Contract Technologist - Mastitis Specialist

at  Teagasc

Location: Moorepark Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co Cork
Technologist
Salary: Technologist Grade 1 with a Salary Scale of €40,580 to €77,284
Closing Date: 13/11/2024 12:00 PM
Funded Full Time

BASIC FUNCTION:

Teagasc is seeking an enthusiastic and dedicated candidate with an interest in mastitis in dairy cows, antibiotic use and farmer engagement. The candidate will be incorporated to the team of the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) funded project “Sustainable reduction of antimicrobial use at dry-off in dairy farms”. The project will provide the successful candidate with opportunities to engage with a broad range of stakeholders and make a sizeable contribution to the dairy industry by investigating practices that contribute to the successful implementation of non-antibiotic dry cow therapy.

The successful candidate will be responsible for:

• Collaborating with researchers, project stakeholders, dairy farmers, farm staff and industry partners to ensure successful implementation of the project’s work plan.
• Interacting with project partners and coordinating activities to ensure successfully reaching the project milestones.
• Designing, coordinating and implementing the different studies outlined in the project’s work plan. Collecting, archiving and summarising data from the experiments.
• Dissemination of knowledge generated to the scientific and farming communities.

Background:
Mastitis accounts for a large proportion of antibiotics used in dairy farms. Of that, antibiotics are used primarily at dry-off (end of the cow’s lactation) to cure existing infections and prevent new infections during their non-lactating (dry) period. However, EU regulation on veterinary medicines seeks to avoid the preventive use of antibiotics. Therefore, cows without an infection at the end of lactation should not be treated with a dry cow intramammary antibiotic. Teagasc research has shown that farm specific data availability, mastitis trends, selection criteria used for dry-off treatment assignment and management practices can significantly affect the outcome of non-antibiotic dry cow therapy. This project aims to study management factors affecting the successful implementation of non-antibiotic dry cow therapy and predicting the impact of dry cow therapy on mastitis and antibiotic use at farm level through stakeholder engagement in research design and development.
These actions will contribute to meet EU targets on antimicrobial use, facilitate the implementation of EU regulation and help farmers improve the health of their cows. This project is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and represents a collaboration between Teagasc, University College Dublin, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, Animal Health Ireland and milk processing cooperatives.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Candidates must have a Level 8 degree (as recognised on the National Framework of Qualifications) in animal or agricultural science, veterinary medicine, biological sciences or a related discipline. Alternatively, a Level 8 degree in a discipline related to project management, stakeholder engagement or data and statistical analysis
• PhD in a relevant discipline would be an advantage

SKILLS

• Demonstrated ability to manage projects
• Excellent communication skills
• Proven ability to work within a team
• Excellent problem solving skills
• Evidence of research activity (publications, conference presentations, awards) and future scholarly output (working papers, research proposals etc.)
• Demonstrated research and technical expertise
• Ability to manage resources, including budgets and staff

KNOWLEDGE

• Knowledge of dairy farming
• Knowledge of mastitis in dairy cows
• Knowledge of project management and dissemination
• Principles of statistical analysis
• Experience in collating and handling datasets
• Knowledge of experimental design

• Collaborating with researchers, project stakeholders, dairy farmers, farm staff and industry partners to ensure successful implementation of the project’s work plan.
• Interacting with project partners and coordinating activities to ensure successfully reaching the project milestones.
• Designing, coordinating and implementing the different studies outlined in the project’s work plan. Collecting, archiving and summarising data from the experiments.
• Dissemination of knowledge generated to the scientific and farming communities