Research Scientist, Ethology and Welfare
Phone (306) 667-7442
Email Contact Jen-Yun
Jen-Yun’s background is multidisciplinary at the interface of applied animal behaviour, animal welfare and social science. She obtained her PhD degree in Clinical Veterinary Sciences at the University of Edinburgh in 2019 and holds an MA in Science, Technology and Society. She has experience working as an animal welfare advisor at an international non-profit organization and has conducted research at various research institutes across Europe and North America. Her research projects collaboratively explore issues surrounding ending piglet painful procedures and providing pigs with a better physical and social environment. She is also interested in subjects such as One Welfare, welfare at transport/slaughter and on-farm euthanasia.
She did a postdoctoral research project from 2020-2021 at the Swine Teaching and Research centre at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, focusing on sow housing in early gestation. She was also a Marie Skłodowska Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Pig Development Department, Teagasc and the Institute of Animal Welfare Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria, investigating social behaviour and social network in pigs.
Jen-Yun has ongoing research collaborations with partners in the US, Europe and Taiwan, where she is from originally. Her goal is to show animal welfare can be beneficial and profitable for all stakeholders and to contribute to improving pig welfare globally.
Education
- Ph.D. University of Edinburgh, 2019
- M.Sc. University of Edinburgh, 2015
- M.A. National Tsing Hua University, 2008
- B.A. National Taiwan University, 2002
Awards
- Early Career Researcher of the Year 2021, awarded by Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (2021)
- Awardee for the Teagasc Research Leaders 2025 Fellowship, co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754380 (2020)
- Developing Countries Congress Attendance Fellowship for attending the 53rd Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE). Awarded by the Open Philanthropy Project (2019)
- The Wageningen Academic Award of early career competition at the 69th annual meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), Dubrovnik, Croatia (2018)
Professional Association Memberships
- International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE)
- Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW)
- Animal Behavior Society (ABS)
- Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB)
- European Federation for Animal Science (EAAP)
Service
- Animal Welfare – Welfare of Pigs section editor (2023 – present)
- Applied Animal Behaviour Science – Editorial Advisory Board (2021-present)
- Co-organiser of Animal Welfare Slack Workspace (2019 – present)
- Scientific committee for the 2024 Conference on the assessment of animal Welfare at Farm and group Level (WAFL)
- Member of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST-Action) CA21124 – LIFT: Lifting farm animal lives – laying the foundations for positive animal welfare (WG3: co-leader for on-farm technology and positive animal welfare; WG4: co-leader for website maintenance)
- Frontiers in Veterinary Science – Review Editor on the Editorial Board in Animal Behavior and Welfare section (2020-present)
- Reviewer – Transactions of the ASABE, Scientific Reports, Vet Record (2020-present)
- Research Grant application: The Canadian Poultry Research Council (2022)
Current Research Program
- Finding the optimal loose lactation system and management for Canadian pig production (Prairie Swine Centre: Agriculture Development Fund, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Canada. 2024 – 2026)
- Improving Sow Management and Performance Using Precision Feeding Records (Prairie Swine Centre: Agriculture Development Fund, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Canada. 2024 – 2026)
- Social stability as a foundation to improve health and welfare in pigs: The role of intraspecific communication (European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754380, Ireland/Austria. 2022-2024)
- Advancing Pennsylvania swine farmers: Understanding and addressing public perceptions about sow housing under qualitative housing assessment (Co-PI, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, USA. 2021 – )
Selected Publications
- Google scholar overview
- Chou, J.-Y., van de Weerd, H., & Camerlink, I. 2024. Gaining and maintaining interest: Recent advances in enrichment for pigs. Advances in Pig Welfare, pp. 289-308.
- Chou, J.-Y., Marchant, J.N., Nalon, E., Huynh, T.T.T., van de Weerd, H.A., Boyle, L.A. and Ison, S.H. 2022. Investigating risk factors behind piglet facial and sow teat lesions through a literature review and a survey on teeth reduction. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 9:909401.
- Chou, J.-Y. and Parsons, T. D. 2022. A systematic review of the impact of housing on sow welfare during post-weaning and early pregnancy periods. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 9:903822.
- Chou, J.-Y., Sandercock, D. A., D’Eath, R. B., and O’Driscoll, K. 2020. A high enrichment replenishment rate reduces damaging behaviours and increases growth rate in undocked pigs kept in fully slatted pens. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 7, p.889.
- Chou, J.-Y., O’Driscoll, K., Sandercock, D. A. and D’Eath, R. B. 2020. Can increased dietary fibre level and a single enrichment device reduce the risk of tail biting in undocked growing-finishing pigs on fully slatted systems? Plos one, 15(10), e0241619.