Valerie Monckton Position/Title: M.Sc. by thesis email: vmonckto@uoguelph.ca Phone: Office: ANNU R015 Research Gate LinkedIn

            After graduating from my BSc in 2017, I travelled across Europe for nine months with my partner in an effort to figure out my next step. Over the course of this trip, I spent four and a half months working on five different farms/smallholdings and gained experience with many different animals. My experience on these farms, combined with my love of animals and the study of animal behaviour, led me to pursue a MSc by thesis degree in Animal Behaviour and Welfare under the supervision of Dr. Alexandra Harlander.

            Industry standards for poultry housing in Canada do not mandate regular short-term cleaning in poultry barns, so most birds, if housed on litter, live out their lives standing on their own manure [1, 2]. Few studies exist on how this kind of housing impacts their behaviour and welfare. My thesis project will be composed of two separate experiments conducted at the Arkell Poultry Research Facility and the Cow Barn behind ANNU, and will assess the motivation of turkeys and broiler (meat) chickens to access different litter substrates compared to their very dirty “home” litter.

            I ran the first experiment in July 2018, where I evaluated the motivation of 24 turkey hens to move from dirty “home” litter to clean litter, bare (AKA rubber mat) flooring, or dirty litter treated with PLT (a product that inhibits ammonia release from faeces). I then compared these results to their motivation to access food (the gold standard) or dirty litter (our negative control) over home litter. In order to assess their motivation to access the treatments, I weighted the doors that led into the treatment compartment at 0%, 20% or 40% of the hens’ average body weight and recorded how much time they spent in the home compared to the treatments.  

            I am currently working on analyzing the video footage of the broiler chicks. Upon completion of my MSc degree, I plan to travel and work on farms across Canada in order to explore the country and see first-hand the challenges faced by animals and farmers across Canada.

Education:

• BSc in Biological, Biomedical and Life Sciences majoring in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University

Scholarships and Awards:

• Resource Allocation for Graduates (RAG) Scholarship recipient 2018-2020
• Care-a-thon Animal Welfare Research Scholarship (2019)
• Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare (CCSAW) Research Travel Grant (2019)
• Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) Animal Welfare Student Scholarship (2019)

   

References:

1.     On-Farm Programs. 2010: Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency c.o.b. Turkey Farmers of Canada.

2.     Cleaning and Disinfecting, in On-Farm Food Safety Assurance Program Manual. 2014, Chicken Farmers of Canada. p.49-52.

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