Give preference to your potential

On 12-16 November 2018, researchers in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences came together at the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus to celebrate research impact and share lessons on collaborating within and across disciplines at Research Week 2018.

At the 2018 Professor GW Leeper Memorial Lecture, Professor G. Philip Robertson from Michigan State University explored the sustainability promise of switchgrass as both a biofuel and a carbon sink.

Australia’s first peoples practised agriculture for thousands of years prior to the continent’s European colonialization. Despite these practices being recorded by early explorers, they have been almost absent from Australian historical records until recently.

A panel of experts in science, industry and public policy delivered advice for academic researchers on collaboration across disciplines on projects, working with industry and managing intellectual property in a panel discussion.

Australian Indigenous people, like so many peoples around the world, enjoy the companionship and other benefits of dog ownership. Many people in remote Indigenous communities are dog owners, and say their dogs are valuable for hunting, that they keep their home safe at night from intruders and that they are playmates for their children.

The Wildlife Disease Association’s Australasian section (WDA-A) has awarded Dr Pam Whiteley the prestigious Dave Spratt Award in recognition of her long-term service and commitment to wildlife health.

On Thursday 18 October, the work of our third year Bachelor of Agriculture students was on display at their Capstone Project Showcase.

University of Melbourne experts discuss the impact of selective breeding, designer dogs and clones on the health and wellbeing of man’s best friend.

The University of Melbourne’s More Profit from Nitrogen (MFfN) dairy team have successfully secured a prestigious Marie Sklodowska Curie Global Fellowship under the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme.

In a special lecture, Professor Timothy Reeves argues sustainable agriculture must be considered as part of a nexus with food, nutrition and human health.

Australia's strawberry needle scare is a case of risk perceptions running ahead of the actual risk, explains a University of Melbourne researcher.

Each year, the University of Melbourne hosts a range of wellbeing events across its campuses to mark R U OK? Day.R U OK? Day is Australia’s national day of action to remind everyone that any day is the day to ask: ‘Are you OK?’ and be mindful of the physical and mental health of others.In 2018, this awareness-raising day celebrated its milestone tenth anniversary of promoting healthy conversations.

The Faculty has awarded over $600,000 worth of scholarships to coursework and graduate research students this year.

Seven projects proposed by staff at the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences were funded for almost $160,000 in the 2018 Learning and Teaching Initiatives (LTI) grants round at the University of Melbourne.

A single gram of soil contains seven billion microorganisms, as many as there are people on Earth – the soil under our feet is a complex world unto itself with wide-ranging implications for our lives, and especially for how we grow our food.

The University of Melbourne is co-hosting this year's Domestic Violence and Animal Abuse conference, on the link between pet abuse and family violence.

The University of Melbourne will open its gates to the community and local industry for Dookie Day 2018 on Sunday 9 September 2018.

On a crisp Sunday morning in July, Melbourne Veterinary School staff members led a group of eager students on an outing to the Werribee Open Range Zoo.

Do you know of a dog with a spinal cord injury that has resulted in severe neurological issues like loss of hindlimb mobility or paraplegia, loss of feeling or bowel and bladder dysfunction? We are exploring a new treatment for dogs based on the latest human medicine research, and you may be able to help.

Professor Glenn Browning has received one of the University of Melbourne’s highest recognitions of academic excellence, the title of Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor.

Participate in our University of Melbourne U-Vet Hospital research study and learn how to perform CPR on your dog for free

A substantial number of Melbourne Veterinary School staff sat membership examinations, delivered presentations or otherwise contributed to Science Week, the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists' (ANZCVS) annual education conference.

From drones to machine learning, new technologies developed by the University of Melbourne are helping winemakers improve both their wine and their business

Ongoing uncertainty around the long term future of Melbourne’s surrounding agricultural land limits investment in Melbourne’s foodbowl and fuels speculative investment in farmland, driving up land prices and undermining farm viability, a new report has found.

University of Melbourne researchers have made a 'game changing' shift in our understanding of how plants succumb to high levels of salt in agricultural soil

The Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences has appointed Professor Timothy Reeves as its first Professor in Residence at the Dookie agricultural campus in the Goulburn Valley.

