Dr. Nienke van Staaveren is an animal scientist who completed her M.Sc. in Animal Science at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) and obtained her PhD in Veterinary Medicine from University College Dublin (Ireland) and Teagasc – the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority. Since 2017, she works as a researcher and project manager at the University of Guelph, bridging the Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock and the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare. Using her expertise in animal welfare, health, and behaviour in various species including swine, poultry, and, more recently, ruminants, she is looking to improve animal health and welfare, animal production, and livelihood of farmers.

Some of the main research areas she works on include:

• Investigation of tail lesions as indicators of pig welfare and health (collaboration with Teagasc, on-going)

• Fundamental and epidemiological approaches to understand the mechanisms and management of feather pecking in laying hens

• Application of genomic selection in turkeys for health, welfare, efficiency and production traits

• Integrating genomic approaches to improve dairy cattle resilience to enhance Canadian dairy industry sustainability