Speakers - CAVI

Catherine qualified as a veterinary surgeon from UCD in 2011 and worked in mixed practice in Ireland for three years, before returning to UCD to undertake a residency programme in the Herd Health Department of the School of Veterinary Medicine. In 2017, Catherine successfully passed her European Board examinations and is a European Specialist in Bovine Health Management. She is also a RCVS recognised specialist in cattle health and production and VCI specialist in bovine health. During her residency, Catherine completed a Doctor of Veterinary Medical Specialisation research degree in the area of dairy cow nutrition. Her current research projects include calf health and welfare, the epidemiology of Mycoplasma bovis in Ireland, as well as dairy cow mastitis and lameness. She is currently Chair of the Animal Health Ireland CalfCare technical working group. Catherine works as an Assistant Professor in the Herd Health and Animal Husbandry section of UCD. Catherine currently divides her time between clinical work, research and teaching.

Ciaran Mellett graduated in 1992 from UCD. Following a year as an intern in Companion animal Medicine, he has been in mixed practice in Meath ever since. Areas of professional interest in cattle are Mastitis, Johnes disease, Parasitology and Bovine abdominal surgery.

He has been involved in Veterinary Ireland and AHI all his career. Outside of work, Ciaran spends time with his family and his interests include sport.

Graduated from UCD veterinary college in 1999. From a farm in Fohenagh, Conor returned home in 2000 and purchased Joe Connolly’s veterinary practice. Since that time developed the practice and amalgamated with Gerry Neary in 2012. Conor runs FarmGate Veterinary Group with a dedicated team of six farm animal and equine vets supported by six administration and accounts staff. Special areas of interest include fertility, herd & flock health and providing practical solutions to problems on farms. Graduated with a post grad certificate in dairy herd health from UCD in 2016. Conor also farms a beef suckler and sheep farm and breeds horses for eventing. Interests outside the practice include hurling and veterinary politics.

Dynamic Milking Systems Specialist | Dairy Industry Consultant 

Daniel McDonald is a highly experienced dairy industry professional originally from New Zealand, with over two decades of hands-on and technical expertise across the global dairy sector. Trained as an engineer and qualified 18 years ago, Daniel has spent 21 years immersed in all facets of dairy operations – from consultancy to the installation and optimization of milking systems. 
His international experience spans Asia, Canada, Europe, and Australia, where he has worked with a wide variety of farms and equipment systems, bringing a uniquely global perspective to milking performance and dairy productivity. 
Daniel has been a qualified milking machine tester with the New Zealand Milking and Pumping Trade Association (NZMPTA) for 19 years and holds an IMQCS qualification for the past four years. His core expertise lies in dynamic milking machine testing, with a focus on identifying and addressing issues affecting animal health and milk quality. 
Since relocating to Ireland in 2019, Daniel has continued to apply his deep industry knowledge by founding Mahi Farm Solutions in 2022. The business provides specialised consulting and testing services aimed at improving milking efficiency, animal well-being and milk recording accuracy. 
In collaboration with Teagasc, Daniel recently completed a field study alongside Dr. John Upton and Martin Kavanagh, exploring the relationship between milking machine function and milk recording results. This work has paved the way for a prospective Master’s study, aimed at further investigating how machine-level variables influence milk production and herd health outcomes in Ireland. 
Daniel also collaborates regularly with the UCD Veterinary team, assisting in diagnostics and problem-solving on farms facing persistent herd health and milking system challenges. 

Donagh Berry is a senior principal investigator in quantitative genetics at Teagasc, Ireland holding professorships at several (inter)national universities; as well as research, he is strongly engaged in third-level education and extension to a wide range of different stakeholders. He is also director of the €60m VistaMilk SFI research center on AgTech with 232 staff where the focus is on delivering fundamental and translational research in digital dairy production and processing across the whole soil-to-society food chain. Following his BAgrSc at University College Dublin he undertook a PhD in quantitative genetics in a collaboration between Teagasc, Wageningen University and University College Dublin, Ireland followed by an MSc in Bioinformatics at University College Cork, Ireland. Working across species (i.e., dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep, horses), his research interests are in phenotyping strategies, breeding goal development and deployment, genetic evaluations, and genomic predictions. He has published >350 peer reviewed journal publications. 

After qualifying in 1983, Donal worked in Millstreet, Co. Cork, for six months before moving into a mixed practice in Rathmore where he has worked since 1984. A member of XL Vets, he completed the Grad. Cert. in Dairy Herd Health in 2012. Interests outside of Veterinary include GAA and music.

Emer graduated from the University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest in February 2025. She is currently working in Roscommon as a mixed animal vet. In her spare time she enjoys running and going to the gym. 

A 2001 UCD graduate, Eoin worked initially in mixed, mainly farm animal practice for Dundrum Veterinary Clinic in Limerick and Tipperary, Republic of Ireland. In September 2002, he took up employment as intern in Large Animal Clinical Studies in UCD followed by three years as Large Animal Clinical Scholar. He returned to farm animal practice in February 2007 with Mulcair Veterinary Clinic in Tipperary and Limerick and worked there for four years. In September 2010, he took up the position of Resident in Bovine Health Management in UCD. In 2012 he was appointed Lecturer in Integrated Farm Animal Health in UCD and was conferred with a Masters in Veterinary Medicine (MVM) following research carried out into Leptospirosis in the Irish suckler cattle population. Following the successful completion of the certifying examination of the European College of Bovine Health Management (ECBHM), he qualified in July 2013 as a European specialist in bovine health management and currently works in UCD Dublin as Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Farm Animal Clinical Studies. He is Head of Subject for Farm Animal Clinical Studies in UCD and his interests include mastitis, bovine surgery, internal medicine, herd health and clinical pharmacology.

Eric Morgan qualified from Cambridge in 1997 and left mixed practice in Wales to complete a PhD at Warwick on parasites of farmed and wild ungulates in Kazakhstan, joining Bristol Veterinary School in 2003. There he further developed teaching and research interests in parasite transmission, moving to Queen’s University Belfast in 2017. He is co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, seeking especially to understand the impact of weather and climate change on infection patterns and how these can be managed, including in livestock under the challenge of anthelmintic resistance. As Diplomate of the European Veterinary Parasitology College and member of various national and international initiatives he contributes to the development of sustainable parasite control strategies and their translation into practice.

Professor of Animal Nutrition, School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin 

Finbar Mulligan is Professor of Animal Nutrition and Head of Subject for Animal Husbandry and Welfare in the School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin. He began his research career in the area of feed evaluation and has published more than 80 scientific publications in leading international journals. His research interests include development of high output grazing systems for milk production, the prevention of production diseases in dairy cattle by nutrition, and protein metabolism and nitrogen excretion by grazing dairy cattle.   
He is a former Ministerial Appointee of the Irish Government to the Veterinary Council of Ireland. He has also acted as a special advisor to the European Union’s European Medicines Agency (EMA) on matters relating to animal nutrition and animal health.  He is an Associate Diplomate of the European Society of Veterinary and Comparative Nutrition. 
He regularly participates in herd health investigations on-farm for UCD’s Veterinary School. He is programme coordinator for the Graduate Certificate in Dairy Herd Health and is heavily involved in managing the dairy herd at UCD Lyons Farm.    

John is the Principal Veterinary Research Scientist in Teagasc, based at Moorepark Research Centre. Dr Mee is also Professor Adjunct with the Schools of both Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture and Food Science in University College Dublin and with University College Cork. He has been awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for meritorious contribution to knowledge and multi-specialist status at European (European Board of Veterinary Specialists), UK (RCVS Specialist) and National (Veterinary Council of Ireland - Dual Specialist) levels. John, along with his postgraduate students and collaborators, is currently researching calf health (abomasal disorders, coccidiosis, umbilical disorders, FPTI, congenital defects, abortion/stillbirth, calf health investigative SOPs), herd health (Johne’s, BVD, bTB, neosporosis, biosecurity, syndromic surveillance, transition disorders, macro/micro minerals, reproductive management) and flock health (tick-borne disease). His research work has yielded some 1,500 scientific publications (including over 150 peer-review papers). John has recently co-edited/co-authored the first international textbook on bovine perinatology (Bovine Prenatal, Perinatal and Neonatal Medicine) and the first Polish textbook on veterinary herd health (Prewencja Weterynaryjna). Dr Mee acts on the editorial boards of two peer-reviewed journals; Irish Veterinary Journal (Deputy Editor) and Animal Reproduction Science. He has been invited to present plenary lectures in over 30 countries across Europe, North America, South America and Oceania. Additionally, Dr Mee delivers lectures, practicals and wetlabs on veterinary and agricultural courses in seven universities nationally and internationally. John is a member of multiple professional committees/working groups including in AHI (Chair/Founding member of Biosecurity TWG; Founding Member of Calf Health, BVD and Johne’s TWGs); EFSA (Expert on Animal Health & Welfare Working Group); and DAFM (the VRO Discussion Group) and the Royal Irish Academy (Life and Health Sciences Committee).

John Gilmore is a 1997 graduate of UCD Veterinary School. After qualifying, he worked in dairy practice in Listowel, Co. Kerry, before returning to Co. Roscommon to work in large animal and equine practice as partner at Emlagh Lodge Veterinary. In 2012 he established FarmLab Diagnostics, an ISO17025 accredited veterinary clinical laboratory offering animal health testing services, including infectious disease diagnosis and trace element analysis for food animal and equines. John has a keen interest in management of large animal health at herd level including mastitis control and the optimisation of herd nutrition. 
He sits on a number of technical committees at Animal Health Ireland and the HPRA. He holds an MSc in Risk Management and is currently investigating the “Significance of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and other tick related disease in Irish sheep” as part of a PhD programme at UCD.

John graduated from UCD in 1992 before returning to Roscommon town where he is currently a partner in a seven-vet mixed practice. John practices mainly in the large animal sector and has a keen interest in herd health and preventative medicine. Outside of practice, John enjoys walking and rugby. 

