Clone in Research

The department is internationally renowned for its expertise in the traditional as well as innovative disciplines related to animal livestock production:

Animal Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Genetics and Animal Breeding Nutrition   Information Systems

In addition, the department also has access to many state-of-the-art facilities for teaching, research and demonstration purposes.

Our staff are grouped below according to their main area(s) of research (depending on the area, they may be listed more than once). Additional information can be found by subsequently viewing their individual pages or contacting them by email.

Biotechnology and Molecular Biology

Vilceu Bordignon, Associate Professor; MSc, DVM (Brasil), PhD (Université de Montréal). Animal cloning by nuclear transfer; In vitro embryo production; Reproductive physiology.

Raj Duggavathi, Assistant Professor; B.V.Sc, M.V.Sc. (Bangalore, India), PhD (University of Saskatchewan). Development of models to study roles of a specialized class of transcription factors, nuclear receptors, for efficient domestic animal production

Sarah Kimmins, Assistant Professor; B.Sc. (Dalhousie), M.Sc. (Nova Scotia Agricultural College), PhD (Dalhousie). Linking genes and the environment to health; Studying how toxicants, nutrients and pharmaceutical can act on genes to induce or even prevent disease; Epigenetics; Transgenic animal models; Animal toxicology models; Large scale epigenomic and expression array analysis.

David Zadworny, Associate Professor; BSc, PhD (Guelph). Molecular endocrinology and genetics in poultry and dairy cattle aimed at identifying genes and gene pathways that affect reproduction and production traits.

Xin Zhao, James McGill Professor; BSc, MSc (Nanjing, China), PhD (Cornell). Dairy cattle biochemistry and physiology; Milk synthesis; endocrine-immune reaction; biologically active peptides from milk proteins; neutrophil diapedesis and mastitis.

Nutrition

Arif Mustafa, Associate Professor; BSc, MSc (Khartoum), PhD (Saskatchewan). Dairy cattle nutrition, ruminant carbohydrate and protein metabolism, nutritional evaluation of new forages for dairy cows, optimizing the feeding value of agricultural byproducts for ruminant animals.

Leroy E. Phillip, Associate Professor; BSc(Agr), MSc (McGill), PhD (Guelph). Protein nutrition; Appetite control and forage utilization in ruminants; Nutritive value of silage; Nutrition of farmed deer.

Genetics and Animal Breeding

Roger I. Cue, Associate Professor; BSc (Agr) (Newcastle-upon-Tyne), PhD (Edinburgh). Quantitative genetics, with particular interest in: dairy cattle genetics; Estimation of genetic parameters from large-scale milk recording data for production and reproduction traits; Mixed model methodologies; Modelling; Impact of selection decisions.

J. Flannan Hayes, Professor; BSc, MSc (Dublin), PhD (North Carolina State). Dairy cattle population genetics. Estimation of genetic parameters, particularly for lifetime production and fertility, and longevity; Estimation of associations of production traits with RFLP's and protein polymorphisms. Identification of genetic markers for resistance to mastitis.

Humberto G. Monardes, Associate Professor; Ing Agr (Concepcion, Chile), MSc, PhD (McGill). Dairy cattle population genetics. Dairy herd recording operations; Estimation of genetic parameters from large-scale milk recording data for conformation traits, mastitis/somatic cell count, milk proteins, lifetime performance, and reasons for disposal in dairy cows.

Information Systems

Kevin M. Wade, Associate Professor; BAgrSc, MAgrSc (Dublin), PhD (Cornell). Information systems in dairy cattle breeding and farm management; On-farm decision-support systems; Artificial intelligence; Data mining techniques; Rule induction for expert-system development.