Karin Alvåsen

I work as a researcher at the Unit of Veterinary Epidemiology, where I primarily focus on research related to the health and welfare of dairy cows.

I am also involved in teaching epidemiology and supervising master’s students and PhD candidates. In addition, I serve as Deputy Head of the Division of Food-Producing Animals and Laboratory Animals.

Principal investigator and project leader for the following ongoing projects:

Reduced mortality among dairy cows for improved animal welfare and sustainability
In this project, we will evaluate individual and herd-level risk factors, including genetic factors; conduct a field study following dairy herds and interviewing farmers to identify management- and housing-related risk and success factors; develop a tool to calculate how different mortality levels affect farm economy and environmental impact; develop and optimize advisory strategies and materials to reduce mortality.
Project group: Lisa Ekman, Freddy Fikse, Annica Hansson, Jannica Krafft & Maria Berglund
The project is carried out in collaboration with Växa and funded by the Swedish Farmers’ Foundation for Agricultural Research (SLF).
 
Good animal welfare – benefits for animals, farmers and society
In this interdisciplinary project focusing on dairy herds, we study whether different animal welfare-promoting measures lead to increased costs or revenues at the farm level; actual farm production results in relation to their level of animal welfare, to assess the farms’ economic situation; how and which external effects are influenced by different levels of animal welfare. The research is conducted in collaboration with SRUC (UK) and Lincoln University (NZ). The project is funded by Formas.

Participating researcher in the following projects:
FUnctional Length of Life (FULL) – a better indicator of the length of life of dairy cows
Funder: Formas. Main applicant: Nils Fall. Co-applicants: Karin Alvåsen, Ulf Emanuelson, Lisa Ekman, and Daiana de Oliveira.

TransformDairyNet: Working together to upscale Cow-Calf-Contact dairy production and beyond
Funder: Horizon Europe. Main applicant: Siobhan Mullan. Co-applicants: 26 European organisations. Contact persons at SLU: Karin Alvåsen and Sigrid Agenäs.

European Partnership Animal Health & Welfare (EUPAHW).
Funder: Horizon Europe. Main applicant: University of Ghent. Co-applicants: 91 partners. Swedish leaders: Anna Wallenbeck, Susanna Stenberg Lewerin and Harry Blokhuis.
Contact persons for OO9 – Action 1: Assess the economic and societal burden of selected priority diseases: Karin Alvåsen and Helena Hansson.

Loss of beef during primary production in Sweden: quantities, causes, food potential and carbon footprint and economically assessed measures
Funder: Formas. Main applicant: Ingrid Strid. Co-applicants: Karin Alvåsen, Ingrid Hunter Holmøy, Anett Seeman, Charlotte Berg, Jesper Rydén, Henrik Lander.

The slow sheep and goat killer: Small ruminant lentiviruses in Swedish herds
Funder: Formas. Main applicant: Jonas Johansson Wensman. Co-applicants: Karin Alvåsen, Jenny Frössling, Ylva Persson, Emelie Larsdotter.

Sustainability and structural change in Swedish milk production
Funder: Swedish Farmers’ Foundation for Agricultural Research (SLF). Main applicant: Ruben Hoffmann. Co-applicants: Karin Alvåsen, Mark Brady, Per Hansson, Susanne Båth Jacobsson.

The role of small-scale dairy cattle production in a sustainable and resilient Swedish food supply
Funder: SLF. Main applicant: Lisa Ekman. Co-applicants: Karin Alvåsen, Ylva Persson, Ulrika Nordling, Ulf Emanuelson, Nils Fall, Pernilla Tidåker and Mikaela Lindberg.

• Associate Professor (Docent) in Veterinary Epidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences, SLU
• PhD in Epidemiology, Department of Clinical Sciences, SLU
• MSc in Animal Science, SLU

Ongoing PhD projects:

Lina Wachtmeister (Veterinary Science; year of admission: 2025).
Project title: Maximising the use of digital tools in herd health management.
Main supervisor: Karin Alvåsen. Co-supervisors: Lena-Mari Tamminen, Lisa Ekman, and Theodoros Ntallaris.
Annie Hägglund (Animal Science; year of admission: 2024).
Project title: Implications of a low-input/low-output (LILO) production system for organic dairy production.
Main supervisor: Karin Alvåsen. Co-supervisors: Rebecca Danielsson, Nils Fall, and Pernilla Tidåker.
Sanna Pasanen (Technology; year of admission: 2023).
Project title: Life cycle assessment of measures for reduced losses of beef at Swedish cattle farms.
Main supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Mattias Eriksson. Co-supervisors: Karin Alvåsen and Ingrid Strid.
Anna Ordell (Veterinary Science; year of admission: 2022).
Project title: The slow sheep and goat killer – small ruminant lentiviruses in Swedish herds.
Main supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Jonas Johansson Wensman. Co-supervisors: Karin Alvåsen, Ylva Persson, and Jenny Frössling.
Ulrika Nordling (Veterinary Science; year of admission: 2021).
Project title: Ruminants in a flexible food chain – animal health and food security from a preparedness perspective.
Main supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Ylva Persson. Co-supervisors: Karin Alvåsen, Susanna Sternberg Lewerin, and Stefan Widgren.
 
Completed PhD project:

Emma Hurri (Veterinary Science; defended her PhD thesis in April 2025).
Project title: Mycoplasma bovis – herd diagnostics and epidemiological knowledge to prevent infections in Swedish cattle.
Main supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Madeleine Tråvén. Co-supervisors: Karin Alvåsen and Karl Pedersen.

I have served as course leader for Population Medicine (VM0058/VM0118) and for a bridging course for veterinarians trained outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland (TU0002), with responsibility for the epidemiology components, lectures, computer exercises and integrated projects. Since 2021, I have also been module coordinator for the epidemiology section in the master’s course Antimicrobials, Resistance, Epidemiology and Evolution (3MK013).

Additional teaching includes lectures in Ruminant Production (HV0210), Cattle Production, and Animal Genetics – Health, Behaviour and Welfare (HV0167), covering epidemiology, disease measures, diagnostic test reliability, study design, and economic aspects of dairy production.

I have long-standing involvement in the advanced veterinary course Veterinary Public Health with Applied Epidemiology and Epizootiology (VM0090/VM0129), where I facilitate group exercises in outbreak investigation, crisis management, and applied epidemiology, and participate in oral examinations.

I have contributed to the International Training Programme (ITP) “Healthy Livestock – Safe Food”, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), providing training in epidemiology, survey design and interview techniques for professionals in Eastern Africa.