Veterinary finalists | RCI Subject Awards 2026

Finalists, not winners. Each subject has ten finalist universities; each is represented by an academic and a project identified from the open scholarly record, with the paper cited so every claim can be checked. The exact positions publish with the full index on 15 September 2026 at 09:00 UK, when the awards become a headline strand of the global launch. Winners are decided by editorial review and announced on 15 September 2026. The Subject Awards are exclusive to partner universities.

The finalists

Ten universities. Ten projects. Ten academics.

Peter T. Thomsen

🇩🇰 Aarhus University · Corresponding author

Prevalence of lameness in dairy cows: A literature review

Lameness is bad for dairy cows and for farm economics, but its prevalence had mostly been reported one country at a time. This review assembles 53 studies covering 414,950 cows in 3,945 herds over three decades and six continents, finding a mean lameness prevalence of 22.8 percent: a first global picture of how common the problem really is.

The Veterinary Journal · 2023 · 105 citations · co-authors across 2 countries

Miel Hostens

🇧🇪 Ghent University · Co-author

Associations between body condition score, locomotion score, and sensor-based time budgets of dairy cattle during the dry period and early lactation

Lameness is among the most consequential disorders in dairy farming, and it changes how a cow spends her day. Scoring 784 cows on eight commercial Dutch farms for locomotion and body condition and fitting them with sensors, the study quantified how lameness alters daily time budgets through the dry period and early lactation, when cows are already under most strain.

Journal of Dairy Science · 2021 · 30 citations · co-authors across 2 countries

Annika Bergström

🇸🇪 Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences · Senior author

Risk factors for surgical site infection associated with clean surgical procedures in dogs

Surgical site infections can complicate even clean surgical procedures in dogs, and the work investigates the risk factors associated with them. Understanding which factors raise the likelihood of infection after such operations speaks directly to how veterinary surgical care and its outcomes can be improved.

Research in Veterinary Science · 2021 · 50 citations · co-authors across 2 countries

P.H. Hemsworth

🇦🇺 The University of Melbourne · Co-author

Costs and Benefits of Improving Farm Animal Welfare

Improving farm animal welfare costs money, and the people responsible for animals rarely have good decision-support tools for weighing the trade-offs. This review lays out both sides plainly: the visible costs of training stockpeople, reconfiguring pens and providing pain relief, and the less visible ones, including risks to market protection, consumer acceptance and social licence to farm where welfare is neglected.

Agriculture · 2021 · 144 citations

Herman Barkema

🇨🇦 Professor of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary · Co-author

Invited review: Selective use of antimicrobials in dairy cattle at drying-off

Herman Barkema, Professor of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, co-authored the multi-country invited review on selective antimicrobial use in dairy cattle at drying off, synthesising evidence that helps herds cut antibiotic use while protecting udder health, a cornerstone of One Health antimicrobial stewardship.

Journal of Dairy Science · 2022 · 58 citations

Björn Forkman

🇩🇰 University of Copenhagen · Co-author

A consensus on the definition of positive animal welfare

Animal welfare science has concentrated on minimising suffering, but interest is growing in whether animals can also have good experiences, and the term positive animal welfare has been used inconsistently. An interdisciplinary group reached a consensus definition built around flourishing: predominantly positive mental states plus the development of competence and resilience, including having choices and the chance to pursue goals.

Biology Letters · 2025 · 123 citations · co-authors across 13 countries

Umer Chaudhry

🇬🇧 University of Edinburgh · Co-author

Genomic landscape of drug response reveals mediators of anthelmintic resistance

Parasitic worms can evolve resistance to the drugs used against them, which threatens animal health and the long-term viability of parasite control. By crossing susceptible and multi-drug-resistant strains of Haemonchus contortus in a natural host, the team mapped resistance loci for all three major drug classes at once, identifying new alleles and implicating the transcription factor cky-1 in ivermectin resistance.

Cell Reports · 2022 · 105 citations · co-authors across 3 countries

Scott Weese

🇨🇦 Professor, Department of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College; Director, Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, University of Guelph · Co-author

2022 AAFP/AAHA Antimicrobial Stewardship Guidelines

Scott Weese, Professor of Pathobiology at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, and Director of its Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, co-authored the 2022 AAFP and AAHA antimicrobial stewardship guidelines, cross-institution guidance that translates antimicrobial resistance evidence into practical prescribing decisions for companion animal practice.

Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association · 2022 · 35 citations

T.B. Rodenburg

🇳🇱 Utrecht University · Senior author

Individual Detection and Tracking of Group Housed Pigs in Their Home Pen Using Computer Vision

Modern welfare standards ask not only that basic freedoms are met but that animals can adapt to change and reach a state they experience as positive, which means noticing subtle behaviour around the clock. The study tested whether computer vision can detect and track individual group-housed pigs in their own pen, using a detect-then-track method, as a more objective and less laborious alternative to human observation.

Frontiers in Animal Science · 2021 · 57 citations · co-authors across 2 countries

Bas Kemp

🇳🇱 Professor and Chairholder, Adaptation Physiology Group, Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University & Research · Co-author

Group level and individual activity of broiler chickens hatched in 3 different systems

Bas Kemp, Professor and Chairholder of the Adaptation Physiology Group at Wageningen University & Research, co-authored a collaborative Poultry Science study with Utrecht University comparing broiler chickens hatched in three different systems, linking hatching environment to group and individual activity and informing more resilient, welfare-friendly poultry production.

Poultry Science · 2023 · 10 citations

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