Research at Cochno
The research centre at Cochno has extensive Home Office - designated facilities for the accommodation of production animals (cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry). The centre sources and maintains animals for various client groups from within the University, in particular from research-active staff within the School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine, and the School of Infection and Immunity. External users from biomedical, veterinary, pharmaceutical and nutrition organisations also conduct or fund research at Cochno.
Particular areas of strength are related to production systems, animal health, nutrition, animal breeding and reproduction, and epidemiology. However, the site also provides a controlled ecosystem for ecological studies, with a broad range of natural habitats set out at different elevations.
Our facilities include:
- Basic surgery facility
- Laboratory suite for general laboratory work and sample preparation
- Ruminant metabolism laboratory
- Cattle courts with handling facilities
- General purpose sheep barns
- A range of small, flexible animal pens
- A range of offices for administration and NACWO
Current Research Projects:
- Konstantina Linardopoulou / Lorenzo Viora / Julien Le Kernec / George King / Nicholas Jonsson: Lameness detection in dairy cattle using radar technology, focusing on automated mobility assessment to improve early detection and animal welfare.
We use a radar system to automatically monitor and detect dairy cow mobility problems individually through gait and movement measurement. Early detection enhances farm productivity and animal health.
- Konstantina Linardopoulou / Lorenzo Viora / Julien Le Kernec / George King / Martin Tomlinson: Vital signs monitoring in cattle using a radar-based system, exploring non-invasive methods to track respiration and heart rate in real time.
Radar vital signs monitoring system in cattle to offer continuous, non-invasive tracking of cattle vital signs (respiration and heart rate) without interfering with the animals.
- Konstantina Linardopoulou, Lorenzo Viora, Julien Le Kernec, Peacock Technology: Combining radar and camera systems to develop a fused platform for advanced mobility monitoring in cattle
Working with Peacock Technology, we combine radar and camera technology to provide a fused platform for improved mobility monitoring of cattle with better accuracy and welfare evaluation.
- Konstantina Linardopoulou / Julien Le Kernec / Lorenzo Viora / University of Strathclyde: Integrating 3D cameras, event-based cameras, and radar for behavioural monitoring in livestock
We are partnering with the University of Strathclyde to integrate 3D cameras and event-based cameras into our radar system. This will allow us to monitor animal behaviour and increase our awareness of livestock health.
- Daisy Taylor (PhD student) / Viola Farci / Michelle Bellingham: Refinement of in-vitro techniques to estimate total tract digestibility in horses
In vitro techniques to emulate digestive processes offer a cheaper and more efficient alternative to utilising live animals. An in vitro system for use in horses has been developed at Cochno Research Centre that includes incubations to emulate pre-caecal digestive stages and a fermentation system to model the hindgut. This system has been applied with a variety of individual feedstuffs, formulated diets, and supplements, which allow evaluation of feedstuffs, their interactions, and their effects on digestive parameters, such as gastric pH and microbial diversity. This can potentially inform on the optimal feeding strategies and management of nutritionally-associated disorders, such as laminitis and gastric ulceration syndrome. Recent work has focussed on the refinement of the pre-caecal digestive stages to improve their efficiency and their physiological relevance to the horse for future integration within a total tract system and validation against an in vivo study.
- Rheinallt Jones / Stef Yerby / Nicholas Jonsson / Mark Mclaughlin: Identification of metabolic markers of gastrointestinal tract maturation in pre- and post-weaned calves.
Financial pressures associated with high pre-weaning rearing costs, result in dairy calves being weaned from milk much earlier than would occur naturally. This limits the time available for the digestive system to develop from a milk-fed pseudo-monogastric system to a functional ruminant system able to digest complex, fibre-based diets. Calves weaned with a poorly functioning digestive system may have lower growth rates post-weaning and consequently may be older at first calving. Strategies to predict sufficient digestive development for weaning to occur have been developed (e.g. concentrate intake or weaning weight); however, these are often impractical commercially. Identifying the precise point at which a calf is ready to be weaned is therefore challenging. This project will use already obtained gut tissue, content, and faecal samples from a time-series study on calves to identify molecules in the faeces that have potential to act as markers of digestive tract maturity.
