Harper students highly commended at BSAS Undergraduate Thesis of the Year

Two Harper Adams students have been highly commended at the British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) Undergraduate Thesis of the Year awards.

Annie Metcalfe and Sarah Mansell were selected into the top twelve dissertations submitted to BSAS, receiving recognition for their work in their respective fields. As a result of their success, their pieces will be published in the BSAS series, Fledgling Bytes.

Sarah studied BSc (Hons) Bioveterinary Science. She undertook her dissertation, entitled ‘Assessing the awareness of Onchocerca cervicalis amongst equine veterinary surgeons in the UK’, to try and raise awareness of the parasite. Looking into the neck threadworm, Sarah found the topic had not been studied in depth in the UK since the 1970’s.

Sarah commented: “Because of the lack of recent research, it was unknown to what extent UK based equine vets were aware of the parasite, how much they knew about it, and whether they considered it as a differential diagnosis for other horse skin conditions.”

Upon being selected, Sarah said: “It's a real privilege to have had my work recognised in this way.

“When I first started the project, I knew nothing about Onchocerca! I developed a passion for the topic and the need to raise awareness of the parasite through my research. I never thought the project would gain the recognition it has!”

Studying BSc (Hons) Agriculture, Annie undertook a study on piglets. Her thesis considered the ‘Effect of the removal of pharmacological doses of zinc oxide from the post-weaning diets of outdoor bred newly weaned piglets’. Finding that a higher fibre, lower protein diet was unable to offset performance loss seen through the removal of zinc oxide, Annie is now taking this knowledge into the workplace.

Annie has started a role at Primary Diets as a piglet nutritionist and is looking to continue her studies in this field. She said: “I hope to continue to work within research and development for monogastric nutrition, possibly completing a masters in the future. It is an exciting and growing industry to which I hope to be able to make a positive contribution.”