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Dr Alastair Macrae

BVM&S CertSHP PhD DCHP DipECBHM DipECSRHM FRCVS
Alastair Macrae
  • Location: Midlothian
  • Year of Fellowship: 2018
  • Route to Fellowship: Meritorious Contributions to Clinical practice

Field of work

Veterinary schools

Areas of special interest

  • Ruminant
  • Nutrition
  • Population medicine

Areas of support

  • Collaborative research
  • Professional mentoring
  • Promoting knowledge and best practice
  • Public engagement
  • Translating research into veterinary practice

Professional positions

  • Professor in Farm Animal Health and Production, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh

Biography

Alastair Macrae is a Professor in Farm Animal Health and Production, and Head of the Dairy Herd Health and Productivity Service (DHHPS) at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh. The DHHPS was started at the University in 1977 in conjunction with Dalgety Animal Feeds, and continues to provide independent consultancy advice to dairy, beef and sheep farms on all aspects of health and productivity with the aim of preventing disease and maximising farm profitability.

The DHHPS undertakes metabolic profile blood testing on approximately 9,000 dairy cows each year, and also provides a herd health recording service monitoring trends in culling and disease in UK dairy herds.

He is involved in teaching undergraduate veterinary students in all years of the course at Edinburgh, as well as agriculture students at SRUC. His main research interests include cattle and sheep nutrition and its effects on productivity and disease, as well as the welfare of the dairy cow and her calf around calving. He holds further veterinary postgraduate qualifications including the RCVS Certificate in Sheep Health and Production, and an RCVS Diploma in Cattle Health and Production.

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