Speaker bio page for Neil Chesterton

Bio

Neil has been a veterinarian in dairy practice in New Zealand for over 40 years. His interest is understanding lameness in pasture-based systems. Neil began by recording and describing his routine treatments of lame feet in what he called his “New Zealand Laboratory – the farms where he worked. The following eleven years of detailed treatment data provided a picture of the problem in the field. Early in his career he completed a ground-breaking case-control study, using herds in his own and neighbouring veterinary practices with the aim of identifying the predominant risk factors for claw injury lameness in pasture-based systems. With his understanding of cow behaviour and lameness risk factors, he continues to investigate herd lameness problems and trains veterinarians and farmers in the understanding, treatment and prevention of what is possibly still one of the dairy industry’s most serious animal welfare problems.