Speakers - CAVI

Ben qualified in 2014 from the Royal Veterinary College, London, and joined the Farm Animal Production internship at Synergy Farm Health based in Dorset, UK. He has remained at Synergy ever since, though has taken the opportunity to see veterinary practice in the Netherlands and New Zealand as part of a sabbatical.

Ben is the main health advisor for one of the UK’s largest beef integration chains, focusing on their calf-rearing enterprise, which sources milk-fed calves from multiple dairies. He completed a Masters in Veterinary Epidemiology in 2021 and uses these skills to interpret large calf performance datasets and conduct studies on a beef calf-rearing trial farm that is under his care.

Ben is actively engaged with the teaching of university students at Synergy and has also been part of teaching projects abroad in aid of charity. He provides CPD for veterinary colleagues, has contributed to veterinary textbooks, and has spoken at international conferences about his work. Ben also delivers routine work to a number of dairy herds, where he enjoys improving herd performance and productivity. 

Dr Damien Barrett Is head of the Ruminant Animal Health Policy, where he has responsibility for the regulated ruminant diseases, most notably the TB eradication programme. His brief also includes the policy for the eradication of BVD, IBR and Johnes disease and the small ruminant health programme. He has been involved in the BVD eradication programme since its inception.   

Prior to his current role, he was responsible for animal health surveillance and TSE policy, having spent several years before that working in the Sligo Regional Veterinary Laboratory. He qualified from UCD in 1996 and has a number of post graduate qualifications and is a Diplomate of the European College of Bovine Herd Health Management. He was awarded a PhD on the epidemiology of Schmallenberg virus in Ireland in 2020. He is an adjunct associate professor in the school of Veterinary Medicine in UCD. He is a past chairman of the CAVI conference and was a committee member for several years.

Denise Murphy Qualified from UCD veterinary college with MVB in 1997. She received her PhD from the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine for research into bovine TB in badgers: prevalence, pathogenesis and vaccine development. Currently a Research Officer in DAFM Athlone Regional Veterinary Laboratory, Denise is also Lead of Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) Laboratories Wildlife group and member of DAFM Laboratories Bovine group.

After qualifying in 1983, Donal worked in Millstreet, Co. Cork, for six months, before moving into a mixed practice in Rathmore where he has worked since 1984. A member of XL Vets, he completed the Grad. Cert. in Dairy Herd Health in 2012. Interests outside of veterinary include GAA and music.

Liz Lane is an SVI in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and is based in an animal health division. She qualified from Veterinary Medicine in UCD in 1996, completed a residency in Animal Husbandry and Production in UCD and was awarded a PhD in Bovine Reproduction in 2002. She lectured in large animal obstetrics and reproduction at the RVC in London for four years, where she completed a European Diploma in the European College of Animal Reproduction in 2003. She has published research articles on cattle reproduction, herd and calf health, BVD and equine management.

George Stilwell took his degree in veterinary medicine at Lisbon University. He worked as a practitioner mainly with farm animals from 1986 to 2000. He is currently an Associate Professor, head of the Animal Behaviour and Welfare Research Laboratory and coordinator of the Farm Animal Veterinary Hospital and Ambulatory Clinic Service.  Between 2018 and 2019 he was Locum Senior Veterinarian in Dairy Cattle Health by invitation of Massey University (New Zealand). George's research activity focuses primarily on ruminant health, behaviour and welfare. His PhD project was on pain assessment and management in cattle. He was the national coordinator of several Europeans projects namely, BovINE (coordinated by Teagasc), AWIN – animal welfare indicators, WELFARUMINANT, ANICARE and the COST-LIFT project. Since 2007 George has acted as an invited expert in several European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) working groups and he has close collaborations with research teams from many universities in ruminant health and welfare. 

George is a Diplomate at the European College in Bovine Health Management since 2005 and a founding member of the Portuguese Buiatric Association. He is a full member of the Welfare Quality Network®, and an expert visitor in Clinical Sciences – Food-producing Species, for the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE).  

George has published more than 80 papers in international and national peer-reviewed journals and several books on cattle clinics, ruminant welfare, pain assessment in farm animals and calving management. He also writes regularly for farmers' journals on topics related to animal health and welfare.

