Staff
Steven van Winden
Steven was born in The Netherlands and currently employed as a lecturer in Production Animal Medicine at the Royal Veterinary College. He received his veterinary degree at Utrecht University in 1996, after which he worked there at the Clinic for Large Animal Internal Medicine for 6 years. During this period the Clinic gave him the opportunity to develop deeper in cattle medicine and he completed a PhD in the development of DA’s in dairy cattle in 2002. After this, he spent two years working in the field of nutritionists and animals scientists. In 2004 Prof Michael McGowan asked him to come over to the UK to work for the RVC. So, since mid-2004 he has been focussing on the biosecurity in cattle enterprises, alongside the teaching and clinical services. In 2007 Steven has been awarded the specialist status at the European College of Bovine Health Management.
Since August 2007 he and his family moved to Wales to set up the Welsh Regional Veterinary Centre (WRVC) that delivers a farm health investigation service to vets and farmers throughout Wales.
Janneke Erkelens
Janneke is Dutch and has seen a fair bit of the world. After her secondary school, she completed a biology degree in the US, before enrolling at Utrecht University to study veterinary medicine. After graduation in 1995, she worked in Tanzania and the Netherlands, before moving to West Sussex, where she worked over three year. She then moved back to the Netherlands to work at the vet school where she delivered a service in production animal medicine to farmers, and teaching final year students in the process.
In 2004 she moved with her husband and family to live in England and since 2005 works for the Royal Veterinary College. Since August 2007 she and her husband have moved to Wales to develop the WRVC.
Hannah Bishop
Hannah graduated in 2007 from the Royal Veterinary College. Since graduation, she has held a post graduate position with the Royal Veterinary College where she hopes to specialise in population medicine. She has been part of the WRVC team for one year and when not working enjoys walking in the beautiful Welsh countryside.
Lesley Griffith
Lesley graduated from Aberdeen University with a BSc in Agriculture. She has spent several years as a self employed relief milker/ farm worker. She has worked for a local veterinary practice for six years, until 2009 when she began working with the WRVC at Gelli Aur as Project Coordinator.
Neil Paton
Neil Paton gained a BSc in Veterinary Pathology in 1997, after this he graduated from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in 1999. Immediately after graduating he worked in the North east of Scotland for 3 years as a mixed practice vet but with an interest in the Beef and sheep industry.
After this period he completed a PhD examining the interaction of E. coli O157:H7 with the bovine rectal epithelium at the University of Edinburgh and at the Moredun research institute.
His Veterinary career has taken him to work in most of the UK including Aberdeenshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire Cambridge and now Wales. He has travelled extensively, living and working in Australia, Africa, the Middle and Far East, where he has worked with the local people livestock and wildlife.
Neil’s interest is the prevention of disease and the promotion of sustainable welfare friendly farming in the UK and beyond and he has moved to Wales to conduct research and develop these interests with particular focus on beef and sheep production.
Outside work Neil has a wide variety of interests not all of which are approved of by his French girlfriend.
Lies Beekhuis-Gibbon
Lies Beekhuis-Gibbon grew up in the Netherlands. After focussing on ruminants in the final year of veterinary medicine at Utrecht University she moved to the United Kingdom in 2006 and started an internship in dairy herd medicine at the Royal Veterinary College. She then went to University College Dublin to complete a residency in bovine herd management. After passing the qualifying exam for the specialist status of the European College of Bovine Health Management and a year in private practice in Carmarthenshire she has joined the WRVC in September 2011.
Lies has a special interest in fertility and mastitis in dairy cattle
Contact
Address
Welsh Regional Veterinary Centre (WRVC)
Gelli Aur College Farm
Gelli Aur, Golden Grove
Carmarthenshire
SA32 8NJ
Telephone
01554 748597
See Contact Details to contact individual staff