Postgraduate

Livestock Health and Production (MSC, Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate)

Academic Staff

Ayona Silva-Fletcher
Director of Distance Learning Programmes
Ayona graduated in veterinary medicine from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka in 1979. She worked as an assistant lecturer at the same university before moving on to postgraduate studies at the University of Aberdeen in the UK. She was awarded an MSc in Animal Nutrition in 1982 and then a PhD on Ruminant Digestion in 1985. Ayona then returned to Sri Lanka and worked as a lecturer in Animal Nutrition at the University of Peradeniya and was involved in development projects on water buffalo. In 1987 she moved to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at the University of London as a senior research officer working on enteric infections and then in 1992 to the University of Leiden in the Netherlands as a visiting scientist. In 1995 Ayona started working at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, and worked on the enteric nervous system and neurogenesis. She was also involved in the development of distance learning courses and has considerable experience in modern teaching and assessment technologies in distance education.
Ayona was appointed to her current post in September 2002.

Brian Aldridge
Professor of Production Animal Medicine
Brian graduated with a BVSc from The University of Liverpool in July 1984. After graduating he completed an MS at Colorado State University and then enrolled in a PhD programme in the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Two successive Post-doctoral appointments followed in 1993 in the Department of Animal Health and Biomedical Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA and in 1999, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California-Davis. Brian was appointed as an Associate Professor, Large Animal Medicine. Duties at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Western University, California in 2003 and Adjunct Professor, College of Agriculture, California State Polytechnic University. Brian now holds the post of Professor, Production Animal Medicine at The Royal Veterinary College.
Brian has been a participant in a broad tapestry of experiences during his veterinary career, ranging from general practice to training and participation in large animal tertiary care clinical medicine, from performing field and clinic-based research to the development of a molecular programme for examining the host-pathogen interface and population immunogenetics, to designing and promoting a new veterinary school pedagogy for clinical skill instruction.

Dirk Pfeiffer
Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology
Dirk graduated in veterinary medicine in Germany in 1984. He worked as a field veterinarian in Colombia and with development projects in Kenya, Somalia, Malaysia and Thailand until 1988, being awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Tropical Veterinary Medicine in 1986. From 1988, Dirk was based for 11 years at Massey University in New Zealand, initially as Lecturer in Production Medicine and Epidemiology, and from 1996 as Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Epidemiology. In 1994, he was awarded a PhD in Veterinary Epidemiology. In 1999, he was appointed Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College. Dirk teaches epidemiology at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has designed and taught international training courses in veterinary epidemiology, risk analysis and spatial analysis in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Malawi. His particular interest is the epidemiology and control of bovine tuberculosis. His technical expertise includes field epidemiological and ecological research methods, advanced epidemiological analysis, spatial and temporal analysis of epidemiological data, risk analysis, computer modelling of animal disease, animal health economics and development of animal health information systems. Dirk provides consultancy expertise to the FAO, DEFRA and WHO, among others.

Mark Fox
Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Parasitology
Mark graduated from the RVC in 1977. After a period in small animal practice, he returned to the College where he studied for a PhD in Parasitology, investigating the pathogenicity of sub-clinical roundworm burdens on the productivity of lactating dairy cattle. He was appointed Lecturer in Veterinary Parasitology in 1982 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1994. He is the Co- Director of the Wild Animal Biology and Wild Animal Health MSc courses, which he established in conjunction with the Institute of Zoology at Regents Park. His research interests include the epidemiology and pathogenicity of nematode infections in ruminants. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Comparative Pathology, the Higher Education Academy and a Diplomate of the European Veterinary Parasitology College.

Alun Stedman
Lecturer in Animal Nutrition, Senior Tutor Principles of Livestock Production Course Alun was awarded his BSc in Food Technology at Reading University, followed by a Diploma of Nutrition, and then a PhD on the subject of protein utilisation by ruminants, at Cambridge University. He has also worked in the poultry industry. Since 1978, Alun has lectured in Nutrition at the Royal Veterinary College, specialising in ruminant metabolism. His research interest lies in heavy metal transfer along the food chain.