Ger is a practicing partner in Comeragh Veterinary in Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford.  A mixed-veterinary practitioner, Ger’s main area is dairy cattle practice and he completed the graduate Certificate in Dairy Herd Health in 2015. His main areas of interest are in relation to bovine preventative medicine and the management and control of bovine lameness, and he regularly lectures on both of these and related topics to fellow vets and farmer clients. Ger is an elected member of the Veterinary Council of Ireland and is a member of the Animal Health Ireland (AHI) Lameness Technical Working Group (TWG).

Giovanni Gnemmi is a distinguished veterinarian serving as a key asset at BOVINEVET INTERNACIONAL SL Bovine Ultrasound Services & Herd Management. Additionally, he holds the esteemed position of Professor and Director of the Masters Program in Bovine Reproduction at Veterinary Faculty UCV Valencia and is also an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Lusophone University of Lisbon. 

Since 1993, Giovanni has been deeply immersed in the realm of bovine reproduction. His expertise spans various domains within bovine reproductive health, including follicular dynamics, hormone therapy, ultrasound diagnosis of late embryonic death, ovarian-uterus ultrasound, and early pregnancy and non-pregnancy diagnosis with Doppler technology. 

Giovanni's commitment extends beyond clinical practice, as he actively engages in advancing preventive herd medicine and fostering continuous education for veterinary professionals and technicians within the dairy industry. With a wealth of international experience, Giovanni has served as a trusted consultant for large-scale farms across Europe, Latin America, China, the Middle East, and Africa. Moreover, he has facilitated over 350 courses in 38 countries, imparting his knowledge and expertise to a diverse global audience. 

A prolific author, Giovanni has contributed to the field through the publication of two acclaimed atlases of bovine reproductive ultrasound. His scholarly endeavors also include numerous publications in indexed journals. Giovanni has been invited to speak at over 320 national and international conferences and seminars, and his expertise was honoured with the prestigious Taurus Award in 2023, a testament to his profound impact on the field.

Hannah is a Clinical Director at LLM Farm vets, with a particular interest in youngstock and engaging the farm team to achieve success. She is a Nuffield scholar, having visited South America, Australia and Europe looking at optimisation of team management on dairy farms.

In 2006, Dr. Ir. Inge Santman-Berends obtained her MSc in Animal Science at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, with a specialisation in Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics. After her graduation in 2006, Inge started to work in the Epidemiology group of Royal GD as a veterinary epidemiologist. In 2011, she obtained a PhD at Utrecht University with a thesis entitled: “Impact and transmission of Bluetongue serotype 8 in dairy cattle”. Since 2012, Inge works as a senior veterinary epidemiologist with a focus on monitoring and surveillance, risk analysis and quantitative epidemiology.  Since 2021, she is heading the Epidemiology group of Royal GD. 

Maria Guelbenzu is Senior Programme Manager in Animal Health Ireland, looking after the BVD and IBR programmes since May 2018. Prior to that, she was Head of the Disease Surveillance and Investigation Branch in the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), with responsibility for veterinary surveillance in Northern Ireland through submissions to the AFBI laboratories in Belfast and Omagh.  

After graduating from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zaragoza (Spain), she gained five years of experience in mixed practice in Northern Ireland. Maria joined AFBI as a Veterinary Research Officer in 2005, where she managed the diagnostic virology and serology laboratories, gaining a wide range of experience in the diagnosis, control and surveillance of endemic and emerging diseases. She worked in the AFBI Cattle Health Scheme, a voluntary scheme for BVD, IBR, leptospirosis, neosporosis and Johne’s disease from 2008 until 2018, leading and coordinating it from 2010. She has been involved in several research projects related to endemic diseases of cattle and was awarded a PhD from Queens University, Belfast, in 2015 for research on BVD. 

Michael Horan grew up on a dairy and sheep farm near Killarney. He graduated with a degree in Veterinary Medicine from UCD in 2001. Michael spent 14 years in mixed, mainly food-animal practice in Leitrim and Wicklow, and during this time he gained a degree in Economics and Maths. In 2015 he joined the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Since then, he has worked in various areas including Scrapie, Disease Surveillance and, most recently, Ruminant Animal Health where most of his time is spent working on TB. He gained a Masters degree in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health from the Royal Veterinary College, London, in 2024.

