Speaker bio page for Chris Riley

Chris is an internationally recognised registered specialist veterinary surgeon, researcher and educator with over 30 years of experience in these fields. He teaches clinical and didactic courses in equine surgery and clinical practice, and research skills. In addition to his extensive undergraduate teaching experience, he has trained a number of veterinary specialists, masters and doctoral postgraduates. His research experience is broad. During last 20 years his scientific research has focused on the development of biomedical tests for animal and human diseases using the emerging technologies such as infrared spectroscopy. For example, this is included a multimillion dollar project investigating immunity and immunoglobulins in  serum and milk from human mothers and babies, cattle, horses, alpacas and dogs. Other work has focused on osteoarthritis diagnosis and regenerative medicine technologies. During the past few years he has increasingly focused on animal welfare, and the human-animal risk paradigm. This has included identifying factors associated with horse welfare during transport, large animal related injuries to students and animal owners, and the risks that animal rescuers are exposed to in emergency and disaster relief situations. An internationally recognised specialist in horse and farm animal surgery, he has trained and led veterinary humanitarian teams to developing countries, as well as training veterinarians in Australia, Canada, Haiti, New Zealand, Peru, Sri Lanka and Thailand. These activities reflect his parallel interests in animal and human welfare, and a desire to use veterinary expertise and perform research that benefits people and all domesticated species. He is currently manager and a member of Massey’s Veterinary Emergency Response Team, and is working with colleagues to better understand the role of agencies in protecting animal welfare and reducing human risk in emergencies and disasters