Kinder Ground for Animal Welfare – Interview with Dr. Jennifer Walker

Kinder Ground for Animal Welfare – Interview with Dr. Jennifer Walker

California Dreaming

A veterinarian by trade, Dr. Walker (Dr. Jen) grew up south of San Francisco determined to be a veterinarian, specifically one that specialized in cancer treatment. As an animal science major at UC Davis, she realized that the chances of her finding breakthrough cancer treatments were slim and more importantly, through her volunteer work in the oncology ward she “began to struggle with the amount of suffering we were asking these pets to go through for their owner’s struggle with letting go”.

Working on the university dairy she also realized that while there were a lot of folks lining up to be small animal veterinarians, few wanted to work with food animals and began to think that working in food animal medicine is where she could make a real difference explaining “I enjoyed the people we worked with, and I enjoyed being outside. In food animal medicine you get to see your clients more frequently, you get to be a part of their team, and not just see them when disaster struck.” It was then Dr. Jen made the decision to go all into food animal medicine.

While she was confident, the vet school wasn’t. She had to apply 4 times before she was accepted to vet school. On the third “rejection” she was told they doubted her interest in food animal medicine. Still a bit resentful of the judgment, she admits it did force her go out and get more experience outside of the bounds of the university. She never gave up and was finally accepted, graduated in 2000 in joined a small practice in San Joaquin County California focused on dairy production medicine where they were part of the farm team, training, teaching and consulting, and she loved it.

Look What You Made Me Do!

As much as she enjoyed practice and her clients, it became clear that the work can take a toll on the body. She had long considered returning to the university to teach, wanting to bring practical, real-world experience to the clinical teaching environment. She made the leap and returned to UC Davis for a residency. She loved work and the students but soon realized that if clinical teaching was the goal, a PhD was the next step to ensure she would be competitive in that environment. She was lucky enough to find a funded PhD program focused exactly on what she was interested in at the time, udder health, specifically Staph aureus mastitis. So, it was off to Ohio.

It was at The Ohio State University that Dr. Jen developed an interest in animal welfare. She explained that “sadly, animal welfare just wasn’t something taught in veterinary medicine prior to 2008.”  It was in 2008 that undercover video exposed the cruel handling of non-ambulatory cattle at the Hallmark/Westland meat packing company. “That was the beginning of what I call the beginning of our reputation era” she said explaining “the animal welfare discussion started bubbling up. I had an office mate with a small animal background that would see one under cover video after another and come to me upset and with lots of questions. We had lots of great chats about animal welfare and animal agriculture. That is when animal welfare science caught my focus and really opened some doors for me.” As luck would have it, Dr. Jen was also studying education as a minor and used that as a vehicle for her animal welfare studies working with faculty to develop a course in animal welfare and her career in animal welfare blossomed from there.

From the Barnyard to the Boardroom and Back Again 

After finishing her PhD with a passion and focus on animal welfare, in 2010 Dr. Jen joined Dean Foods, at that time the largest dairy processor in the United States as Director of Dairy Stewardship. There she developed and managed an industry leading animal welfare program, before moving on to Danone North America where she managed milk quality and animal welfare in 2018. Along the way she managed to earn a master’s in Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law through the University of Edinburgh and applied those learnings to her work in the corporate arena.

During her stint at Danone, she gained new perspective on what could and could not be accomplished through industry, corporate and legislative animal welfare initiatives. From that experience grew a passion project she co-founded, Kinder Ground, a no-profit dedicated to helping farmers implement practices on farms that improve animal welfare. She recalls, “When I was working in corporate, one of the challenges I saw was that projects were driven by what the corporation was focused on and what they were prioritizing at that time. As soon as the corporation got sidetracked or management changed there was nothing to sustain the effort. When the corporation dictates what happens on the farm, it’s just a box to check, not something that is valued by the farmer.”

The purpose behind Kinder Ground is to bring together the farming community. The theory of change is understanding that there are improvements needed in the lives of farm animals, and those improvements and changes are most successful when they come from ideas straight from the farmer. Reflecting, Dr. Jen shared, “Over the years I had seen so many projects abandoned, because it wasn’t the farmer driving the change. I truly believe that farmers will have the best ideas. The void that Kinder Ground is filling is how do we put science into practice. We are that link from science to implementation on the farm. Farmers have the imagination, the gumption, and the creativity to figure out how to make it work. We also know that farmers talk to farmers. This is how welfare improvement becomes contagious, when they see the benefits of the improvements made by their neighbors. Let farmers amplify the message!”