In his spare time, he likes to walk, read and coaches an under-10 GAA team.   

Rebecca Connolly, from Tipperary, studied in UCD and is currently a mixed practice vet working in Emlagh Lodge Veterinary Centre in Roscommon. Rebecca is a classic all-round mixed vet who enjoys small animal and large animal work equally. She has a keen interest in surgery, which aligns well with her passion for crocheting and needlework. Rebecca strongly believes in the importance of good client/vet relationships and also has a great interest in getting to the bottom of mystery cases!

Ronan received his MVB in June 1994 and immediately went into mixed practice in the Irish midlands. After five seasons of attending very similar infectious problems on the same farms, he recognised that to make a more durable impact in farmed animal health a different tactic might be worth exploring. So, he moved to Glasgow Veterinary School and did first a Pathology residency, followed by a research PhD on the genetic control of respiratory vaccines in cattle. In late 2000, he joined the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) as a research officer based in the Virology Division in Abbotstown, just in time for the 2001 Foot-and-Mouth outbreak with which he was heavily involved lab-wise with the Cooley outbreak followed by a secondment in the main UK laboratory at Pirbright. Since 2017, Ronan has headed Virology Division in Backweston. From his days in practice, Ronan retains a special clinical interest in the viral causes of bovine respiratory disease and the forever intriguing BVD virus and, from his researcher days, he is intensely interested in the prodigious amount of animal health data now being generated in Ireland and perhaps boosting the relatively modest value currently harvested from it. Ronan currently sits on several national and EU groups concerned with One Health, Biosecurity, Farmed Animal Vaccination and Emergency Response Planning.

Ross Evans grew up on a dairy and beef farm in Edenderry, Co. Offaly. He completed a Bachelors degree in Agricultural Science from UCD in 1998; a Masters in Animal Breeding in Wageningen University in 2001; and a PhD in Teagasc Moorepark on the genetics of fertility in dairy cattle in 2005. He has worked with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) since 2005. His time in ICBF has coincided with the evolution of the Economic Breeding Index (EBI) for selecting dairy cattle and the Eurostar Terminal and Replacement indexes for the beef herd. ICBF now routinely evaluate over 60 traits six times per year. The expansion of the dairy herd coupled with the growth of beef on dairy has necessitated Ross’s work to focus on research and development of the Dairy Beef Index for selecting dairy sires and the Commercial Beef Value indexes to rank the subsequent offspring for future profit potential. In 2023, Ross assumed the role of Research Genetics Lead at ICBF. This role involves the co-ordination of ICBF genetics research activities both at a national level through collaboration with Teagasc research and numerous Irish universities on breeding related projects but also at an international level with ICAR as the ICBF representative at INTERBULL and as a member of the Interbeef technical and validation working groups. Ross has a keen interest in the development of national and international genetic evaluations for methane in order to help safeguard the future of the bovine industry in Ireland.

Seamus Fagan graduated from UCD Veterinary College in 1992. Seamus has worked for 14 years in Roscommon in predominantly large animal practice – sheep and sucklers. Seamus joined the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) Veterinary Public Health in 2006, based in Kildare Chilling Company. Seamus moved to Athlone Regional Veterinary Laboratory in 2013.

Shane McGettrick lives on his family farm in Co. Sligo and is employed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) as Senior Research Officer in Sligo Regional Veterinary Laboratory. He graduated as a veterinary surgeon from University College Dublin in 2001 and worked in mixed farm animal veterinary practice, before joining AFBI and, subsequently, DAFM as a Veterinary Research Officer. He is a certified Veterinary Pathologist, specialising in farm animal pathology and has been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Pathologists. He is heavily involved in farm animal disease surveillance and diagnosis. He is particularly interested in improving diagnosis of endemic disease and understanding the interaction of farmed animal disease with wildlife and the wider environment to improve sustainability of Irish farms.

Siobhan Finn has 10 years’ clinical experience working in the US, UK and Ireland, within equine, small animal and mixed veterinary practice.

She joined the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) in 2019, during Brexit. Her first role was working in Border Control Post Policy Division, before moving to Ruminant Animal Health Division.

Siobhan's main work focus in the Ruminant Animal Health Division is TB training, TB biosecurity and stakeholder communications.