Marina von Keyserlingk

University of British Columbia, 1995, PhD

University of Alberta, 1989, MSc

University of British Columbia, 1987, BSc (Hon)

Nina’s love of animals began at a very young age while growing up on a beef cattle ranch in British Columbia . After leaving the ranch, she went onto complete her undergraduate in agricultural sciences at UBC, and her M.Sc. in Animal Science at the University of Alberta. She returned to Vancouver to complete her Ph.D. in Animal Sciences at the University of British Columbia.

Nina joined the UBC Animal Welfare Program after obtaining several years of experience as a research scientist working for the animal feed industry and was appointed as a NSERC Industrial Research Chair in 2008, and is recognized internationally for her research on care and housing for dairy cows and calves.

Nina also recently co-authored the definitive scholarly text – The Welfare of Cattle – in her core area of research (Springer Verlag, 2008). Because of this work as an educator on farm animal care, the impact of her research can now be seen on farms around the world.

Dr. von Keyserlingk’s studies have focused on the under-researched areas including behavior, housing and management and how these contribute to animal health and welfare of dairy cattle. For more details, please visit the Animal Welfare Program website .

Marina von Keyserlingk and David Fraser offer a second year undergraduate course Animals and Society during the fall semester. Senior undergraduates with a strong interest in Animal Welfare are also able to participate in hands-on research in Animal Welfare by enrolling in the undergraduate thesis course and can take the Graduate Seminar in Animal Welfare. She and her colleague Dan Weary also offer a third year undergraduate course Research Methods in Applied Animal Biology. This course introduces students to research methods including research design, scientific critique, writing proposals and reports, and oral presentation.

Please visit Dr. von Keyserlingk’s Google Scholar page for a list of recent publications.

Busch, Gesa, D.M. Weary., A Spiller, M.A.G. von Keyserlingk, 2017. American and German attitudes towards Cow-Calf Separation on Dairy Farms. PLoS ONE 12(3): e0174013.

von Keyserlingk, Marina A.G., Andressa Amorim Cestari, Becca Franks, Jose Fregonesi and Daniel M. Weary. 2017. Dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed. Sci. Rep. 7, 44953; doi: 10.1038/srep44953.

Hötzel, Maria J., Clarissa S. Cardoso, Angélica Roslindo, and Marina A. G. von Keyserlingk. 2017. Citizens’ views on the practices of zero-grazing and cow-calf separation in the dairy industry: Does providing information increase acceptability? J Dairy Sci.

Weary, D.M. and M.A.G. von Keyserlingk. 2017. INVITED REVIEW: Public concerns about dairy cow welfare — how should the industry respond? Anim. Prod. Sci. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/AN16680

Neave, H.W., J. Lomb, M.A.G. von Keyserlingk, A. Behnam-Shabahang, D.M. Weary. 2017. Parity differences in the behavior of transition dairy cows. J. Dairy Sci.

• Elanco Award for Excellence in Dairy Science (2013)
• Metacam Bovine Welfare Award (2013)
• Canadian Animal Industries Award in Extension & Public Service (2012)
• 26th Annual World Buiatrics Congress Keynote Speakers (2010)