Rachel Toaff-Rosenstein
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Email: rtoaff@gmail.com Education Diplomate, American College of Animal Welfare, 2017 Ph.D., Animal Biology, University of California, Davis, California, 2016. V.M.D., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2009. B.S., Animal Science, Hebrew University, Rehovot, Israel, 2004. Research While enrolled in veterinary school, I was awarded the Penn Vet Student Inspiration Award, designed to encourage students to invent their future in veterinary medicine, while advancing the frontiers of veterinary medicine and expanding the profession’s impact on the well-being of animals and society. Given my passion for the welfare of food-producing animals, and desire to help mediate a scientifically-based dialogue between producers, consumers, and animal-health professionals and encourage practical, on-farm welfare improvements, I decided to pursue a Ph.D under the mentorship of Cassandra Tucker, which I completed in 2016. My doctoral research focused on characterizing the sickness response, which includes physiological changes such as fever and a variety of behavioral changes such as decreased feeding and grooming and increased lethargy and nociceptive sensitivity, in beef cattle affected with Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD). BRD is one of the most costly cattle diseases in the US, and the greatest cause of cattle morbidity and mortality in this country. I previously worked in R&D at SCR-Allflex in Israel to develop automated technologies intended to help producers with earlier, more accurate disease detection in cattle. There, I was able to apply my veterinary and animal behavior training in an effort to harness the potential of cutting-edge technology to improve animal welfare on a large scale. Given my increasing concern for climate change and the effects of our agri-food systems on the environment, I decided to explore opportunities for more sustainable protein production. Today, I am a project manager at the French start-up Innovafeed, where H. illucens (black soldier flies) are raised at scale. I lead an applied behavioral research program and am also exploring opportunities to ensure the welfare of insects raised for food and feed, which is an area of emerging concern |