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Jasmeet Kaler

Professor in Epidemiology and Precision Livestock Informatics, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

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Biography

Jasmeet graduated as a vet from India in 2002. She came to England and completed a Masters in Veterinary Epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College in 2004. Following her masters she completed a PhD at University of Warwick on epidemiology of lameness in sheep in 2008. She worked at Warwick as a post doctoral research fellow since 2008 up until joining the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at The University of Nottingham in 2010.

Jasmeet is Chair of School's Athena Swan SAT and Ruminant Population Health Strategic Research Area Leader.

Awards

  • Young Animal Welfare Scientist of the year, awarded in 2015 by UFAW (Universities Federation of Animal Welfare)
  • Runner -up for 2011 Scopus Young Researcher Award in Health and Medical Sciences awarded by Elsevier in association with the US/UK Fulbright Commission.

Expertise Summary

Jasmeet is a Professor in Epidemiology and Precision Livestock Informatics.

Expertise in farm epidemiology, study design, analytical epidemiology and predictive modelling, animal health and welfare big data analytics, precision livestock sensor technologies and analytics (algorithms), stakeholder decision making

See my personal webpage: Kaler Research

Teaching Summary

I teach on various modules from Year 1- Year 4 on cattle and sheep health and welfare areas.

Research Summary

My main area of research interest is epidemiology of livestock diseases through use of 'big data'. Thus focus of my research to use data /big data to understand patterns that can be used to advance… read more

Selected Publications

Media Releases

http://www.ahdb.org.uk/news/blog.aspx

Current Research

My main area of research interest is epidemiology of livestock diseases through use of 'big data'. Thus focus of my research to use data /big data to understand patterns that can be used to advance our understanding of livestock health, welfare and behaviour.

For this I apply various epidemiological tools while working in multidisciplinary teams, developing and validating tools to measure health and behaviour (e.g precision technologies). I utilize range of statistical and mathematical modelling frameworks including the use of advanced multivariable and multivariate techniques, machine learning in advancement of our understanding of disease processes in animal populations, trials to validate technologies where I collaborate with Industry. And alongside studying the interaction of epidemiology with social attitudes of stakeholders. I am interested in decision making processes, understanding risk perception, and potential barriers in adopting a new technology/treatment , since these influence the management of diseases. I use range of qualitative and quantitative methods for this research.

My current research falls under 3 interconnected themes :

Precision technology and 'big data' in Animal health and welfare analytics

Current

  • Quantifying Resilience : Digital Platform For Sustainable Health: A Step Change In Reducing Endemic Disease In Dairy Cattle (2023-2026) BBSRC
  • Optimisation Of On-farm Technologies To Predict Health And Resilience In Dairy Calves (2023-2024) BBSRC

  • Epiherd: gene expression and nutritional qualities of milk Innovate UK 2024-2025

  • AEH: linking gene expression and phenotypes Innovate UK (2024-2027)

  • Previous

  • Y-WARE: Youngstock health and welfare (Academic Lead and Principal Investigator, Funded by Innovate UK) 2017-2020 Industry Partners : BT, Prognostix
  • SPILaMM-Sheep Performance Improvement through Lameness Monitoring and Management Academic Lead and Principal Investigator (Funded by Innovate UK) 2015-2019 (Dunbia and FarmWizard Industry partners), for more detail see https://spilamm2017.wixsite.com/spilamm
  • Improving cattle health by developing novel data fusion and machine learning approaches to Internet of things livestock data (BBSRC icase) 2018-2022 (Prognostix Industry partner) Principal Investigator
  • EL4L: Development and validation of a system for automatic detection of lameness in sheep (Principal Investigator and Project Lead ) (BBSRC/Innovate UK) 2016-2017; Industry Partners INTEL, Farm Wizard and HPE . www.el4l.com

