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Industry Invests in Future with Commitment to Swine Welfare
Posted in: Press Releases, Uncategorized by admin on October 16, 2013
Prairie Swine Centre
Box 21057, 2105 – 8th Street East
Saskatoon, SKS7H 5N9
Telephone: (306) 373-9922
Fax: (306) 955-2510
Industry Invests in Future with Commitment to Swine Welfare
Saskatoon, October 9, 2013
A major milestone was reached this week when industry fundraising achieved 50% of its target to establish a National Chair in Swine Welfare. The proposed Chair in Swine Welfare, an industry-wide initiative, has been gaining momentum with six provincial pork associations and four pork processors committing to the 5-year program to develop a dedicated team of researchers focusing on swine welfare. The Chair application will go forward soon to NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) as an IRC (Industrial Research Chair), a program that benefits industry development of applied and early discovery research. The program provides 50:50 matching funds to the industry financial pledges for approved research programs. “The process for achieving such a program is significant” notes Lee Whittington, President of Prairie Swine Centre and the lead organizer behind the Chair. “We first identified the Chair concept as a viable option over 4 years ago, the ensuing years have included the necessary steps of working with industry qualifying the priority of and gauging the need of greater effort in welfare, and the endorsement and partnering with the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, at the University of Saskatchewan. We have also gone through the process of selecting the right candidate for the Chair position and are now presenting the concept to industry to achieve the financial requirements of the program.”
After a world-wide search, Dr. Sandra Edwards, Professor and Chair of Agriculture, Newcastle University, UK was the successful candidate. Dr. Edward’s career includes successful research in a variety of interdisciplinary projects over the past three decades, numerous awards and serving as senior advisor on industry and government advisory groups. Dr. Edwards, brings a wealth of research and practical on-farm experience in the areas of nutrition, applied behavior, and health management. A sampling of Dr. Edwards research can be found at www.prairieswine.com , by searching Sandra Edwards in the PorkInsight database of applied research.
Dr. Edwards is becoming increasingly well–recognized and active in Canada at key pork value chain industry events, including as the keynote speaker at the Tim Hortons Sustainable Food Management Summit in Guelph, Ontario in October and at the Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in November.
Additional information on the National Chair in Swine Welfare initiative can be obtained by contacting Lee Whittington.
Prairie Swine Centre Inc., located near Saskatoon, is a non-profit research corporation affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan, and is recognized globally for its contributions to practical, applied science in pork production in the disciplines of nutrition, engineering, behavior and management.
For more information contact:
Lee Whittington, President/CEO
Prairie Swine Centre
306-667-7447
Lee.whittington@usask.ca
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