May 26, 2020, by Emma Allaway

British Society of Animal Science Industry Prize Success

The British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) recently announced the five finalists of its prestigious 2020 Industry Prize. Three of the five finalists were from the School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, reflecting the School’s numerous successful collaborations with industry.

Kimberley Slinger, for her abstract titled ‘Identification of the origin of host DNA content in the gastrointestinal tract of the broiler chicken.’ Kimberley recently completed her PhD in Nutritional Sciences. Her research, sponsored by AB Vista Feed Ingredients, focused on the development of a method designed to assess host DNA in pig and chicken faecal samples, which potentially acts as a marker of gut cell loss. During the final stages of her PhD, she worked as a Research Assistant on two projects in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. First, examining the nutrient composition of grasslands and, second, utilising computer vision to predict dairy cow behaviour.

 

Kerensa Hawkey, for her abstract titled ‘Can commercial enzymes be used to enhance the nutritional composition of Tenebrio molitor (yellow mealworm) as an alternative protein source.’ Having grown up on the family farm in Cornwall, Kerensa moved to the Sutton Bonington Campus to study BSc Animal Science, with a specific interest in nutrition and production science. Following her degree, she went on to work for Mole Valley Feed Solutions as a Trainee Feed Formulator for a year. Kerensa then resumed her PhD at the University of Nottingham, looking at insects as nutrient concentrators for sustainable animal feeds.  Her PhD links in with her interest in sustainable agriculture and utilising nutrition to improve environmental impacts.

Lucy Ross, for her abstract titled ‘Effect of calfhood respiratory disease on rearing targets in Holstein-Friesian dairy heifers.’ Lucy is a second year PhD student researching heifer rearing and whole-farm feed efficiency in UK dairy systems in partnership with AHDB. Lucy is also a committee member of the BSAS Early Careers Council where she is involved in writing blogs and articles for the website. To date Lucy has presented her work at AHDB’S Livestock Conference 2020, TotalDairy 2019 and at the University of Nottingham’s PhD Symposium 2019 where she was awarded second place for her presentation. Lucy’s other achievements include winning the RABDF Farm Health Management Award 2020 presented at DairyTech in February.

 

Helen Warren, Chair of the BSAS Stakeholder Group, commented ‘We received a wealth of outstanding entries to this year’s award and our finalists were selected based on the superior quality and innovative nature of their research, as well as their diligence in ensuring that their work fulfilled the need of the end-user. Their demonstrated thought around providing maximum impact to industry across aspects, including return on investment and feasibility of introducing new concepts derived from research’.

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