Sarah Adcock

Email: sarah.adcock@wisc.edu
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Education 
Ph.D., Animal Behavior, University of California, Davis, California, 2020.
M.S., Cognitive and Behavioral Ecology, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, 2014.
B.S., Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, 2012.

Research 
​Hot-iron disbudding is a routine husbandry procedure to prevent horn growth in dairy calves, but is acutely painful. For my doctoral research, I conducted a series of experiments to understand what calves experience during the healing period. I found that pain is present for weeks after disbudding, highlighting the need to refine or avoid this painful procedure. Before my PhD, I conducted my MSc research on miniature pigs, characterizing the relationships between stress, cognition, sex, and personality.

I am now an Assistant Professor in Animal Welfare in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For more information, please visit: https://animalwelfare.cals.wisc.edu/