I work as a professor in bovine population medicine at the bovine ambulatory clinic of the Université de Montréal in St-Hyacinthe (Qc). My work duties include veterinary clinical work of preventive medicine on commercial dairy farms, teaching to undergraduate and graduate students, and applied field research. My main interests in research are on reproduction management and on health management during the peripartum period.
In our lab, we have the ability to perform large-scale field studies at the cow and herd levels. For examples, we conducted multiple herd-level studies in which we recruited 100 dairy herds or more to determine the prevalence of various diseases. Such studies usually involve between 2,000 and 4,000 cows. One example of such studies is: https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2016-12144
We also develop and validate various diagnostic tests for postpartum reproductive tract diseases such as purulent vaginal discharge, cytological endometritis and leukocyte esterase endometritis. Once validated, we use these tests in large-scale epidemiological studies to determine the prevalence of disease, risk factors and impacts. We can also perform randomized clinical trials to quantify the treatment efficacy against these diseases. Here is an example of such studies: http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jds.2014-9129
In the field of reproductive management of dairy herds, we work to develop tools and approaches for farmers in order to improve the reproductive performance of their dairy herd. For example, we are currently working on the validation of a pregnancy diagnostic test than can be done in cows as soon as 20 days after the last insemination and that uses a color-flow doppler ultrasonography technology. Other projects focus on increasing the insemination rate of dairy herds such as developing breeding strategies for cows diagnosed non-pregnant at pregnancy diagnosis.
We welcome any students or researchers to contact us for further information about our research projects or for enrolling in one of our available education programs.
