Our research is focused on understanding the behaviour of animals to provides insight into their well-being. Specifically, we want to connect the way things work at the molecular level to how animals behave. This provides us with clues that we can use to assess animal welfare state, allowing us to inform practice and policy.  Our work is trying to find new ways to assess emotion, or modifications to existing methods to improve their ease of use or reliability.

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We are also interested in the interface between animal welfare science and policy, ensuring that the best available scientific evidence is being used to feed into policy direction, and gaining a comprehensive understanding of public perspectives on animal use. We see robust evidence gathering and synthesis methods as essential to this process, whilst understanding that policy reform relies on a complex balancing of animal, societal, environmental and economic viewpoints. We are actively engaged in creating new methods for evidence synthesis that are tailored to the animal sciences, as well as promoting awareness of these tools and the benefits of using them. This work is being performed as part of the Evidence Synthesis Initiative for Animal and Veterinary Sciences (ESIAVS). This is a multi-disciplinary group of individuals with expertise in evidence synthesis methodology, as well as specific expertise around various domains of animal science and the use of animals in society. 

 

We use a range of laboratory and in-field techniques in our research, and our work spans species. Our laboratory is based at the University of Adelaide, Roseworthy Campus with strong ties to the Adelaide Medical School.  

 

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