Anne Hamblin
Reader in Immunology and Head of the Graduate School
After graduating from the University of London in 1972, Anne was awarded her PhD in Cell Biology from the Institute of Cancer Research. Her long career in immunology began with the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in 1972, moving on to St Thomas’ Hospital (London) as Lecturer in Immunology in 1978. In 1983, Anne was promoted to Senior Lecturer, initially with St Thomas’ and, latterly, with the Royal Veterinary College, where she was promoted to Reader in Immunology in 1994. Anne currently continues to teach immunology to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, including those studying on the RVC distance learning courses. As Head of the Graduate School, she is responsible for the development of all postgraduate courses (MSc’s, Diplomas and PhD’s) as well as the College’s CPD provision.

Steven van Winden
Lecturer in Production Animal Medicine
Steven acquired an early interest in cows as he was born on a dairy farm in The Netherlands. After graduating from Utrecht University, he worked for three year as a clinician on internal medicine and nutrition of large animals (horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs). Steven then focussed on cattle, getting experienced in surgery, obstetrics and herd health. Whilst working at Utrecht University he gained his PhD and an MSc in Epidemiology. Subsequently he spent two years at an independent institute for cattle and swine nutrition (Schothorst Feed Research, Lelystad, NL). Since 1 July 2004 Steven has been employed by the Royal Veterinary College, where he teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Jonathan Rushton
External Consultant, Programme Manager, FAO
Jonathan graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, UK and then completed a Masters and a PhD in animal health economics from the Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics Research Unit, University of Reading, UK. Dr Rushton has worked on animal health issues in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America for the EU, DFID, IICA, ILRI, DANIDA, GTZ and USAID. His key interests are the role of livestock in the livelihoods of poor people worldwide, impact of livestock diseases, the use of participatory methodologies in veterinary epidemiology and the marketing of agricultural products. He is currently working on the economics of avian influenza in FAO.

Javier Guitián
Senior Lecturer in Population Medicine
Javier qualified from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1993. He then studied for a PhD in Epidemiology at the same university and conducted research as a visiting scientist in the USA, Canada, Brazil and Portugal. Javier spent three years working in industry and practising clinical epidemiology. He came back to academia in 2002, first as a Lecturer and since 2006 Senior Lecturer in Population Medicine at The Royal Veterinary College. He is involved in research, teaching and consultancy. He teaches epidemiology, statistics and preventive medicine. His main research interest is the epidemiology of infectious diseases of production animals.

Neville Gregory
Professor of Animal Welfare Physiology
Neville’s areas of expertise are Animal Welfare, Farm Animal Production, Vertebrate Pest Control, and Meat Science. He was formerly Professor of Animal Welfare Science at Massey University in New Zealand and he managed a Dairy Research Centre in Australia. He has published five student textbooks including, Animal Welfare and Meat Science (CABI Publishing Co.) and Physiology and Behaviour of Animal Suffering (Blackwell Publishing Co.) which are recommended reading in parts of the distance learning courses.

Kristien Verheyen
Lecturer in Clinical Epidemiology
Kristien graduated as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Ghent, Belgium, in 1995. After short spells in mixed practice and the pharmaceutical industry, she joined the Epidemiology Unit at the Animal Health Trust near Newmarket, UK, in 1997. Whereas her initial role at the Trust focussed on equine infectious diseases, in 1998 she started working full-time on a large-scale epidemiological study of musculoskeletal injuries in thoroughbred racehorses.
During the course of this project, she also studied for an MSc degree in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London, which she completed by distance learning in 2002. She subsequently embarked on a Residency in Equine Epidemiology which allowed her to obtain a PhD on the ‘Epidemiology of fractures in racehorses in training’
from the University of London in 2005. Kristien joined the Royal Veterinary College as a Lecturer in Clinical Epidemiology in 2005. Her research activities remain in the field of equine epidemiology, with a focus on the application of epidemiological methods to increase our understanding of the way that bone, tendons and joints respond to physical exercise and the pathogenesis of musculoskeletal disease. She also teaches evidence-based medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics at undergraduate and postgraduate level, including on the resident MSc course in Veterinary Epidemiology.