Dr. Silvina Fernández
OACC Research Associate, University of Guelph

My job as Research Associate at OACC has enabled me to understand the prominent role of organic agriculture in sustainable production systems, particularly livestock’s.

Expanding the organic livestock production in this country is a challenge, and I very much like to contribute to overcome such a challenge with my research expertise.

Thanks to growing up in a rural environment in the Argentinean pampas and being a bit of a tomboy enjoying my time amongst horses and cattle, my decision to become a vet was rather obvious. What I did not expect was that I would choose ‘research’ as my career path! I enjoy doing applied research because of its usefulness for the end-users, farmers and vets alike, and the possibility that the results of my scientific expertise might help them to understand the problems in their herds or flocks and to apply measures to solve them.

My main research experience is epidemiology, prevention and control of internal parasites of livestock, including biological control using nematode-trapping fungi. I am currently involved in a multi-collaboration research project on sustainable control of gastrointestinal parasites in livestock.

I am also the instructor of the Organic Livestock Production web-based course that OACC offers through the Nova Scotia Agricultural College. This is quite a rewarding experience as it allows me to enlighten students on how much farmers can do to better the different livestock production systems in our country.

Contact Information
Dr. Silvina Fernandez
Research Associate
Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada
c/o Department of Pathobiology
Ontario Veterinary College
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1
Canada
Tel (519) 824-4120 ext 54819
Fax (519) 824-5930
E-mail: fernands@uoguelph.ca

More information about the Organic Livestock Production course

Français

Posted August 2007