Penny Jack
I am a PhD student based at the University of Glasgow. My PhD research is focused on population ecology and infectious disease ecology. I studied Zoology for my undergraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh and Wildlife Biology and Conservation for my MSc at Edinburgh Napier University. After completing these I worked as a research technician and as a field assistant as part of long-term research projects of two ungulate species in Scotland. I then spent around six years working as a Zookeeper with a variety of different species for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, before returning to university for my PhD.
My research is focused on better understanding feral pig (wild boar) populations in Scotland, which are currently poorly understood, and using the population data gathered to model and create risk maps for disease transmission. I am doing this through collating existing data gathered from stakeholders and through data collection in the field. Field data collection is through placement of camera traps and from carrying out transect surveys in key areas of Scotland. My disease transmission modelling will focus on African Swine Fever (ASF), which poses many challenges relating to preventing spread and controlling it in areas where it is present, to try to understand how it might spread in the population of feral pigs here, if ASF was to reach Scotland. These models will then be able to help inform future management strategies to try to ensure both feral pig populations and farmed pigs in Scotland can stay healthy!