Niamh O’Connell

Niamh O’Connell is Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the Institute for Global Food Security, Queen’s University Belfast.  Her research spans broiler chickens, laying hens, pigs and cattle, and much of it is funded by the commercial agri-food sector.  A key focus for Niamh and her team is to work with companies to refine housing and management practises such that the welfare of farm animals is improved.  Much of their research in recent years has involved developing ‘bird-directed’ environmental enrichment strategies for broiler chickens, and this research has had a direct impact on farm practice in the UK.  She and her team also work in the field of biosecurity, and in the development of abbatoir-based and on-farm welfare measures. Niamh acts as an animal welfare advisor in the agri-food sector, and was appointed as an independent expert to the EU Platform on Animal Welfare in 2017.