The next Head of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at the Melbourne Veterinary School will be equine infectious disease expert Professor Josh Slater.

New research from University of Melbourne experts has calculated the 'nitrogen footprint' of the University - and come up with the best ways to reduce it.

A new measurement from University of Melbourne researchers could more accurately identify places at risk of damaging levels of nitrogen pollution.

The new head of the Melbourne Veterinary School at the University of Melbourne, Professor Anna Meredith, says humanity's future depends on a balanced ecosystem.

What happens after you leave university? Will you end up doing exactly what you trained for, or something else entirely?

Vets at the University of Melbourne’s U-Vet Hospital in Werribee say an emergency dog-to-cat blood transfusion highlights the need to have cat blood on hand for cats like Rex, who would have died waiting an hour for the next available feline donor.

3010 is now more than a magazine – it’s a podcast too. The 3010 podcast will take you into the lives of some of our amazing alumni, revealing the fantastic – and, occasionally, surprising – places their Melbourne degree has taken them.

A breakthrough that lead to better health programs for cattle launched Norm Williamson’s multi-faceted career

Dr Shu Kee (Raymond) Lam, a Research Fellow in Climate Change and Biogeochemistry in the School of Agriculture and Food, has received an ICM Agrifood Award from the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE).

University of Melbourne research has found China's overuse of agricultural chemicals like fertilisers and pesticides is linked to its number of small farms.

Equine veterinarian Dr Angus McKinnon has received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to veterinary science, particularly equine reproduction.

Professors Glenn Browning and Amir Noormohammadi conducted veterinary student seminars, workshops and round-table meetings in Indonesia with researchers and their poultry industry partners as part of an ongoing project led by Dr Nadeeka Wawegama.

Leading plant scientist Professor Herbert Kronzucker has joined the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences as Head of the School of Agriculture and Food.

The University of Melbourne’s U-Vet Animal Hospital in Werribee has launched a life-saving new feline blood bank.

More than 180 first and second-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students took a welcome opportunity to unwind, relax and enjoy canine companionship as part of the 2018 University Mental Health Day.

The Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences hosted 190 secondary school students from northern Victoria at its Dookie campus on Friday 25 May, giving them the opportunity to explore careers in agriculture and its support industries.

Look out for the apple truck near Union House, Parkville Campus on Thursday 24 May, 10am-4pm (unless sold out).

Animals, like people, are more productive when they are treated well; a University of Melbourne researcher finds it also benefits the people who work with them

Diet has a significant impact on pet health, just as it does in humans.

On Thursday 26 April, Professor Mark Howden delivered a public lecture to a full auditorium on how agriculture is changing in the 21st century, and what changes are still needed to limit and adapt to climate change.

The University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences has sponsored two murals in Goorambat, a town between Dookie and Benalla in the Goulburn Valley, as part of an art project celebrating the local environment and heritage.

Professor Eleanor Mackie has been selected as Chair of the Biological and Biotechnological Sciences Research Evaluation Committee by the Australian Research Council (ARC).

A new program designed to improve animal welfare standards on Australian farms is being launched tomorrow at the Australian Cattle Veterinarians conference in Fremantle, Western Australia.

For the first time, Australian frog cells have been successfully frozen and re-grown in culture, offering hope of a new technique to safeguard endangered amphibians.

The Faculty is now ranked 15 in the world for veterinary science, and 28 for agriculture.

Melbourne Veterinary School researcher and tutor Christina Marth received the Dairy Australia Award at the ABARES Outlook 2018 conference for research to help producers identify cows that may have difficulty falling pregnant.

The Gili Islands, a growing tourist destination, lie just off the coast off Bali. Part of their appeal lies in the fact that there is no motorised transport.

With an employment rate near 90 per cent for graduates, there’s a career for everyone in agriculture.

Professor Anna Meredith will assume the role of Head of the Melbourne Veterinary School in July 2018.

The Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital has been purchased by the University of Melbourne to enhance the clinical experience in equine medicine, surgery and reproduction for students completing the internationally recognised Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program.