- Rheinallt Jones / / Dr Stephen Fitzgerald (Moredun) / Michael Ormsby: The impact of environmental plastics on rumen function
Plastics are everywhere, and their environmental impact goes beyond just waste. Our research shows that bacterial pathogens can colonise plastic surfaces, staying virulent and even developing enhanced AMR. While certain plastics are allowed in livestock feed, we don't fully understand what happens when animals ingest them.
This project tackles two critical, unknown consequences of plastic ingestion in cattle. First, we'll investigate whether ingested plastics affect the efficiency of nutrient digestion, which is vital for healthy rumen function. Second, we'll explore how plastics influence the survival and transmission of pathogens, particularly Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), a human pathogen that cattle can carry. Plastics might act as reservoirs for STEC, potentially driving its evolution and increasing health risks.
By blending environmental microbiology with molecular epidemiology, this research will uncover overlooked ways pathogens spread and evolve. Our findings will directly inform biosecurity, feed safety, and waste management policies, ultimately safeguarding animal nutrition, welfare, and public health.
- Michael Ormsby / Dr Stephen Fitzgerald (Moredun) / Rheinallt Jones: Environmental Plastics and the Hidden Threat of STEC in Agri-Food Systems: Exploring Persistence, Pathogenicity, and Genomic Adaptation
Plastic pollution in agriculture poses hidden risks. Our previous research shows that harmful bacteria can stick to plastic, remain infectious, and develop antibiotic resistance. Some plastics are permitted in animal feed, but the effects of ingestion by livestock are not well understood.
This project investigates whether plastics consumed by cattle promote the growth of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), a pathogen that can cause severe illness in humans and animals. Using advanced microbiological techniques, we will identify and characterise STEC strains found on plastic particles in bovine faeces.
We will assess how long STEC survives on plastics under farm and lab conditions, comparing clean and biofilm-coated plastics. Genomic sequencing will reveal whether environmental exposure leads to changes in virulence, resistance, or stress-resistance genes.
Our findings will inform safer farming practices and support evidence-based policies on plastic use and waste management in agriculture, helping to protect animal and public health.
- Hattie Barley (PhD student) / Emilie Combet / Rheinallt Jones: Seaweed for dairy cows: KELPing to reduce the environmental impact & improve the iodine content of milk
Enteric fermentation from dairy cows produces 45% of Scotland’s methane emissions. Research has demonstrated the benefits of including seaweed in ruminants' diets in suppressing methane production, with some studies reporting reductions exceeding 90%. Asparagopsis taxiformis, a sub-tropical red seaweed, has been widely researched due to its high levels of bromoform, which competitively inhibits enzymes in the methanogenic pathway. However, including A. taxiformis in commercial dairy diets may be harmful as bromoform is a potential carcinogen (human and animal) with ozone-depleting properties.
Approximately 600 seaweed species are found in British waters and historically, kelp production was a major industry in Scotland. Native species of brown seaweed, such as Ascophyllum nodosum, are rich in phlorotannin, which can reduce methane production through protein binding without the concerns associated with bromoform.
Bioaccumulation of heavy metals and trace elements, such as iodine, by seaweed is potentially toxic to both cows and consumers if exposure is prolonged. However, at low doses, seaweeds provide an opportunity to enrich the iodine content of milk, thereby improving iodine status amongst dairy consumers whilst simultaneously reducing some of the environmental consequences of milk production. We propose an exploration of the environmental and nutritional benefits of low-dose supplementation of A. nodosum in dairy cows.
This work was funded by a Scottish Alliance for Food pump priming award.
- Rheinallt Jones / Ashleigh Holmes (JHI)/ Ingo Hein (JHI) / Emile Combet / Barbara Mabel: SpudCows: Can potatoes provide a valuable nutritional supplement for ruminants?