Sowing Seeds of Compassion 

Having donated the seed funding to get the non-profit and projects started, and lucky enough to have built enough savings, Dr. Jen stepped away from Danone at the end of 2023 to dedicate herself full time to Kinder Ground without even drawing a salary. Her goal is to focus on Kinder Ground for three years and get it to a place where it can financially sustain itself.

Dr. Jen explained that the biggest challenge to getting farms started on projects is the risk of failure. Kinder Ground makes that risk a little more palatable. Farmers don’t give themselves enough credit, they are swimming in risk and unknown every single day. I am always amazed at the level of risk they take on. What we found is that if we can partially support a welfare project it is a lot easier to take that leap, knowing that there is risk that our project might fail, but we can give it a go together. Kinder Ground is also hoping to show those outside the industry that many farms want to make improvements in animal welfare, but it’s not something that can be done with a cookie cutter approach. “Improving welfare looks a little different for each farm. We can’t cookie cutter a life worth living, and we aren’t going to be successful by mandating it. You can mandate tail docking, basic care, pain management, but elevating welfare to a life worth living is advancing past the basics. That is going to be a farm-by-farm process.”

Show Me the Money!

Dr. Jen admits that it is hard to capture in a spreadsheet the financial return on improvements in animal welfare.  Animal welfare is a long-term outcome that gets washed out in the details of a quarterly P&L. Kinder Ground asserts that practical animal welfare is about acknowledging trade-offs and realizing better is better, that even small investments and changes can have a real impact. Dr. Jen goes on to challenge consumers and all business, “If dairy, beef, or pork, or chicken is on your menu, you should be doing something to enable farmers to improve animal welfare. I see millions of dollars wasted on the supply chain side of things, meant to improve welfare, but really doing nothing. It usually ends up being audits, surveys, or messaging around welfare, but not a single penny of it has improved the welfare of livestock animals.”

What started out as a passion project, Kinder Ground is hoping that the supply chain jumps on for support. Dr. Jen is emphatic about the message and challenge to the supply chain, saying “Millions of dollars have been wasted on messaging and halfhearted programs. All we have managed to do is set a very low bar of, don’t be cruel, and relatively little improvements have been made beyond that. I want to change the habit of putting messaging over impact, and checking boxes. We can do so much good when we focus the resources on making a difference.”

A big thank you to Dr. Walker for taking the time to chat with us about animal welfare!  If you are looking for welfare resources, have the desire to implement a welfare project, or if you would like to donate to Kinder Ground, please visit their website KinderGround.org. Let’s help to make life worth living for our food animal species!

Prevention of Foodborne Illness Starts at the Farm Level

Prevention of Foodborne Illness Starts at the Farm Level

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified nontyphoidal Salmonella as one of the top 5 pathogens contributing to foodborne illnesses in the United States. Ground chicken leads the pack when it comes to Salmonella contamination, but ground beef is also a common source of Salmonella outbreaks.

Illness caused by Salmonella is an ongoing issue. Despite the goal to reduce foodborne Salmonella infections as part of the initiative of the Healthy People Objective between 2010-2020, incidence did not decline. In 2008 there were 15 Salmonella infections per 100,000 people and in 2019 Healthy People reported 17 infections per 100,000 people.

 

Salmonella in Beef Products

Salmonella is known to be a dreaded enteric pathogen causing calf scours, but it is also problematic on the harvesting end of things because of the potential risk to humans. From 2012-2019 it was estimated that beef was the source of 5.7-9.1% of all foodborne Salmonella illnesses, averaging 4 outbreaks, 91 illnesses, and 16 hospitalizations per year.

Foodborne illness outbreaks from Salmonella are most likely to happen in the warmer months of the year, and December during holiday celebrations. Although much of the risk of an outbreak depends on food handling, however, contamination prevention starts at the animal level. Contamination begins when Salmonella from the GI tract comes in contact with the carcass surfaces during slaughter and processing.

 

Reducing Transmission

– Protect breeding stock from Salmonella infection.

Routine surveillance and testing are key as is removal of infected animals.

-Prevent contamination of feed and water.

This may include heat treatment of feed, incorporation of organic acids, bacteriocins, and or acidifiers to feed and water.

– Implement biosecurity protocols.

– Control rodents, insects, and wild birds.

– Prevent Salmonella infection.

Vaccination and antibiotic use as directed by a veterinarian may reduce the Salmonella load in livestock animals.

– Reduce animal stress.

