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LOCKED BAG 1
ARMIDALE NSW 2350 AUSTRALIA

Biography

Alison Small is a Principal Research Scientist and project manager with a powerful track record of strategic development through innovative research that secures significant funding, bringing novel products successfully to market while achieving scientific impact. She is a motivated, passionate and personable manager with exceptional people skills and ability to develop and motivate research teams. Excellent management skills are matched by expertise in advancing humane husbandry practice in Australian agricultural industry. Board registered veterinarian in NSW and the UK.
Alison leads livestock welfare research in a number of areas including alternatives to painful husbandry procedures, pain mitigation for livestock, and humane slaughter. Previous research includes meat safety, quality, shelf-life and processing technologies.
She graduated as a veterinarian from the Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1993 and spent 12 years working in mixed, mainly livestock practice. She holds a PhD from the University of Bristol, UK, a Graduate Certificate in Food Safety Risk Assessment from the University of Maryland, USA, and was a founding member of the European College of Veterinary Public Health.

Other Interests

Coaching and mentoring, assisting others to manifest their true potential.
Music, for fun.
Horseriding, for fun.

Current Roles

  • Team Leader - Traits team, Health & Resilience group
    Mentoring, line management and team building

  • Research
    Impacts of pre-slaughter handling on welfare and meat quality

  • Research
    Optimising welfare at slaughter, underpinning Policy, Standards and Guidelines

  • Reasearch
    Analgesia and alternatives to painful husbandry procedures

Academic Qualifications

  • 1993

    BVM&S - Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies

  • 2003

    DVPH(MH)

  • 2006

    PhD - University of Bristol

  • 2008

    PGCert (FSRA) - University of Maryland

  • 2023

    Certified High Performance Coach
    High Performance Institute, USA

Professional Experiences

  • 2010-date

    CSIRO Livestock Industries, researching animal welfare

  • 2006-2010

    CSIRO Food and Nutritional Science, researching meat safety and quality

  • 1993-2005

    Veterinarian in mixed, mainly livestock practice, including On-Plant Vet in a number of abattoirs.

Other highlights

  • 2000-current

    Project leader for cross-disciplinary research into DTS: Diathermic Syncope®, a patented novel method for humane slaughter. The technology was approved for use in the Australian Beef processing industry in 2021, and global commercialisation activities are underway. To date, 5 scientific papers have been published and a sixth is in preparation.

  • 2011-2016

    Project leader for efficacy research into Ilium Buccalgesic®, an oral analgesic to mitigate painful husbandry practices in sheep, culminating in successful market launch in July 2016 and 4 scientific publications.

  • 2013-2018

    Project leader for international collaboration with 4cDesign and Moredun Research Institute, Scotland, in R&D of novel sheep castration method, leading to successful international launch of the NUMNUTS® product in 2019. Four scientific papers have been published to date.

We have publications by Dr Ali Small