Keith Allison

Sunday, 15 January 2012

Keith Allison came to the University after spending much of his career in animal health research and product development with multi-national companies in the pharmaceutical, animal health and feeding stuffs industries.

Since 1990, he worked as a consultant involved in research, clinical field trials and technical product development work with commercial companies operating in the organic food and nutraceutical supplements market.

He was specialist advisor in regulatory affairs relating to the production and marketing of such products and his clients included those in the human, companion animal and agricultural sectors.

Keith began his PhD studies in the School of Agriculture Policy and Development in October 2007, initially working on the anti-parasitic potential of tannins in fodder before finally settling on the topic of an intelligent approach to worming horses.

Keith was self-motivated and self-funding. He also worked on several research projects within the School, applying his skills in social science to interviewing farmers.

Keith contributed to projects on a wide range of topics including farm biosecurity, bovine TB, dog licensing and registration and contingency planning for African Horse Sickness. Keith also ran his own pet food business.

Unfortunately Keith was months away from completion of his thesis when he fell ill in summer 2011, but had managed to publish preliminary findings from his research in the Veterinary Record (Allison, K., Taylor, N. M., Wilsmore, A, J., Garforth, C. (2011). Equine anthelmintics: a survey of patterns of use, beliefs and attitudes amongst horse owners in the UK. Veterinary Record (2011) 168, 483; published online April 18, 2011 doi:10.1136/vr.d731).