Stress increases the shedding of Salmonella and increases the risk of infecting other animals.

Segregate herds with high vs. low Salmonella infection rates during transport.

Clean and sanitize containers and trucks used to transport animals.

Improve animal hygiene.

 

Feeding strategies

A well-established microbiome proves helpful in keeping Salmonella infections at bay. Beneficial microbes competitively exclude pathogenic strains from colonization. However, stress or other environmental factors may contribute to gut dysbiosis which leaves the animal vulnerable to pathogen growth.

Feeding strategies that include binders, probiotics, and prebiotics may help to reduce the pathogen load, and enable the immune system to fight off the remaining offenders, repair any damage done to the gut tissue, and result in a complete resolution of inflammation.

– Antibodies: bind Salmonella through antigen specificity, isotype profile, Fc-gamma receptor usage, and complement activation.

– Probiotics: Bacillus subtilis outcompetes pathogenic bacteria from colonizing the intestinal wall. Bonus, it produces large amounts of digestive enzymes to help with feed conversion.

– Mannan oligosaccharide (MOS): decreases prevalence of intestinal pathogenic bacteria and improves immune defenses.

– Yeast Culture: enhances rumen function, improves digestibility, dry matter intake, and helps relieve heat stress.

– Biologically active polysaccharides: ensure that immune function is at peak performance!

– Zinc Methionine: improved gut mucosal layer, improved feed efficiency, lung and hoof health.

 

Two of my favorite feed supplements that include many of the strategies listed above are Surveillance Calf and TomaHawk iL. In a study prepared by Alfonso Lago, DVM, Surveillance Calf and TomaHawk iL were found to bind over 40% of Salmonella Dublin, Newport, and Typhimurium at the normal daily feeding rate. Pathogen reduction at the therapy level of both products bound 100% of Salmonella Dublin, Newport, and Typhimurium.

Calf raisers, beef, and poultry producers have the ability to make a huge impact on the level of Salmonella contamination that we have in our food system. Education and resources like Surveillance Calf and TomaHawk iL are necessary for pathogen control if we are going to effectively reduce incidence of contamination and improve meat quality for the consumer.

 

Written by: Mariah Gull, M.S.

Sources:

salmonella-fact-sheet-2015.pdf

Salmonella Outbreaks Linked to Beef, United States, 2012–2019 – ScienceDirect

Welcome Bret Hobbs to MicroBasics

Welcome Bret Hobbs to MicroBasics

Bret Hobbs grew up in a farming and ranching background. He grew up in West Texas, however, his father leased a ranch in New Mexico and each summer Bret was busy helping his father run 10,000 head of stockers on the ranch. It was a great way for a young man to grow up, he spent his summers riding, roping, and caring for the cattle.

Bret chose to study Agriculture Education, completing both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in that area of study. But all it took was one year of teaching in a new ag program in a rough area of Houston, TX and Bret new it wasn’t where he was meant to be. He moved back to Lubbock and pursued other avenues.

Bret served for 15 years as a meat inspector. It got to the point that the only way he could progress in that line of work would be to earn a degree in veterinary medicine. When Bret was ready for a change, he took a job with Dairy Max and worked in dairy promotion for 5 years. Upon leaving Dairy Max, Bret, entered the world of sales, he has sold ear tags, pharmaceuticals, hormones, electrolytes, and has managed a distribution route. We are excited to have Bret join the sales team at MicroBasics!

More about Bret to follow……

Q: What are your hobbies and interests?

A: I am a big fan of Texas Tech Sports, I enjoy following the teams and watching the games. I enjoy playing golf, my youngest son played golf in high school and it’s something we enjoy doing together. I am also very involved in the youth group at my church, I enjoy participating in activities and trips with them.

Q: What is something you have learned in your previous work experience, that you feel has a big impact on livestock health and productivity?

A: In my most recent position at Tech Mix, I dealt a lot with helping animals deal with stress and setting the animal up for success through electrolyte balance. I think that is something that will continue to relate to how I serve cattle producers through MicroBasics and is synergistic to our focus on immunity and gut health.

Q: What service are you most excited to provide cattle producers in your new role at MicroBasics?

A: I am very excited to provide cattle producers with a lineup of products that have a synergistic approach, provide solutions to multiple issues, and result in a cascade effect when it comes to animal health.

Q: What part of the country will you be working in?

A: I will be serving beef and dairy customers in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, and Arizona.

We are excited to have Bret on board at MicroBasics! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to him if you have a need.

Written by: Mariah Gull, M.S.