BioSS:Staff-Iain McKendrick

Iain McKendrick

Principal Consultant for Animal Health and Welfare

Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland
JCMB, The King's Buildings,
EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland, UK.

Tel: +44 (0)131 650 4894
Fax: +44 (0)131 650 4901

Research Interests

My main area of research is in the use of statistical and mathematical modelling techniques in veterinary epidemiology and in the field of animal welfare.

Past Work

In particular, with various collaborators I have worked on :-

Modelling the in vivo dynamics of E. coli O157 in the bovine host
Modelling the herd dynamics of E. coli O157 infection in cattle
Surveying the prevalence of E. coli O157 infection in Scottish finishing cattle
Exploring the epidemiology of E. coli O157 infection on Scottish farms
The design and analysis of experiments to identify colonisation sites of E. coli O157 in the bovine host
Modelling the herd dynamics of Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis infection in dairy cattle
The use of statistical models to provide a retrospective assessment of animal welfare during culling of red deer in Scotland
The evaluation of a louping ill eradication project in sheep in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, England
The use of statistical models to provide a retrospective assessment of animal welfare during culling of red deer in Scotland
The evaluation of a louping ill eradication project in sheep in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, England
The development of a statistical model to relate the results of bulk milk sample tests for Leptospira hardjo to the infection status of the dairy herd
The modelling of Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma (Jaagsiekte) in the Scottish sheep flock
The design of surveys to investigate the prevalence of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea virus in Scottish cattle herds and the prevalence of JSRV (Jaagsiekte) in Scottish sheep flocks

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Current projects include

The development of statistical models of key epidemiological parameters in the context of non-gold standard modelling of diagnostic test properties
Development of inferential methods for infection dynamics within a network-structured population.
The use of generalizability theory to assess the properties of welfare assessment protocols.
The development of a model for Neospora caninum infection in the pregnant cow.

Future Plans

In the future I intend to develop the mathematical modelling framework which I developed to model the interaction between environmental and animal infection with Jaagsiekte retrovirus to other management systems and to other pathogens with an environmental component. On the theoretical side, I am particularly interested in the properties of statistical estimators for epidemiological parameters and in the estimation of parameters for use in mathematical models. I am interested in applying ideas from the field of statistical process control to topics such as the assessment of anthelmintic resistance. Having been a member of an animal ethics and experimentation committee for several years, I am keen to contribute to the development of the role of statisticians in this type of group.

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