ProfessorTorres Sweeney

As Ireland expands it agricultural output to meet the ambitious targets of Harvest 2020, there are a spectrum of health, welfare and production issues in farm animal species that are a focus for my research interests: The first area is focused on developing genetic and biological markers to assist in the selection for economically important traits such as susceptibility to disease, meat quality and residual feed intake. The long term goal is to provide markers for these economically important traits that can be incorporated into national breeding programs and assist in the selection of healthy - efficient livestock. The species of interest are cattle, sheep and pigs. The second area is on molecular genetics and immunogenomics of host-pathogen interactions in farm animal species. Research topics include transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, brucellosis, gastrointestinal nematodes, verocytotoxigenic E.Coli 0157:H7, Salmonella and campylobacter infection in cattle, sheep, pigs and humans.