Killian graduated from University College Dublin in 2017 and started working at FarmGate Vets in August of that year. Apart from an 8 month working holiday to New Zealand in 2023 he has been working in East Galway since. Killian has a keen interest in lameness, large animal surgery, and reproduction. 

Maresa is currently working in Kilkenny Regional Veterinary Laboratory as a Senior Research Officer. After qualifying as a Veterinary Surgeon in 1997 from UCD, she worked for eight years in large animal practice. She started working in Eyrecourt, Co. Galway, with primarily sucklers/beef and sheep and smaller numbers of dairy herds. A move to large animal practice in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, meant an increased emphasis on dairy work. She completed her research masters in veterinary medicine, with her thesis entitled Clinicopathological Investigation of Infectious Respiratory Disease of Sheep in Ireland in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology, University College Dublin. Since joining the Veterinary Laboratory Service, she has provided a postmortem service to vets and their clients and has carried out collaborative research with Teagasc, UCD, local PVPs, HSE, DAFM colleagues in other regional veterinary laboratories and AHI. Projects included: anthelmintic resistance in sheep and first-season dairy calves; the prevalence of Haemonchus contortus in sheep; seroconversion to liver fluke in slaughtered lambs; sheep and dairy calf mortality studies; udder health in cull cows; zoonosis and hypocalcaemia. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists.

Dr. Ruegg is the David J. Ellis Professor of Antimicrobial Resistance and Large Animal Clinical Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University. Her research and outreach are focused on helping dairy producers improve animal health and farm sustainability. She previously served as chair of the Dept. of Animal Science at MSU and spent 20 years as a Professor and extension milk quality specialist in the Dept. of Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Ruegg has academic degrees from both Michigan State University and the University of California, Davis. She has had varied professional experiences including private veterinary practice, academic positions at both Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the College of Veterinary Medicine at MSU and corporate technical service. She maintains a research programme focused on ensuring antibiotic stewardship on farms by optimising antibiotic usage and identifying animal, environmental and pathogen factors that can be manipulated to reduce mastitis and identify optimal treatment strategies. Dr. Ruegg is active in industry organisations and is a past-president of the National Mastitis Council. Throughout her career she has received a number of awards for research, extension and international outreach programs and has published >165 peer reviewed articles and numerous lay publications.

Dr Raffaela Marian is a veterinarian, current Resident of the European College of Bovine Health Management (ECBHM), and doctoral researcher at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin. Her clinical and academic work focuses primarily on bovine medicine, with a particular emphasis on herd health, nutrition, and surgery. 
After graduating with a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria in 2020, Raffaela worked for three years as a veterinary practitioner in a large animal practice in Lower Austria, delivering comprehensive care to cattle herds across a range of production systems. Her daily work included emergency cases as well as routine herd visits. During this time, she developed a strong interest in herd health issues, including lameness, mastitis, calf management and reproductive efficiency. 
Since September 2023, she has been based at the UCD Veterinary Hospital, where she divides her time between hospital-based medicine, herd health investigations, clinical teaching and research. Her current doctoral research investigates factors associated with early lactation negative energy balance in Irish seasonal dairy systems, with the aim of improving cow health and productivity through applied, evidence-based herd health strategies. 
Raffaela has presented clinical and research findings at international conferences, including the International Conference of Production Diseases in Farm Animals (Leuven, Belgium) and is actively engaged in postgraduate teaching and knowledge exchange.

Rosalish Goulding is a UCD qualified veterinary surgeon with extensive knowledge and expertise in animal genetics and selection in the cattle breeding industry. Rosalish has worked to select genetics both in Ireland and Internationally for more than 25 years. After graduating, Rosalish worked in Scotland as a Large Animal Clinican and following her return to Ireland she started her career in animal genetics with the North West Cattle Breeding Society, Sligo. Rosalish is now the Beef Programme Manager in the National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC), where she manages the beef and beef on dairy programmes for both Munster Bovine and Progressive Genetics and their export arm, Ireland Genetics.  

Rosalish is responsible for the direction, development and implementation of Ireland’s largest Beef Programme, where sire selection is focused on economically important traits to ensure farmer profitability, sustainability and animal welfare. In addition, Rosalish is a pedigree breeder; she runs the Clara Angus herd in Millstreet, Co. Cork, with her husband and children.

Seamus Fagan graduated from UCD Vet College in 1992. Seamus worked for 14 years in Roscommon in large animal practice – sheep and sucklers, predominantly. He joined DAFM Veterinary Public Health in 2006, based in Kildare Chilling Company. In 2013, Seamus moved to Athlone Regional Veterinary Laboratory.

Stephen Butler is a Principal Research Scientist and group leader for dairy cattle reproduction research in Teagasc Moorepark, located in Co. Cork, Ireland. His main areas of research include exploring the genetic basis of sub-fertility, oestrus and ovulation synchronisation protocols to maximize submission rates for seasonal calving systems, the effects of micronutrients on dairy cow reproductive physiology, and strategies to utilise sexed semen in dairy herds. He has presented plenary session talks at national and international conferences to animal scientists, veterinarians, policy makers and dairy herd-owners. He has served as a Physiology Section Editor for Livestock Science (2013-2015) and Journal of Dairy Science (2016-2021).