The study aims to use medicine use as a proxy for the diseases that animals have been, or are likely to be, exposed to. The motivation is two-fold: first, to determine what diseases are most prevalent and have the biggest impact on animal production; second we know that consumers, and hence meat producers, are becoming more interested in where their food comes from and what the animals have been exposed to.

The project relies on collection of data from farms and their associated abattoirs – we need access to farm medicine records and to link these via EID to abattoir records of animal performance. We have started to recruit farmers to the project, but progress is slow and we are looking for more ways of getting the word out and accessing data. Ideally, we’re looking for electronic records, e.g. from farm software.

More information can be found in the attached project pamphlet.