The health status and productivity of farm animals are vastly dependent on their energetic standing, such that significant deviations in their energy balance results in metabolic morbidity. In high-producing ruminants, the primary metabolic adverse outcomes of energy deficiency are ketosis and fatty liver, which are the underlying drivers of major metabolic disorders, i.e., lactation ketosis and pregnancy toxemia.
Intringuinly, both ketosis and fatty liver are also key determinants of prominent human metabolic disorders, such as diabetes mellitus and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We, therefore, direct our energy metabolism research in sheep toward advancement of both agricultural and biomedical sciences.
In the lab we use animal physiology, biochemistry, histology, molecular biology and proteomics to investigate:
- Energy Metabolism.
- Fatty Liver, pathophysiology and therapy development.
- Ketosis and pregnancy toxemia in sheep.
- Diabetic ketoacidosis.
- Breeding for Scrapie resistance
- Breeding for wool shedding for improved heat stress resilience