Ruminant Health, Welfare and Production

  • A study to quantify usage patterns and understand perceptions towards antimicrobial use on sheep and beef farms (Principal Investigator) (PhD studentship Funded by AHDB Beef and Lamb 2017-2020)

  • Evidence Based Decisions for Lamb Production. (Principal Investigator) (PhD studentship Funded by AHDB Beef and Lamb). 2016-2019 Industry partners: Sainsbury's and Dunbia.
  • Dairy Cow Housed Environment (Co-investigator part of AHDB-research partnership, programme of research covering many aspects of animal health and welfare). 2017-2022

Stakeholder views and decision making

  • Housing, management and well being of dairy cows : consumer perception and cultural values 2017-2019 (Primary supervisor) with Prof Martin Green ,Dr Kate Millar (Biosciences), Dr Jonathan Tan (Economics)
  • A study to understand perceptions towards antimicrobial use on sheep and beef farms (Principal Investigator) (PhD studentship Funded by AHDB Beef and Lamb 2017-2020)
  • Vet and farmers decision making on farms 2013- ongoing with Prof Laura Green (University of Warwick) and Dr Fiona Lovatt , Prof Annmarie Ruston (University of Derby)
  • Farmers perceptions of technology 2016-ongoing

Previous projects

  • Overcoming the barriers to uptake of best welfare practice by sheep farmers (DEFRA) in collaboration with Prof Laura Green (Univ of Warwick), Prof Eamonn Ferguson (Univ of Nottingham). 2011-2015
  • Work package 4: Infectious disease control on dairy farms: (part of AHDB 2.5M research partnership)
  • Is multistrain infection by Dichelobacter nodosus important in the severity of footrot and in the management of disease? Co-Investigator (funded by BBSRC) 2015-2018 (collaboration with with Prof Laura Green (PI) , Dr Kevin Purdy and Prof Matt Kelling (Univ of Warwick)

  • Understanding inflammatory processes in ovine footrot to inform rational vaccine design . Co-Investigator (funded by BBSRC) 2015-2018 on project led by Dr Sabine Totemeyer.

Industry Partners

AHDB Beef and Lamb, AHDB Dairy

BT

Dunbia

Farm Wizard

HPE

Intel

Prognstix Ltd

Sainsburys

Current Team Members

Abbie Louise Smith (PhD student )

Charlotte Doidge ( Post Doc )

Francesca Occhiouto (PhD student )

Jorge Vazquez Doosdado (Assistant Prof)

Nikki Bollard (Research Technician)

Matt Thomas (Post Doc)

Amber Glover ( Research Technician)

Michael Judd ( Research Technician)

Jack Craig ( Post doc)

Emily Craven ( PhD student )

Past members:

Dr Giuliana Miguel-Pacheco (Post-doctoral Research Fellow)

Dr George Vittis (Post doctoral Research Fellow)

Past Research

My past research has been focused on the epidemiology of lameness in sheep in particular footrot- one of the main health, welfare and economic challenges facing the sheep industry in the UK and other sheep producing countries. My PhD work contributed towards the understanding of farmer recognition of most common foot lesions, lameness in sheep with their decisions to catch lame sheep and development and testing of a locomotion scoring scale in sheep. This research contributed towards a manual and a CD on minimising lameness in sheep produced by EBLEX.

During my postdoctoral position at Warwick I worked in a multidisciplinary team with environmental ecologists and microbiologists to study the persistence of Dichelobacter nodosus and its role in the pathogenesis of footrot. During this time I co-wrote with Prof Laura Green BBSRC- India Partnering Award to establish collaboration with Indian scientists on footrot. I was also awarded BBSRC-International Scientific Interchange Scheme 2008 and spent 3 weeks in Australia learning about the footrot and participated in discussions with scientists and policy makers.

Biobank

The University of Nottingham
School of Veterinary Medicine and Science
Sutton Bonington Campus, Leicestershire, LE12 5RD


telephone: +44 (0) 115 951 6563
email:sv-biobank@nottingham.ac.uk