving to become a technical veterinary advisor in the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on ruminants. She developed a strong interest in flock/herd health and particularly the role of preventative healthcare, including vaccination. In 2018 she moved back to the UK and joined Virbac, where she is Technical Product Manager for their Ruminant portfolio.

Catriona Ritchie BVMS MSc MRCVS graduated from the University of Glasgow and spent three years in mixed practice before the next 14 years in Veterinary Investigation Officer and disease surveillance centre manager roles for SAC in north and north east Scotland. Her work involved farm animal diagnostic pathology, disease surveillance plus cattle, sheep and goat health schemes. In 2014 she returned to farm animal practice and also set up a fertility company, mainly doing sheep and goat lap AI and sheep ET work, whilst continuing to work part time as a veterinary investigation officer. Catriona also has a Masters in Livestock Health & Production. She joined Axiom Vet Lab as a Farm Animal Veterinary Advisor in May 2018.

Nico Verduin is a sheep farmer, regional chairman of the farmers’ organization LTO and chairman of Dutch Goats Dairy Organization for collectors and processors of goat milk. Milk quality and sustainability are important current themes. Together with his partner Irma he started their company Westfriesedijk.NL in 2000, with 650 East Frisian dairy sheep. The milk is processed at a company in the region and the marketing of the Gouda sheep cheese is done by themselves.

Laura Wilson BVM&S MVPH MRCVS APHA graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 2004, and following a stint in mixed practice in Scotland she joined the Animal & Plant Health Agency (or State Veterinary Service as it was then) in 2006, based in Devon. Since then she has worked primarily in field services, dealing mainly with TB in a range of species, but also working in other areas such as welfare, border controls and artificial breeding controls. In 2014, she completed a Masters in Veterinary Public Health at the University of Glasgow. She now spends part of her working week as a Veterinary Investigation Officer primarily carrying out carrying out post mortem work and diagnostics, and she is also currently on a secondment in the APHA Epidemiology & Risk team, working primarily on surveillance and trade related work.

Jenny Bellini BVSc MRCVS graduated from Bristol Veterinary School in 2014 and joined Friars Moor soon after. Jenny works primarily in dairy cattle health and production, with special interests in young stock rearing, block calving herds and nutrition. Since joining the practice she has started a Young Stock Discussion Group and a Block Calver Discussion Group which she runs with her colleagues. Jenny helped develop and lead Friars Moor’s antimicrobial campaign which started in 2015. The practice led a successful campaign across their 30,000 dairy cows to stop using high priority CIAs by 2017 and to continue to achieve a reduction in overall antibiotic use across their dairy farms. Jenny has spoken about the campaign both nationally and internationally, to fellow vets, farmers, milk processors and government, with the campaign helping to shape Red Tractor policy as well as future government policy.

Emily Gascoigne MA VetMB Dip.ECSRHM MRCVS graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2012 and began an internship with Synergy Farm Health in Dorset. She completed a residency in 2018 under the supervision of Dr Fiona Lovatt MRCVS and gained her Diploma with the European College of Small Ruminant Health Management. Her specialist interest is flock health planning and lamb survival.

Gian Lorenzo DVM MSc PhD FRCVS has a mixed clinical veterinary background, with a strong emphasis on ruminants health management. He spent over ten years working with dairy sheep flocks in semi-extensive systems in Central Italy. Since 2016 he is a Diplomate and European Specialist in Small Ruminant Health and Management. He is currently in farm animal practice with Endell Veterinary Group in Wiltshire.

Joséphine Van Acker MSc gained, during her studies for BSc Agro- and Biotechnology at University College Ghent, theoretical and practical knowledge on animals, agriculture and dairy farming. She performed an internship on a DeLaval dairy farm acquiring hands-on skills on dairy farming. Passionate about animals, she studied an MSc Wildlife Biology and Conservation at Edinburgh Napier University with emphasis on research.
Since 2016, she works as Technical Service Specialist, PP Milk Quality and Animal Health at DeLaval Drongen, Belgium and is specialized in the cleaning of conventional milking machines. Responsible for the execution of field trials, product testing and market support in Europe, she combines her practical knowledge and research experiences in her current position.

Some Feedback from Attendees at previous conferences

(for more see ‘Testimonials‘)