The Livestack Podcase / Episode 6: Data & Food Animal Welfare, Part 2

Dr. Laura Boyle is a senior research officer with Teagasc – The Irish National Agriculture and Food Development Authority, with over 25 years of research expertise in farm animal behavior and welfare science.

Laura is an associate member of the European College of Animal Welfare and Behavioral Medicine (sub-specialty Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law), President of the Health and Welfare Commission of the European Federation of Animal Science and Editor in Chief of the Animal Behavior and Welfare specialty section in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

She is Adjunct Professor with the School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin. As well as informing policy at national level she was an expert with the European Food Safety Authority responsible for drafting the new Scientific Opinion on Pig Welfare published in June 2022. Dr. Boyle has published almost 130 peer-reviewed papers on pig and dairy cow welfare and has over 300 scientific abstracts in national and international conference proceedings.

Her main interests lie in effects of housing and management practices on the welfare of farm animals, in the link between animal health and animal welfare and in the contribution animal welfare can make to the sustainability of animal agriculture. Laura was the recipient of the British Society of Animal Science and Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals award for Innovative Developments in Animal Welfare in 2019. Laura also has education and advisory roles within the Teagasc pig development department at Moorepark, Co. Cork where she works. She holds a Bachelors of Agricultural Science degree and a Masters and PhD on the behavior and welfare of sows from University College Dublin. 

Listen in to this discussion with Dr. Boyle and her insight to Data & Food Animal welfare.