University of Melbourne

	Linda Beer (Masters student) Linda’s project aims to retrospectively analyse data collected at greyhound race tracks across Victoria to determine the prevalence if injuries sustained by greyhounds during racing, and to identify possible factors that may increase or decrease the likelihood of a greyhound sustaining a serious injury during a race.
	Jo Coombe (PhD candidate) Studying the effects of flexible feeding systems on the health and welfare of dairy cows
	Anoma Dilrukshi (PhD candidate) The aim of Anoma’s research is to define dairy cow behaviour and welfare in feeding systems based on total mixed ration fed in conjunction with grazed pasture.
	Joanna Engel (PhD candidate) The research investigates the effects of housing design on the welfare of laying hens, both physiologically and behaviourally. The housing design consists of three factors; rearing floor space allowance, production floor space allowance, and production nest box access
	Sally Haynes (PhD candidate) This PhD examines the human-canine relationship in animal shelters during the first 8 days in quarantine kennels, specifically the relationship between the attitudes and behaviours of human handlers and the behaviour and welfare of the dogs. The research will contribute to the training of dog handlers in animal shelters to improve dog behaviour, ease of handling and outcomes as well as providing valuable scientific knowledge regarding the human-canine relationship.
	Marcus Karlen (PhD candidate) Lameness is a common affliction of breeding sows. However, lameness is difficult to diagnose, variations in the physical and physiological state of the sow translate in variations on the sow’s gait. Initially this study seeks to establish reliable and repeatable gait scoring to improve detection of mild lameness in sows and then utilise this in the investigation of the importance of the level of aggression on the incidence of lameness in group housed sows.
	Cameron Ralph (PhD candidate) Woking on determining the relationship between an acute increase in plasma corticosterone and glucose metabolism in select target tissues of the laying hen
	Maxine Rice (Masters student) Validating the use of proximity loggers in measuring feeder visits, displacements and social interactions in pigs in competitive feeding situations
	Mhairi Roberts (Masters student) Factors associated with breeding success in the captive spotted tree frog
	Sally Sherwen (PhD candidate) Studying the relationship between the visitor behaviour and zoo animal behaviour
	Bronwyn Stevens (PhD candidate) Investigating the hypothesis that restricting an animal's access to a highly preferred resource will result in altered biological function
	Megan Verdon (PhD candidate) Megan’s study hypothesises that pigs display specific and consistent behaviours, such as aggressiveness, and that these behaviours can be used to classify the social strategy (dominant, sub-dominant and submissive) a pig adopts when group-housed under stress. In addition, a relationship should exist between a pigs’ social strategy and its performance in terms of welfare and productivity. Consequently, her study aims to test whether the distribution of strategies within a group affects the performance of individuals in that group, as well as the group as a whole.
	Catherine Webb (PhD candidate) Using aversion learning and other preference testing techniques, Catherine will investigate the dog's perception of a range of dog training collars and methods to assess both their effectiveness and impact on dog welfare.

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