International veterinarians working together

Bruce is senior Farm Animal veterinary surgeon at Paragon Veterinary Group in Cumbria, leading a team of 11 clinicians and 2 vet techs. He has a particular clinical interest in Dairy Herd Health and Fertility, focusing on efficient and profitable production. He gained the Diploma in Bovine Reproduction in 2006 and also provides International Dairy Farm Consultancy, (most recently in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Russia) including training and development of veterinary and technical staff. 

He also Business Director of Paragon Veterinary Group, a two centred, multi disciplined, independent veterinary practice in Cumbria.

Working as veterinary surgeon and veterinary consultant in Ireland. Special interest in education of farmers and undergraduates, past president, hon treasurer, chair food animal group,of Veterinary Ireland. Director of XLVets Ireland.

Dutch by birth, lived in the UK for 26 years, predominantly in Wales. Long suffering Welsh husband, mother of three teenagers. Worked full time on farms in Netherlands and France. Worked as a vet in mixed practice in the Netherlands and UK for several years. Completed a residency in farm animals at the Royal Veterinary College/UC Davis-Tulare/Shepton Veterinary Group and Certificate in Cattle Health and Production in 2006. Founding member of ProStock Vets in 2011.
Interests are: Milk Quality, Harvesting and Mastitis, Livestock-ecosystem synergy, Water and nutrition, Soil health, Restoration of ecosystems, Orchards, Silvopasture and Agroforestry.
In my free time I enjoy being outside with nature on our farm, vernacular buildings and conservation, reading, music, cooking and eating

I graduated in Lisbon in 2007, and always had the ambition of working with food producing animals, in particular with cattle.
My Doctoral studies (2007-2009) were a life-changing experience in the sense that I lived abroad for the first time, which taught me a lot about myself, and I had to work amongst extremely demanding individuals, who expected nothing but excellence.
I have taught in Vet School-University Lusófona since 2009 and that has equipped me with a strong ability to engage people to know and do more, considering that not many vet students are naturally interested in farm animals. It has also prepared me for public speaking in different types of audience and provided my research opportunities.
The residency programme at the Royal Veterinary College (2012-2015) has put me in contact with the best specialists in cattle health and production in the world, such as Joep Driessen, Peter Edmonson, Arcangelo Gentile and many others, and obtain the Dip.ECBHM title.
My work at the UK governmental agency APHA (2018-2019) has took my scientific skills and knowledge to a higher level and given me a different perspective of the animal production sector.
My strengths lie not only on my scientific knowledge and clinical experience, but also my solid soft skills, including empathy, flexibility of thought, team work, and ability to inspire others.
I believe my next right step is to use these skills in a consultant role, where I can work with clients to improve their livelihoods and ruminant’s health and welfare.

Dr Júlia is a Hungarian branded refugee, raised in the United States, and calling Aotearoa home since 2015. She graduated from Washington State University in 2015 and has led quite an eclectic career, including government regulation and oversight of New Zealand’s primary industries, wild avian medicine, and recently companion animal medicine and surgery. In 2022, Dr Júlia completed Memberships in Veterinary Public Health. Every day, she strives to live up to her passions in using veterinary medicine and science for the benefit of humanity, her love of animals and this Earth, and her dedication to a high quality spectrum of veterinary care.
When not at work, Dr Júlia focuses on self care through time with her husband and loved ones, catching up on her favourite shows, rocking out to music, and finding ways to keep her body active.

Bovine individual and curative medicine : internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics
Dairy bovine preventive and herd medicine : monthly or bimonthly preventive medicine (+-2200 dairy cows ; reproduction, udder health, nutrition, dry cows management, etc)
Livestock data collection and analyses system implementation
Creation and follow-up of field trials for nutritional and pharmaceutical products
Involved in the developpement of Optiperf (provide Milk recording and associate services to our veterinary practice clients)
Consultant for feed companies: farmers and technicians trainings, technical field assistance, products and technical strategy developpement advice
Expertise robotic treats and milking

Based and raised in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, I attended The University of Edinburgh and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery in 2002. Having worked over 20 years in farm animal clinical practice I started my own Veterinary consulting company in 2023 to pursue my passion in preventative animal healthcare. The company targets proactive health planning on farms to decrease morbidity and mortality and reduce the requirement for administration of antibiotics, while maximising animal welfare and productivity. At present I have a contract with a world leading producer of whole bovine colostrum, for whom I provide technical consultation services. I have conducted an on farm study investigating the supplementation of passive transfer of calves and provision of enriched pasteurised transition milk to a spring calving, pasture based batch calving production unit. The results showed a dramatic decrease in the use of antibiotics (mainly HP-CIA's), improvements in health and weight gain. I will present these findings at the World Buiatrics Congress in Mexico 2024. I also provide consultation services using data analysis software (Dairycomp Consultant) to analyse fertility on farms and increase submission rates by good management, nutrition strategies and disease control to reduce the need for hormonal intervention. The company goal regarding fertility is to reduce the average days in milk of a herd by natural (pasture based), sustainable methods to reduce the number of cows required to produce the same volume of milk, thereby improving sustainability. The company has courses certified by Lantra Awards to educate animal health professionals in health and management procedures - Selective Dry Cow Therapy, Calving Cow Management and Johne's disease control (currently awaiting certification). In my spare time I like to surf and explore the beaches of the beautiful Welsh coastline.

Experienced farm vet of 12 years, primarily working in herd health management. I have worked as self-employed for 8 out of 12 years.
I am very engaged in communication and mediation of knowledge to farmers, farm staff and vet students. As a person I am organized, professional, likeable and good at communicating with a lot of different people. I have a high degree of professional competence and continue to expand my knowledge through courses, self-study (articles and professional material) and working. Besides my work in practice I have been involved with different projects, including an Arla-project on mortality (ultimo 2023), writing articles and producing relevant educational content for farmers for social media.
I see myself as a competent consultant with my experience in practice combined with my eager to learn and my skills in mediating educational / professional content. These skills provide me with the ability to communicate on different levels of knowledge and make professional content easy for everyone to understand, regardless of their background in education. My personality allows me to come across as both likeable, smiling and professional at the same time.
Professionally I am interested in herd health management; giving advice using the available data on farm, calves/youngstock, reproduction and feeding. I consider myself professionally competent in all the relevant areas of dairy farming, with a special interest in the aforementioned. Besides that I have taken extra courses in calves/youngstock, reproduction, 'fagdyrlæge (see earlier)' and I am currently attending an advanced course in udder health.

Leena qualified as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in Helsinki in 1986, and was a practicing veterinarian in country field practice for over a decade. 

As a veterinary expert in livestock, animal husbandry, welfare of production animals, meat and milk hygiene, antimicrobial resistance, food safety and public health, she is ideally suited to join our team of international expert consultants. 

Leena is already involved in several national working groups concerning food policy, animal health and welfare, and veterinary medicine.

Following graduation from Glasgow University in 2010, I have lived and worked at the coalface of veterinary practice in the agricultural heartland of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. I fostered the foundations of my undergraduate degree by completing a Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice in production animals in 2017. I am passionate about sustainable youngstock production as a key component of the farming enterprise. In 2019 I furthered this clinical interest by undertaking a Masters (Research): Investigating the Failure of Passive Transfer and Colostrum Quality in Scottish dairy calves back at Glasgow University. My time is divided between clinical practice and undertaking freelance consultancy work to provide veterinary expertise to wider industry including food processors and retailers.

I have more than 20 years of experience as veterinarian and I am working almost exclusively as advisory veterinarian in dairy herds at Vendsyssel Landdyrlæger.
I have previously worked in mixed practice and I have for eight years worked as dairy farmer, which gives me an extensive experience in the meeting with the cattle farmer.
I see the agenda on sustainability as crucial to the future of the cattle industry. We, the cattle industry, must deliver concrete, measurable results on climate parameters and simultaneously show positive results on agendas of welfare, nature conservation, biodiversity and local development. By showing results on the mentioned agendas, we have the opportunity to affect the political agenda and hereby achieve a more sustainable political opinion to develop our industry.

Kevin Crews is a Massey University 1983 veterinary graduate and is Managing Director for CTSL, a New Zealand registered company that specialises in disease and pest management strategic and operational design, One Health systems, operational epidemiology, quality assurance, monitoring and audit, and training. He has worked in the areas of preventative medicine, industry disease control and quality assurance for nearly 40 years, in both the public and private sectors.
He is a member of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists by examination in epidemiology and is a foundation member of the College’s Veterinary Public Health (VPH) Chapter. He is a member of the Subject Standards Committee of the VPH Chapter; a role that includes supervision and mentorship of VPH exam candidates.
Kevin co-chairs the One Heath Aotearoa (OHA) Symposium Organising Committee. OHA is an alliance that brings together experts in academic research and operational science from the fields of animal, human and environmental health.
Kevin is a member of the New Zealand Veterinary Association’s Epidemiology, Food Safety, Animal Welfare and Biosecurity (E-FAB) Special Interest Branch, having previously served on the executive committee of the branch (and its predecessors) for 15 years, four of these as President. Kevin is also a member of New Zealand Veterinary Association’s Sheep & Beef Cattle Society.
Kevin has delivered papers on NZ’s successful bovine tuberculosis (TB) strategy at multiple international conferences throughout the past 25 years, as well as being author/co-author of several published papers on bovine TB.

Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Lisbon (2000). Diplomate of the European College of Bovine Health Management (ECBHM, 2008), following a 3-year residency at the University of Glasgow. PhD in Veterinary Sciences, in the field of Microbiology, by the University of Lisbon (2011). Executive Master’s in Management with specialization in Marketing by the University Institute of Lisbon (2010).
Assistant professor at the University of Lisbon, since 2012, lecturing and performing practical classes on farm on Production Animal Clinics, Reproduction and Obstetrics, Microbiology, Immunology, Herd Health. Published 40 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and 6 books/book chapters, generating over 1000 citations on Scopus. Has completed the supervision of 39 Master’s students and one PhD student, Currently supervising 2 PhD students and 2 ECBHM residents.
Managing-partner at a veterinary practice focusing on ruminants, since 2011. Has worked as a consultant on over 30 farms, mostly addressing issues related to milk quality/udder health, calf health, business implementation and expansion, and biosecurity. Has provided extensive training for farm, pharmaceutical and agrochemical companies’ staff, and veterinarians. Has worked as project developer and co-manager for the De-Levie (Israeli livestock trading company) farm, since 2018, which acquired 91.969 lambs in Portugal, in 2022, most exported by vessel to Israel.
Has contributed to knowledge transfer to farmers and veterinarians, through the organization of 25 conferences, including the World Buiatrics Congress in Lisbon. Former president of the Portuguese Buiatrics Association (2014-2017). Founding member and vice-president of the Portuguese Council for Udder Health (2011-2014).

Victor Oudhuis qualified as a veterinary surgeon in 1997 from the University of Ghent (Belgium) and has been working as a farm animal practitioner in Luxembourg, Ireland and the UK since then. In 2008 he gained his Diploma in Bovine Reproduction (Msc) and has been providing Veterinary Dairy Consultancy on large dairy units worldwide (most recently in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) since 2014. His main interests are data analysis (epidemiology), herd health planning, developing protocols/SOP’s and providing theoretical and practical training to vets and farm staff.

I graduated at the end of 2010 and work as a farm vet in North Waikato in New Zealand. I am passionate about preventative dairy herd health and working closely with farmers to achieve their goals. I am an InCalf adviser, an accredited mastitis advisor, an accredited BCS assessor, an active member of the cattle chapter of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists and an associate member of the NZIPIM. I also chair a community dairy farming group focused on increasing the wealth, sustainability and satisfaction of dairy farmers in the local region.
Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my family, exploring the outdoors and music.

As a dual-qualified vet and rural surveyor with 25 years of large animal experience plus the privilege of having managed a 12,000 acre private rural estate with six farms on a UNESCO World Heritage Site, plus three properties for the National Trust in a National Park, I have had a uniquely wide grounding in conservation. Since 2015 I have run an international mixed-discipline consultancy covering veterinary research into biomechanics coupled with compliance, biosecurity (bTB and general) and animal welfare audits for farms, and rural development services. I have myself farmed sheep and cattle, and am currently converting my second farm to organic status based on building soil health and am a great advocate of genuine regenerative farming in all its guises. I am an independent member of the National Trust Livestock Advisory Group and a Trustee of Glastonbury Abbey.

DVM 1996, PhD 2003, experience from 10 years in cattle and sheep practice and 18 years as university researcher in herd health, analysis of herd data, effect of advisory service, milking hygiene, robotic milking, antibiotic resistance in conventional and organic farming, Experience from secondary opinions in dairy herds in Denmark and other countries.

Owen graduated from the University of Liverpool in 1994 with distinction. After working in clinical dairy practice for 19 years and gaining RCVS Specialist status he founded Dairy Veterinary Consultancy in 2013.
Owen provides advice and training for all types of dairy farming and veterinary businesses with a focus on leading effective change. He was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship (2010) to develop consultancy within the dairy veterinary sector. He developed the UK's national lameness management initiative for dairy farms (Healthy Feet Programme) and Dairy UK's MilkSure programme, for more responsible use of veterinary medicines and avoiding medicine residues in milk. He is an assessor for the National Association of Cattle Foot Trimmers and co-authored the well regarded textbook, Bovine Surgery and Lameness.
His research interests include the diagnosis and prevalence of sub-acute rumen acidosis and other rumen health disorders; the health and welfare of calves and behavioural characteristics of housed herds.
In 2022, Owen was awarded a Post Graduate Certificate in Change Leadership with distinction from Aberystwyth University. He is an experienced trainer, facilitator and mentor, as comfortable working with teams of people as he is with cows. He is experienced in working with hot climate dairy herds, as well as European dairy businesses of all scales and systems (housed; block calving; voluntary milking systems).
Owen’s professional goal is to improve the lives of cows and the people who look after them.

Mark Bryan is a veterinarian and researcher working in New Zealand. He is a director of VetSouth, one of two clinical research clinics in the South Island and Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Dairy Cattle Medicine at Massey University. He has promoted methods to retain quality staff in rural practice and to improve veterinary services and research.

Through veterinary science I have had incredible opportunities to work all over the world, in a wide range of roles, and with people from vastly different economical, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Experiencing the animal-related struggles and triumphs shared by humans from Somalia to Sydney has reinforced just how important animal health and well-being are to all of us.
Completing a Master of Social Change and Development has provided a structural backbone to my practice, enabling a more complex understanding of the challenges faced by humans as we work to ensure our populations are fed and clothed, whilst improving on animal health and well-being.
I have always had a strong interest in teaching and helping others understand their animals and their needs, and I have a particular passion for preventative medicine, epidemiology, and welfare.
I have been described as logical, intuitive, and patient by my peers, and thoroughly enjoy learning and sharing knowledge, and using creativity to tackle the complex and wicked problems we face together.

Following 11 years of clinical practice in the UK, I spent 3 and 1/2 years as a senior lecturer in cattle health and production in New Zealand. For the last 6 and 1/2 years I have worked as a dairy nutritionist for the Evidence Group in the UK, prior to commencing work with Advanced Ruminant Nutrition in Jan 2021. I have undertaken study visits to the USA and mainland Europe. I have a strong record of collaborative research and publication as well as having spoken at both national and international conferences. As well as undertaking train the trainer I have experience of both lecturing and small group practical training, including ongoing teaching roles at Massey University and Glasgow University. I am currently undertaking a PhD with University of Liverpool studying protein metabolism in transition dairy cows.
Alongside strong clinical practice experience I have extensive experience of nutrition and feeding management in both extensive and highly intensive dairy systems, working with farmers to optimise health, fertility, production and profitability. I am skilled in the use of a variety of dairy management software packages, rationing systems and feeding management software.

Monitoring herds dairy production (cattle and goats) and lactating
Breeding audits
Development of livestock breeding plans
Optimization of production and management of breeding (reproduction, feeding and quality of milk)
Expertise robotic treats and milking

Animation and training of technical teams, firm services, dairies, agricultural machinery, pharmaceutical laboratories in France and abroad
Technical and strategic support for food manufacturers and service firms (France and abroad)
Hosting and training organizations for foreign executives and veterinarians
Technical training for veterinarians, technical staff, sales representatives, breeders in French and English
Monitoring herds dairy production (cattle and goats) and lactating
Breeding audits
Development of livestock breeding plans
Management consulting collective pathology
Optimization of production and management of breeding (reproduction, feeding and quality of milk)
Expertise robotic treats and milking

Graduated Sydney University Veterinary School 1974. 1975 to 1982 Mixed rural clinical practice Cooma NSW (Australia)
1983 to 1993 veterinarian with the Australian Commonwealth government Department of Primary Industries (Canberra) - animal health and welfare, veterinary public health and market access. 1993 to the present, New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, various operational management roles in the South island leading teams of up to 50 veterinarians. Currently manage the MPI Verification Services animal welfare programme oversighting the work of 200 veterinarians on animal welfare issues. Closely involved in developing legislation as well as the practical implementation of animal welfare standards within New Zealand predominantly for livestock. Work closely with livestock industry organisations on implementing animal welfare standards in NZ. Was on the Board of the New Zealand Veterinary Association for over 12 years, President of NZVA 2009/2010/2011. Awarded an Honorary degree from Massey University Veterinary School in 2013. Currently chair the New Zealand Animal Welfare Network Aotearoa (AWNA) on behalf of NZVA. The network brings together over 40 organisations that have an involvement with animals - companion, livestock, wild or feral.
Have recently semi-retired and working 3 days per week for MPI.
I am a very fit 71 year old, am President of the local tennis club and am volunteering at the Christchurch Wildlife Veterinary Hospital. I have a broad interest in the One Health concept and how the veterinary profession can contribute to the wide range of challenges that we face that fit within the One Health umbrella.