It is likely that increased food wastage due to greater unpredictability in weather conditions during the growing season will be a consequence of climate change. An important goal to produce more sustainable agroecosystems is thus to use or locally adapted landraces of important crops, which are more resilient to location-specific climatic variation. However, this could come with a trade-off regarding nutritional value or aesthetics. Potatoes, for example, are highly susceptible to climate-sensitive pathogens that reduce marketability for human consumption, and supermarkets have very specific requirements for particular traits (e.g. integrity during boiling or frying). There could thus be variation in nutritional and commercial success of different varieties under different environmental conditions. One underexplored possibility to reduce resulting wastage is to increase the use of waste, “spoiled” or imperfect potatoes as a food supplement for livestock. However, while human nutritional value is tested before promoting new varieties, extensions to livestock nutrition or digestibility remain largely unknown. There could be benefits of such an approach for adding value to crops in terms of a circular economy and reducing reliance on grain crops for cattle.
In this project we aim to establishing the nature of variation among common potato varieties and establish methodologies for testing nutritional qualities, digestibility and potential environmental impacts. The overall aims are to define the nutritional value, digestibility, and methane mitigation potential of different potato varieties experimentally fed to cattle.
This work was funded by a Scottish Alliance for Food pump priming award.
- Tom Jenkins / Lynsey Melville (Moredun) / Dan Price (Moredun) / Adam Hayward (Moredun) / Rheinallt Jones: Exploring sheep farmer opinion of methane mitigant feed additive, and quantifying the effects of a commercially available additive (hydrolyzed lignin from pine bark) on the growth, methane production and internal parasitism of sheep.
The livestock industry must reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to reach ambitious net zero targets. Maximising productivity and minimizing wastage will reduce methane emissions but methane-mitigating feed additives could revolutionise the environmental impact of ruminant production. However, little is know about how changes to the ruminal microbiome imposed by supplementing methane mitigating feed additives affect concurrant gastrointestinal disease.
In this study we plan to explore the effects of feeding a commercially available feed additive (hydrolyzed lignin from pine bark [MacPhenol, HARBRO Ltd]) know to affect the ruminal microbiome on animal production, methane production and gastrointestinal nematod infection in naturally infected sheep.
- Olivia Pigden (PhD student) / Mark McLaughlin / Lorenzo Viora / David Eckersall / George King Queen’s University Belfast: Milk proteins in bovine mastitis: biomarkers of disease and biological function
This is a NorthWestBio doctoral training partnership funded by the BBSRC and involves a collaboration between Queens University Belfast and the University of Glasgow. The aim of this study is to identify potential biomarkers of clinical and subclinical mastitis that could be developed into a point of care tool. Samples collected through the University of Glasgow partners (David Eckersall, George King, Lorenzo Viora and Mark McLaughlin) will be analysed using high sensitivity and high throughput tims-TOF quantitative proteomic system located in the laboratory of Dr Bobby Graham, Queen’s University Belfast. The role of various proteins in contributing to the control of the transfer of neutrophils into the mammary gland by loosening tight junctions in the blood/mammary barrier will also be explored using a cell culture approach. A PhD student, Olivia Pigden, was appointed to the project in October 2024.
- Katie Denholm/ Kim Hamer / Rheinallt Jones: Defining optimal thresholds for digital Brix refractometry to determine IgG concentration in ewe colostrum and lamb serum in Scottish lowland sheep flocks
This research aimed to define thresholds for ewe colostrum and lamb serum Brix refractometer measurements in lowland Scottish sheep. This would facilitate the use of this convenient, sheep-side test, enabling quick and accurate identification of poor quality colostrum and prevention of failure of transfer of passive immunity (FTPI) in lambs. Lambs and ewes were enrolled from Cochno Farm and 3 other lowland sheep flocks for this work.
Analysis defined a Brix threshold for serum of > 8.65% for adequate passive transfer of immunity in Scottish lambs (sensitivity 94% (95%CI=72.7–99.8), specificity 82% (95%CI=76.6–87.2)). To optimise passive transfer of immunity in lambs, we suggest that ewe colostrum Brix measurements be defined as ‘poor’ (<22%); ‘fair’ (22–26%) and ‘good’ (>26%); and lamb serum as ‘poor’ (<8%); ‘fair’ (8–9%) and ‘good’ (>9%). It is recommended that these tests are used as for flock screening, using samples from multiple animals.
The work is published here