A new research project aims to reduce food waste while decreasing the economic and environmental cost of lamb and sheep meat production.

Whether you are a student, farmer, corporate person, or policy maker, you are most likely aware that the Earth is changing, and not always for the better. Take the rise of the Earth’s global surface temperature since 1880 through today as an example. Our Earth is “redder” and “most of the warming has occurred in the past 35 years”.

Tony O'Donnell explained the unusual character of Western Australia's Yilgarn Craton – one of the world’s oldest land masses and the site of the state's wheat belt – and its effects on the soil microbiology in the 2017 Professor G.W. Leeper Memorial Lecture. Listen to the lecture below.

Three staff of the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne have been promoted to full professor.

The "Bertie" 2016 Shiraz, made by students under the supervision of experienced viticulturists at the Dookie campus winery, has taken the gold medal at the 2017 Rutherglen Wine Show.

An internship is an opportunity for both the company and the intern. That has been the lesson for both Lisa Boyle, a senior scientist in Mondelēz Australia's Consumer Science division, and her intern-turned-employee, Mei Kuang.

On 27 September 2017, a dynamic panel of experts explored whether food labelling could help create more sustainable food systems through case studies of food labelling for sustainably sourced fish, free range animal products and products containing palm oil.

In a new project, staff at the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, University of Melbourne, will collaborate with Indonesian poultry experts to develop diagnostic technologies that can be transferred from the Faculty into Indonesian laboratories.

Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Robin Gasser gave a well-attended Dean’s Lecture on Thursday 26 October at Trinity College Gateway Building, titled Molecular Biology of Parasites and its Implications.

The Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences hosted a community open day at the Dookie campus on Wednesday 18 October 2017 to engage the local community, industry and stakeholders in the Goulburn Valley.

A $63 million redevelopment will enhance facilities for pet treatment and training for future veterinarians at the University of Melbourne’s U-Vet Werribee Animal Hospital and Werribee campus.

Alumnus Adrian Utter finds treasure underground.

Over 70 people attended a seminar day on investment in agriculture hosted by the Mackinnon Project at the University of Melbourne’s Werribee campus on 28 September.

In this DC Blood Oration, Professor Michael Lairmore, the Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of California - Davis, examines how an emerging approach termed One Health is uniting veterinarians, physicians, scientists, and other health and environmental professionals to address complex problems that recognise the vast interrelationships between human, animal and environmental health.

The Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences hosted key agricultural stakeholders on Tuesday 22 August to provide an update on the new Bachelor of Agriculture and seek support for further industry engagement in the curriculum.

Staff in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences were successful in four Learning and Teaching Initiative (LTI) grant applications in the 2017 round.

Professor Robin Gasser has been awarded the title of Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor for his outstanding contribution to research at the University of Melbourne.

The Board of the Animal Welfare Science Centre (AWSC) is pleased to announce that Professor Andrew Fisher has accepted its invitation to become Director and is confident the Centre will continue to thrive and grow in esteem under his leadership.

They are the figures behind the Faculty’s important research work. Marshall Lightowlers, Robin Gasser and Rebecca Traub and their teams have worked for years to develop effective treatments and strategies to control parasites. Each of them has a distinctive story.

Alumni from the Faculty's Melbourne Veterinary School and School of Agriculture and Food received Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Over 40 University of Melbourne Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) alumni met in Melbourne for a reception during the 2017 AVA Annual Conference

A new research centre led by University of Melbourne scientists aims to solve the challenges pollution and soil degradation poses to food production around the world.

A family’s commitment to helping others has enabled a young student to focus on her studies

A new agreement will enable research which supports the discovery of treatments and diagnostics for pathogens and disease.

Dr Julie Barnes always liked working with Australian animals, but these days, she's concentrating on conserving endangered North American species.

Two breadth subjects at the University cover a fair bit of beer-making and drinking territory, with help from alumni Paul and Natasha Holgate.

Dr Stephen Cutter and Dr Ella Richardson run The Ark animal hospital in Darwin, treating over 1000 wildlife cases a year.

The Cain siblings drew inspiration from the wine industry in their journey from paddock to plate.