Air Quality and Livestock Farming

Associate Professor Thomas Banhazi is currently a Lecturer and Principal Scientist at University of Southern Queensland (USQ) responsible for the delivery of a number of agriculture related courses in addition to supervising a large number of post-graduate students. Associate Professor Banhazi has published in excess of 200 book chapters, journal and international conference papers and has been involved in approximately 40 research projects both in Europe and Australia funded by various government agencies and farmer organisations. He has successfully patented a number of innovative technologies in the US, Australia and Europe and actively engaged in the commercialisation of the patented inventions via his commercialisation companies. His expertise is mainly related to Precision Livestock Farming applications and environmental assessment methods. However, his research interests also include thermal and aerial environment of livestock buildings, the effect of airborne pollutants on the health of animals and workers, emission abatement and livestock waste management technologies.

Associate professor Andres Aland is a Lecturer in Animal Health that involves both teaching and scientific activities at the Chair of Veterinary Bio- and Population Medicine at the Estonian University of Life Sciences. He has supervised a number of post-graduate students and published a large number of journal articles, conference papers and book chapters, including two textbooks published by the Wageningen Academic Publishers. Associate professor Aland has been involved in approximately 10 large research projects both in Estonia and Europe, funded by various governmental or European agencies. His expertise is mainly related to the areas of animal welfare and herd health monitoring in different production systems; environmental risks in production animal housing and preventive veterinary medicine. He is the Vice President of the International Society for Animal Hygiene and he is a member of numerous academic bodies nationally and internationally. Associate professor Aland has been the recipient of several national awards for his work as researcher, lecturer and post-graduate supervisor.

Joerg Hartung (Dr. med. vet., Dr. med. vet. habil, Dr. h. c.) is veterinarian and Professor of Animal Hygiene, Husbandry and Welfare Science. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences for his scientific research on animal health/welfare and the effects of air pollutants on animals, humans and the environment. He was the Director of the Institute for Animal Hygiene, Welfare and Livestock Behaviour of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany for 20 years and served for 2 years as group leader at the Silsoe Research Institute, UK. His experience covers more than 35 years teaching and research in veterinary medicine and animal production on wide ranging topics such as (1) animal hygiene (2) animal welfare and health, (3) environmental protection and (4) occupational health aspects of farming. He is the President of the International Society for Animal Hygiene, chairman of the Committee for Animal Welfare in the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Germany, member of the Committee "Impact of Air Pollutants on Farm Animals" in German Engineers Association and member of the working group "Biological Risks at Workplace Agriculture", Germany. Currently he is an Emeritus Professor and since 2014 guest-Professor at University Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil.