International veterinarians working together

Diether qualified as a veterinary surgeon in 2004 from the University of Ghent, Belgium and has been working as a farm animal practitioner ever since. He holds the Certificate in Cattle Health and Production and Diploma in Bovine Health Management. He is an RCVS recognised Specialist in Cattle Health and Production. His main interests are herd health, cattle lameness and practical training to vets

Thirty years experience in mixed species practice with an specialist interest in sheep health
Recent graduate in Conservation Medicine (Edinburgh) and now looking at disease processes with a one health perspective

Kate was born and brought up in New Zealand and gained her veterinary degree from Massey University in 1994, completed a production animal internship at Colorado State University in 1999 and gained her Certificate in Cattle Health and Production from the RCVS in 2002. Kate has traveled extensively and spent time working in New Zealand, the United States, the Netherlands and many areas of the United Kingdom. In 2002 Kate founded a specialised farm practice in the southeast of England which grew rapidly into a successful 11 vet practice. Since 2008 Kate has worked as an independent veterinary consultant. Kate's areas of expertise include farmer and veterinary training, cattle fertility - especially for seasonal calving herds - nutrition and pasture based sustainable production systems

Katrine Lawaetz graduated from University of Copenhagen in 2009, and became DVA certified in Herd Health management, disease and reproduction in 2015. She is Managing director of Vestjyske Dyrlæger, a mixed practice located in the western most part of Denmark, and is currently working as a dairy herd health consultant. Her main focus is strategic development of business be it vet practices, farms or organisations. Constantly seeking to inspire and enable vet professionals and vet-led businesses to professionalise their business, create attractive workplaces and to lead on all aspects of sustainability. Katrine joined the board of Dyrlæger & Ko in 2013 and was elected chair in 2020.

I have been a farm animal vet for nearly 30 years and have been working in a beef and sheep practice in the South of England for the past 8 years. I am passionate about herd and flock health and work with my clients to build a holistic approach to farm management, integrating robust health planning and proactive flock and herd management as well as extensive client training. I have worked as an educator for AHDB and am currently teaching vet students at Surrey University Vet School alongside my role in practice. Communication and behaviour change is a particular area of interest and I believe in solutions focused approaches to real world challenges.

I Graduated from Copenhagen University in March 2019 and started working in a cattle practice. Today I am partner in the practice, specialized in dairy herds and herd health. In my everyday I do practical veterinary work on the farms and even more herd health consultant work. I have completed education in dairy nutrition.
My main focus is nutrition and management in all groups, calves, heifer, dry cows and lactating cows. I value having a close relationship with the farmers, in order to optimize the production results and searching for the best course of actions. Always with the cow health and welfare in focus. We have a lot of data on cows, in our database, and I really like to use them, to solve problems and finding new opportunities.
I am looking forward to being a part of the agriculture in the future, with sustainability in focus.

Rachel is an Advanced Practitioner in Cattle Health and Production and a senior clinician, shareholder and Research Lead at Synergy Farm Health, a farm only veterinary practice in south west England.
Her research role involves managing a wide and varied research programme including innovative diagnostics and clinical approaches to infectious disease, nutrition, udder, foot and youngstock health. Rachel also carries out mastitis advisory work and offers a variety of training, mostly on topics relating to mastitis and the responsible use of antibiotics. She has a special interest in sustainability.
She is a director of the British Cattle Veterinary Association (with responsibility for medicines and sustainability), sits on the the Responsible Use of Medicines (RUMA) Targets Task Force, the Mastitis Control Plan Management Group, the Farm Vet Champion Steering Group, the Cattle Antibiotic Guardian Group, Red Tractor Dairy Board and chairs the Medicine Hub Industry Liaison Group.

David is Managing Director of Paragon Veterinary Group, a two centre, 18 vet, mixed practice in Cumbria.  His main clinical interest is in dairy practice, gaining his Diploma in Bovine Reproduction in 1998, and becoming an RCVS Recognised Specialist in Cattle Health and Production in 2003. He recently achieved his DVetMed (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) at Nottingham University, based on cattle advanced breeding and the effects of minerals on cattle fertility.

Although he has, after 12 years, recently retired from the Board of XLVets, a group of independent veterinary practices who work collaboratively together to deliver “Excellence in Practice”, he is still closely involved with several projects.

He is Managing Director of Activf-ET, an exciting consortium delivering advanced breeding technologies to the UK cattle industry and beyond, which resulted from two recently completed Innovate UK supported projects, partnering with Semex and the Universities of Nottingham and Kent, working on ovum pickup (OPU), in-vitro production (IVP) of embryos and genomic analysis of embryos in cattle.

He is Senior Independent Director of the Veterinary Defence Society (VDS), treasurer of, and representative of the UK on the committee of the World Association for Buiatrics, and is a member of the Dairy Science Forum.

Expertise management
Management consulting collective pathology and zootechnics
Livestock audit for service firms, food manufacturers, dairies
Health monitoring of cattle farms and formations
Dairy cows consultant
Expertise robotic treats
Optimization of production and management of breeding (reproduction, feeding and quality of milk)

After qualifying in 1990 I entered farm animal practice in the central south of England, moving to Synergy Farm Health thirty years later.
I am a Diplomat of the European College of Bovine Health Management, a past-president of the BCVA and a previous recipient of the Farmers Weekly Livestock Advisor of the Year Award.
In addition to my work in practice I am a director of CHeCS (Cattle Health Certification Standards) and chair their their technical committee. I am also a member of the technical committees of both BVDFree England and Action Johne's.
I am widely published in the veterinary and farming press, have spoken at conferences both at home and abroad and have authored an Atlas of Bovine Pathology.
Although I work in all aspects of routine and emergency bovine medicine and surgery and herd health management, particular areas of current interest include suckler herd management and productivity and infectious disease management, control and possibly eradication.

Robert graduated as a veterinarian from the University of Nottingham and after a period in clinical farm animal practice returned to complete a residency in bovine health management and become an RCVS recognised specialist in cattle health and production.
With a research background in antimicrobial usage and resistance in agriculture, Robert is currently involved in youngstock research at the University of Nottingham to improve health and welfare in calves. Robert is particularly interested in the use of machine learning techniques to identify and prevent population level disease in cattle.

I am comfortable working across species, though my specialty is in poultry production. My preferred work is in the use of economics in animal health and organisational management.
A current major consultancy role is as the Programme Manager for the Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) programme (www.animalhealthmetrics.org). I have supported the programme in various capacities since 2018, and was part of a small team that raised US$7m from philanthropic donors and government for the roll out phase.
Over the last decade I have gained experience working in managerial and technical roles for two integrated poultry producers in the UK, at livestock veterinary practices in UK and Canada and on food safety and animal health projects in partnership with government in the UK, overseas and with the FAO in South East Asia. I thrive on finding synergies between industry and academia, sharing data and using a collaborative approach to address major industry issues such as Campylobacter control and antimicrobial resistance.
I have a passion for coaching and mentoring which I believe should form the basis of any people development plan.
I am studying for a part time PhD at University of Liverpool in the area of behavioural economics.

1. Field of work: Certified cattle vet practioneer at Kvægdyrlægerne Midt Aps a) Herd Health, b)Acute clinical cases CATTLE, sheep and goats, c) Case based articles Cattle magazines for farmers, d) Management and innovation "Kvægdyrlægerne Midt Aps as a firm, e) Planning and managing seminars for farmers and cattle vets. 2) Relevant education a) 1987-90 Farmers education with 2,5 years of work at dairy farms and 5 months of school, b) 1992-98 Vet. education , c) 2008-10 education certified cattle vet, d) education on lameness, claw health and communication. 3) Adds to research a) 2000. co author "selenium in cattle report no 87" SEGES, DK, b) Participant in European field test/trial (SAFEDRY) of the product Velactis from CEVA, c) Partner and participant in KliMaks, a danish research project connected to The University of Aarhus. Focusing transition period. A lot of sampling, testing and clincal scoring at herd/cow level. 4) Other things a) 1998-2015 working vet on different species e.g. dogs, cats, horses, pigs, mink and ruminants, b) 2015 - now: Partner specialized vet practice for cattle and other ruminants, c) 2003-2008 Member of the board Danish Vet association (DDD) The Cattle Section, d) DDD representative in the "advisory board according dairy cattle welfare", The Ministry of Justice, DK, e) 2010-16 Member of the board for Certified Catlle Vets (DKF), f) Private life (with my wife and family) as a hobby farmer with cattle, sheep, pigs, hens, dogs and cats

Jon Reader qualified as a veterinary surgeon in 1997 from the University of Bristol and has been a farm animal vet in Somerset ever since. In 2001 he gained the Certificate in Cattle Health and Production and then in 2010 the Diploma in Cattle Health and Production. He is an RCVS recognised Specialist in Cattle Health and Production and in 2013 was runner up as Farmers Weekly Farm Advisor of the Year. He holds the NPTC Level 3 foot trimming qualification and has also attended a five day Dairyland foot trimming course in the USA. Jon is a LANTRA approved trainer and is also a member of the Nottingham Dairy Herd Health Group (NDHHG) as well as being a member of the UK Dairy Cattle Mobility Steering Group. Jon is a Healthy Feet Programme mobility mentor but is also a trainer for other mentors. He jointly runs the BCVA advanced practitioner lameness course.

