Nina Dam Otten

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Researcher working with production animal welfare with primary emphasis on dairy cattle health and welfare, bridging between ethology and epidemiology. My principal areas of research cover the wellbeing of our production animals, and, in particular, how production settings and management decisions accommodate their needs and affect their natural behaviour and physical state. This includes not only the evaluation of animal welfare in terms of clinical and behavioural manifestations but also evaluating the effects of housing and management hereby covering  pain, stress and discomfort recognition and treatment at all stages of production. In this process, focus is given to epidemiological concepts and considerations in order to build substantial grounds for validation of methods applied in practice and justify the implementation of these methods in research-based teaching and legislation. Hence, my research is covering diagnostic tests and hierarchical epidemiological models in the process of evaluating welfare assessment strategies (clinical/behavioural observations and register data) and risk factor studies. Research projects from ViD – the Knowlegde Centre for Animal Welfare and collaboration with the industry (dairy sector, fattening sector, animal transport, veterinary practioners etc.). Teaching courses throughout the veterinary and animal science curriculum and Ph.D courses held by the Section for Animal Welfare and Disease Control as well as supervising BSc, MSc, and PhD students.