Lisa Collins
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Lisa is Research Fellow in Quantitative Epidemiology. She uses a combination of statistical and mathematical modelling techniques to investigate disease transmission in wild and domestic animals, to develop novel measures of welfare assessment and to study social group dynamics.
Biography
She graduated with a degree in Biological Sciences from University of Oxford in 2002 and immediately embarked on a DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy) at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, under the supervision of Professor Marian Dawkins. Her doctoral work involved the development of a method for remotely assessing social preference and modelling the feeding dynamics of broiler chickens on commercial farms using CCTV equipment. After completing her doctoral thesis in 2005, she was appointed Lecturer in Biology at St. John’s College, University of Oxford and carried out postdoctoral research modelling problem-solving in social ants.
She started work at the Royal Veterinary College in early 2007 as a post-doctoral research associate in quantitative behaviour and epidemiology, under the supervision of Professor Dirk Pfeiffer. This saw her using statistical and mathematical modeling techniques to investigate the effect of environment and environment change on laying hens.
Lisa was appointed Research Fellow in Quantitative Epidemiology in late 2007. She is on two European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Animal Health and Welfare expert working groups on broiler and broiler breeder welfare. In 2009, she took up a position on the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) Council.
In 2009, the first of three papers published from her research grant on inherited defects in pedigree dogs was awarded The George Fleming prize from The Veterinary Journal, for the most innovative and meritorious paper published in the journal that year.
Research
Generally, my research interests lie in the development and application of statistical and mathematical methods to the study of animal health, behaviour and welfare. More specifically, the assessment of welfare, how disease impacts on animal welfare, how disease transmission is altered by individual and group behaviour, and how behaviour is altered by disease.
I have worked and am currently working on a range of projects in a number of different species (companion animals, farm animals, and wild animals).
I supervise two PhD students, Jenna Kiddie and Raphaelle Metras.
Teaching
Lisa coordinates and delivers lectures on experimental design and statistics for the BVetMed course. She also delivers lectures on modelling infectious diseases for BVetSci students and as part of the MSc CIDA course and starting in 2010, on welfare epidemiology.
Selected Publications
ASHER, L., DIESEL, G., SUMMERS, J., McGREEVY, P. & COLLINS, LM (2009). Inherited disorders in pedigree dogs. Part I: Disorders relating to breed standards. The Veterinary Journal 182: 402-411.
SUMMERS, J., DIESEL, G., ASHER, L., McGREEVY, P. & COLLINS, LM (2010). Inherited disorders in pedigree dogs. Part II: Disorders that are not related to breed standards. The Veterinary Journal 183: 39-45.
COLLINS, LM, ASHER, L., DIESEL, G., SUMMERS, J. & McGREEVY, P. (in press). Welfare epidemiology as a tool to assess the impact of inherited disorders in pedigree dogs. Animal Welfare.
ASHER, L., COLLINS, L.M., ORTIZ-PELAEZ, A., PFEIFFER, D.U. & NICOL, C.J. (2009) Recent advances in the analysis of behavioural organisation and interpretation as indicators of animal welfare. Journal of the Royal Society Interface
WARET, A., COLLINS, L.M., MARTINEZ, M., LIBEAU, G., PFEIFFER, D.U. & ROGER, F. (2008). Defining the optimum control effort for Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR). R0 workshop, Paris, October 29th-31st 2008.
COLLINS, L. M. (2008) Non-intrusive tracking of commercial broiler chickens in situ at different stocking densities. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 112., 94-105.
COLLINS, L. M. & SUMPTER, D. J. (2007) The feeding dynamics of broiler chickens. J R Soc Interface 4, 65-72. PubMed ID 17015286
Recent popular science articles
COLLINS, L. M. (2009). Better the Devil you don't know? ASAB & New Scientist science writing prize runner-up. http://asab.nottingham.ac.uk/media/sciencewritingprize.php