Jon has been involved with lameness all his career and has a particular interest in foot trimming, working with para professionals as well as using technology to assist in the recording and analysis of mobility and lameness records. He has carried out peer reviewed research and has presented papers at conferences both nationally and internationally as well as carrying out consultancy work in China.

Emily originates from Lancashire and joined the practice as an intern in 2012 having graduated from the University of Cambridge.
As well as dairy cow medicine, her special interest is sheep and goat production with an emphasis on flock health planning, reducing production losses on sheep units with a special emphasis on neonatal management and infectious disease. She is actively involved in clinical research in practice, student teaching and steers our sheep farmer training.
Emily completed an alternative residency under the supervision of Dr Fiona Lovatt in 2018 and was awarded a European Diploma in Small Ruminant Health Management (http://ecsrhm.eu/ ). She is a RCVS Recognised Specialist in Sheep Health and Production.
She was actively involved in the foundation of Farm Association of Veterinary Students (FAVS) www.favs.org.uk encouraging veterinary students to pursue a career in farm animal medicine. She is also a committee member of the Goat Veterinary Society, the Sheep Veterinary Society and member of the British Cattle Veterinary Association. Emily is a regular contributor to the farming and veterinary press.
BCVA Accredited Johne's Veterinary Adviser
Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus and BVDFree England Scheme Adviser

I am extremely fortunate to have had an interesting and rewarding veterinary career pursuing a professional vocation in an industry for which I have a continuing passion. I have had experience of a range of dairy farm systems in the UK and NZ coupled with further academic training and professional engagement appropriate to these different systems.
I have always believed that there is a role for quality research within a practice setting and I am now engaged full time on research within Veterinary practice. Bringing science directly into a practice helps keep us all up to date and practicing genuine evidence-based medicine. It is not without its challenges, but it opens other avenues of thought, ideas and opportunities that can be woven into the mix that is practice.

I graduated from University of Copenhagen in 2007. In my professional career I have been working both within research and clinical practice and currently I work as a dairy herd health consultant. My focus is utilizing new knowledge and data to improve the health and production of the farm – with benefit of the farmer and the animals. My main interests are herd health management, mastitis and pharmacology.
I believe that the ability to adapt and change our ways of working/producing, is the only way that livestock production can be part of the future. I hope that through collaboration with farmers, I can assist in this adaption to the future demands.

Lewis graduated from Glasgow University in 1978. Business management in a veterinary environment has always been a passion of Lewis’s. Having emigrated from Wales to New Zealand in 1990, he soon formed Riverside
Veterinary Services in Ashburton and supervised the rapid growth of this practice into one of the largest in New Zealand at the time. Lewis was awarded an MBA from Canterbury
University in 2005. He has been a member of the board of the New Zealand Veterinary
Association and served two terms as President.
More recently Lewis has provided strategic planning, valuation and succession planning
services to veterinary practices and has served as chairman/director on a number of
veterinary boards, including VetSouth Ltd and Synergy Farm Health Ltd.
He currently spends part of each year in the UK where he works as a project manager.

Veterinarian with special education in cattle diseases and production.
My aim is to help our farmers to produce the best product. I focus on the way of the product, through the foodchain. I work for high quality of welfare, sustainability, durability, lowering of our antibiotic consumption, professional use off antibiotics/narrow-spectrum antibiotics and the importance of bringing the Bovine adviser/veterinarians opinion in mind of both the farmer and the politicians.

After my studies and my doctoral degree in Hannover I started working as a large animal practitioner in Hessen. My next stop was in Denmark where I worked with dairy cows. Back in Germany I worked as a dairy cow practitioner and passed my exam in Zusatzbezeichnung in Bestandsbetreuung im Erzeugerbetrieb Rind. Then I passed my Postgraduate degree in Herd Health management in Denmark. Since 2018 I've been running a veterinary clinic for farm animals in Schleswig-Holstein, located in the northern part of Germany. We are three practice owners and a total of 13 veterinarians, one vet running the laboratory and a Msc. agri-management.

I am a veterinary consultant focusing on genetics, fertility and sustainability. At Kite, I work with the whole dairy supply chain from farmers to milk processors, project managing and delivering change management programs to dairy farmers. I have 20 years experience working with farmers; formerly a farm vet working in clinical practice. I am a board member of BCVA (British Cattle Veterinary Association) which helps me to stay in touch with the next generation of farm vets and also representing vets who have diversified out of practice.

I am passionate about the role farmers have in providing safe, sustainable, nutritious food for the ever growing world population.