Department of Veterinary Medicine

Research in Veterinary Medicine

Research description

Gareth Pearce's research has been primarily concerned with the influence of behaviour, environment and management on animal disease, welfare and productivity. Studies involving a range of domestic species such as pigs and horses have investigated a wide range of health and welfare measures including physical changes (skeletal adaptation in horses, pleurisy and gastric ulceration in pigs) and physiological changes (serum acute phase proteins such as haptoglobin and plasma cortisol concentrations) occurring in response to the animal's environment and management. Particular current interests also include the use of social network analysis to investigate disease transmission dynamics in populations of both free-living wild animals (meerkats in the South African Kalahari) and farmed animals (Atlantic salmon) as well as phylogenetics of poxvirus and antibiotic resistance in harbour porpoises and patterns of disease in captive zoo species populations.

Main collaborators

• Dan Tucker, Dept Vet Med, Univ Cambridge
• Barbara Blacklaws, Dept Vet Med, Univ Cambridge
• Tim Clutton-Brook, Dept Zoology, Univ Cambridge
• Paul Jepson, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London
• Jimmy Turnbull, Institute of Aquaculture, Univ Stirling

Key publications since 2001

• Madden, J.R., Drewe J.A., Pearce, G.P Clutton-Brock, T.H. (2009) The social structure of a wild meerkat population: 2 Intragroup interactions. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s00265-009-0820-8
• Drewe, J.A., Madden, J.R., Pearce, G.P. (2009) The social network structure of a wild meerkat population: 1. Inter-group interactions. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s00265-009-0782-x
• Drewe, J.A., Dean, G.S., Michel, A.L. and Pearce, G.P. (2009) Accuracy of three diagnostic tests for determining Mycobacterium bovis infection status in lived-sampled wild meerkats (Suricata suricatta). Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation. 21: 31-39.
• Drewe, J.A., Foote, A.K., Sutcliffe, R.L and Pearce, G.P. (2009) Pathology of Mycobacterium bovis infection in wild Meerkats (Suricata suricatta). Journal od Comparative Pathology 140: 12-24
.
• CROSS, P.C., PATREK, V., DREWE, J., PEARCE, G.P., SAMUEL, M. and DELAHAY, R. (2008). Wildlife population structure and parasite transmission: implications for disease management. In "Management of Disease in Wild Mammals" (Ed RJ Delahay, GC Smith & MR Hutchings). Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg .
• AMORY JR, MACKENZIE AM, ECKERSALL PD, STEAR MJ & PEARCE GP (2007). Influence of rearing conditions and respiratory disease on haptoglobin levels in the pig at slaughter. Research in Veterinary Science 83: 428-435.
• KELLY, HRC, BROWNING HM, DAY JEL, MARTINS A, PEARCE GP, STOPES C, & EDWARDS, SA. (2007). The effect of breed type, housing and feeding system on performance of growing pigs managed under organic conditions. Journal of the Science of Food & Agriculture 87: 2794-2800.
• AMORY,J.R. and PEARCE,G.P (2006). The importance of housing environment in the occurrence of gastric ulcers in pigs. Veterinary Record 158 (8): 260-265.
• PEARCE, G.P., MAY-DAVIS, S, GREAVES, D. (2005). Femoral asymmetry in the Thoroughbred racehorse. Australian Veterinary Journal 83 (6): 367-370.