Jan Hultgren

I am senior lecturer at the Section of Environment, Care and Herd Health, Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Skara.

Along with my own research I also participate in the Department's and the Faculty's activities in education, research and information. I am director of postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science.

My main interests are housing environment, health, welfare and productivity, primarily in dairy cattle, applied veterinary epidemiology, and animal and human welfare. My own research has focused on effects of high-voltage lines on fertility in dairy cows; so-called stray voltage in housing equipment; electrical cow-trainers; housing design and functional aspects of housing facilities for dairy cows (New housing solutions for dairy production, Draining slatted rubber floor for cattle); hoof health in dairy cattle (Heritability of hoof diseases in dairy cows, Kofot 2000, Reliability of hoof trimmers' hoof-health recordings, Lamecow); health and productivity of recruitment heifers for milk production (Heifer project); the relevance to animal health and productivity of structural changes in animal husbandry (Large dairy herds); methods to reduce ammonia emission from dairy farms (LIFE Ammonia); risk assessment of animal welfare (RAWA, WelRisk); wellbeing in employees and animals in connection with industrial slaughter or euthanasia at animal laboratories (PAWISE); use of data from official animal welfare control in research on animal welfare; animal welfare in connection with handling and slaughter of cattle, sheep, pigs and fish (HATS); and small-scale and mobile slaughter of cattle.

I was born in 1956, graduated as a veterinary surgeon in 1981, a licentiate (veterinärmedicine licentiat) in 1990, and a PhD in veterinary medicine in 2001 at the same department. My doctoral work concerned the influence of housing factors on the health and production of dairy cattle, resulting in a dissertation entitled Observational and Experimental Studies of the Influence of Housing Factors on the Behaviour and Health of Dairy Cows. Since 2007 I am associate professor in animal hygiene and in 2008 I was appointed senior lacturer in animal hygiene.