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Rachel LuiPosition/Title: MSc Coursework Student email: rlui@uoguelph.ca Phone: Office:
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Education
- Honours Bachelors of Arts and Science
- University of Toronto - 2014 - 2018
- Double major in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience and minor in Philosophy of Science
- Continuing Education : Non-degree
- University of Toronto - 2019 - 2020
- Masters of Animal Bioscience
- University of Guelph - 2021 - Present
- Research in poultry behaviour and welfare
Current Research
I am currently a MSc coursework student in Dr. Tina Widowski's lab, in which I will be investigating the effects of pecking blocks as an enrichment tool have on injurious pecking amongst layer chickens. Injurious pecking is when chicken peck at their conspecifics in repeated bouts that have no motive and the true ethological reason for this behaviour remains largely a mystery since there are so many various factors at play. Injurious pecking is a large welfare problem for poultry as this can result in severe injuries from cannibalistic or vent pecking or even death and thus, is a great research topic. Our tentative experimental set-up will include a choice test, where we will place a pecking block into cages along with scratch mats in various parts in the cage (on the wall above a scratch mat, on the wall away from the scratch mat, on the ground) and we will be collecting data over the span of fifteen weeks. Through video recording, we will be observing their pecking and foraging behaviour and then we will measure beak length, feather condition and egg quality before and after each experimental set-up to compare the effects and usage of these pecking blocks. There isn't a lot of literature that focuses on pecking blocks so this project will be the one of the first in this topic and we hope this will bring a lot of new important information to help improve poultry welfare.
Professional Experience
Before moving to Guelph, I worked primarily as a receptionist and animal care attendant at multiple animal clinics (Spadina, East York and Davenport) in Toronto that assisted companion animals. During my undergraduate degree, I interned at National Taiwan University under Dr. Yen, helping my PI's research in empathy and rats where I trained rats to open cages that trapped a roommate rat or a stranger rat. I also was a part of an independent research team at National Taiwan Zoo under Dr. Peng, setting up various environmental enrichment strategies to reduce injurious pecking among a small family of sulfur-crested cockatoos. (This zoo is also where I first learned about injurious pecking and stereotypy, which led to my current interest in chicken welfare.) Lastly, I was also a research asisstant under Dr. Martin at University of Toronto Mississauga where I helped prepare slides with brain specimen and and learned essential skills in immunochemistry.
Outside of STEM and chickens, I work as a model and actress and currently training to do voice-acting as well. I've appeared as background in several shows before like DC Titans, Handmaid's Tale and The Expanse and been in a couple commercials or online catalogue posts like Pizza Pops and Walmart. I am published in several fashion magazines and walked a few runway shows before the pandemic slowed down a lot of productions. So if you see a familiar face on screen or online, it might be me!