Integrated Research into Livestock and Food Systems (IRLFS)
There is international recognition of the need for new approaches to meet the growing challenges of livestock production, and to control infectious diseases that threaten humans and animals.
Royal Veterinary College researchers work across disciplines at the population and ecosystem level (epidemiologists, public health experts, economists, wildlife biologists); at the herd, individual animal and molecular level (clinical scientists, pathologists, immunologists, reproductive biologists, geneticists, welfare scientists); and at the pathogen level (virologists, bacteriologists, parasitologists).
We aim to find technical solutions, taking into account socio-economic conditions in different countries and work with government and industry to support their implementation.
Groups within Integrated Research into Livestock and Food Systems
Programme leader
Professor Dirk Werling
DrMedVet PhD MRCVS
Professor of Molecular Immunology
Professor Dirk Werling's main research interest is the ontogeny of the innate immune system between species, the importance of SNP in innate immune receptors for ligand binding, and how we can use our knowledge regarding the innate immune system to design new/optimise existing vaccine strategies.
Programme leader
Dr Barbara Haesler
Senior Lecturer in Agrihealth
Barbara is working as a Senior Lecturer in Agrihealth at the RVC in collaboration with colleagues from the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH). She has a strong interest in applying integrated approaches to health to understand better food systems and how changes in those impact on food safety and food security and to improve the wellbeing of people and animals through better resource allocation.
Programme leader
Professor Damer Blake
BSc, MSc, PhD, PGCVetEd, FHEA
Professor of Parasite Genetics
Damer joined the RVC in 2010, where he was appointed professor in 2016. Damer is currently Editor-in-Chief of the journal Avian Pathology and a member of the executive committee of the World Veterinary Poultry Association.
Programme leader
Dr Sharon Kendall
PhD
Senior Lecturer in Molecular Bacteriology
Sharon began to start work as a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 2000 first at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and subsequently at The Royal Veterinary College. She was appointed as a Lecturer in Microbiology in 2007 and as Senior Lecturer in 2017.
The RVC is a member of the London Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases Research, an innovative research collaboration between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Natural History Museum, the RVC, and Imperial College London. The London Centre aims to build the evidence base around the design, implementation, and evaluation of neglected tropical diseases control and elimination programmes.