Postgraduate Vet Residency and Masters Programmes
Explore our current postgraduate opportunities
Combined 4-year Residency and Masters Programme in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia
Graduates in veterinary medicine, who have completed at least two years in general practice or a one year rotating internship, are invited to apply for this combined Residency and Master`s degree by research. Applicants must be a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, or hold a veterinary degree qualifying them for membership. Candidates will be expected to sit board-certification examinations of the European College of Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia (ECVAA), and to undertake a Master`s degree by research in the field of clinical anaesthesia. The training programme requires participation in the hospital’s clinical services, in addition to small-group teaching of veterinary students. Scholarships are renewed annually, subject to satisfactory progress. Initial stipend is £26,017 (PAYE exempt), rising to £27,717 by the fourth year. An additional £1,500 per annum is available for attendance at conference(s), examination fees and externship costs.
Informal enquiries, in the first instance, should be made to Pamela.Murison@glasgow.ac.uk or Andrew.Bell@glasgow.ac.uk.
Please ensure you upload your CV as part of the application process.
Closing date for applications: Friday 3 May 2024
Research Project:
Research for this MVM will be studying methadone administration in dogs. Methadone is a very common analgesic in dogs, however it may cause changes to the respiratory pattern and/or bradycardia after injection. This study will examine how different speeds of injection of methadone may affect the incidence of adverse effects.
Senior Clinical Scholarships (Residents) in Bovine and Small Ruminant Health Management (with Masters in Veterinary Medicine)
The farm animal team at the University of Glasgow, School of Biodiversity One Health and Veterinary Medicine contains an exciting mix of clinical vets and researchers. We are seeking competent veterinary graduates with farm animal experience to contribute to and learn from our diverse and dynamic team. The successful applicants will enrol as post-graduate students to undertake a clinical residency training and research Masters degree, gaining both clinical expertise and research skills in the chosen area. Throughout the four-year program, residents will have increasing responsibility for the delivery of routine and problem-solving farm investigation visits (dairy and beef or sheep), primary care of individual animals (on farm and referred) and teaching veterinary students. They will study towards a Diploma with either the European College of Bovine Health Management (ECBHM) or European College of Small Ruminant Health Management (ECSRHM) and complete a Masters degree in Veterinary Medicine (MVM) through clinical research. Potential projects include:
- ECBHM: dairy calf health and colostrum management in ‘Cow with Calf’ dairy systems and artificial dairy rearing systms.
- ECBHM: the impact of Q-Fever (Coxiella burnetii) infection in dairy herds.
- ECSRHM: development and testing of a small ruminant digital clinical decision-making aid for para-vets in sub-Saharan Africa.
Please state your preferred project and rank your reserve projects in order.
The initial stipend is £26017 (PAYE / TAX exempt), increasing to £27717 by the fourth year plus £1500 CPD allowance per annum.
For informal enquiries please contact as follows:
Cow with calf project: Kathryn Ellis (Kathryn.Ellis@glasgow.ac.uk) or Katie Denholm (katie.denholm@glasgow.ac.uk).
Q-fever project: Lorenzo Viora (Lorenzo.Viora@glasgow.ac.uk) or Jo Halliday (Jo.Halliday@glasgow.ac.uk)
Small ruminant project: Kim Hamer (Kim.Hamer@glasgow.ac.uk) or Harriet Auty (Harriet.Auty@glasgow.ac.uk)
PLEASE ENSURE YOU UPLOAD A CV AS PART OF THE APPLICATION PROCESS.
Please note the application will show as Bovine Health Management, but also applies and should be used for applications in respect of Small Ruminant Health
Closing date for applications: Sunday 21 April 2024
Research Project: Comparing colostrum status and calf and dam health parameters from ‘cow with calf’ and conventional dairy systems.
Supervisors: Kathryn Ellis, Katie Denholm, Emily Hotchkiss
In traditional dairy systems, calves are removed from their mothers soon after birth. Public pressure and welfare concerns (Guardian Cows with Calves article) have prompted some dairy farms to explore a ‘cow with calf’ (CwC) dairy system whereby dairy calves are left with their mothers for up to 6 months, during which time the cow is also milked for human consumption.
There may be health and welfare advantages and disadvantages to ‘cow with calf’ systems compared with traditional dairy systems; some work has begun to study these (e.g. Kälber and Barth, 2014; Beaver et al., 2019; Eriksson et al., 2022), but no work has compared disease incidence and failure of passive transfer (FPT) in the UK.
We have a unique opportunity to study and compare FPT in calves and post-partum disease in cows at pioneering Scottish ‘cow with calf’ farms, some of whom we (the supervisors) have already established working relationships with via previously funded work (SRDP Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund, Keeping Cows with Calves).
Research Project: Investigating the clinical and production impacts of Coxiella burnetii in Scottish dairy herds
This project aims to investigate the clinical and production impacts of Coxiella burnetii in Scottish dairy herds, a zoonotic bacterial pathogen known to cause human febrile illness and reproductive diseases in livestock. Despite recent legislative changes mandating national-level reporting of C. burnetii infection in the UK, its impact on dairy cattle remains poorly understood. Recent surveillance data indicates widespread infection in dairy herds, yet details regarding within-herd dynamics, bacterial shedding patterns, and clinical impacts are lacking.
The project seeks to quantify the relationship between C. burnetii shedding and reproductive disease in Scottish dairy cattle, building upon previous findings that higher bacterial loads are associated with pregnancy complications, calving assistance, and subfertility. The study aims to fill crucial knowledge gaps, providing valuable insights for dairy farming and veterinary communities, potentially informing C. burnetii vaccination strategies and addressing occupational and public health risks for farm workers.
Research Project: Development and testing of a small ruminant digital clinical decision-making aid for para-vets in sub-Saharan Africa.
The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary team tackling a new and exciting work area: the development, verification and implementation of a digital tool for clinical decision-making in low-resource settings. Livestock, especially small ruminants, are essential to the livelihoods of the rural poor in developing countries. However, there is often inadequate veterinary provision, which can result in inappropriate diagnostic and treatment decisions, impacting animal health, production, welfare and antimicrobial resistance. Digital tools for clinical decision-making can help livestock extension workers (para-vets) provide more appropriate advice to farmers. A smartphone-based decision-making tool (app) has been developed that uses Bayesian inference, based on expert elicitation, to turn inputs (signalment and clinical presentation) into a list of potential clinical diagnoses, ranked according to likelihood.
Aims
The resident’s research would contribute to the ongoing development, verification and implementation of the decision-making tool for sheep and goats. There is some flexibility around the focus of the project depending on the interests and skillset of the successful candidate. The suggested focus would be to assess whether location-specific disease information improves the effectiveness of the clinical decision support app.
The team
The existing team includes the veterinary epidemiology skills of Harriet Auty, specialist sheep and goat health expertise of Kim Hamer, and the data analytics and computer science background of Prof Crawford Revie at University of Strathclyde (who has developed the existing app). There are also ongoing discussions with potential collaborators in Veterinary College of Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania.