Joint Expert Group on Animal Feed and Feed Additives - AFFAJEG
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The Animal Feed and Feed Additives Joint Expert Group assesses and provides advice to the FSA or other government departments on applications for the authorisation of feed additives and substances used in animal feed for both animals and human consumers of animal derived products and on other topics relevant to the assessment of such applications as requested. The group coordinates with and considers the opinions of other relevant bodies concerned with the assessment of feed additives and provides advice on general principals or new scientific discoveries in connection with the authorisation of feed additives and substances.
Members
Professor Nicholas Jonsson (Chair)
Nicholas is a Professor of Animal Health and Production at the University of Glasgow. He was a veterinary practitioner in Australia for seven years before commencing an academic career in livestock production and health. He has particular interest in applied animal health research, mostly directed at nutritional, technological, genetic and management strategies for the control of production diseases and parasites of livestock.
Dr Adam Smith
Adam currently works for DSM Nutritional Products Ltd as Regional Lead Feed Enzymes for the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. He is an Animal Nutritionist with close to 25 years’ experience of the global animal nutrition industry. During this time he has held various management roles in market leading companies operating in the feed premix and additive sectors. Within these employments he has had responsibility for technical support of feed industry and farmer customers, scientific innovation, regulatory affairs and the development and roll out of strategic commercial plans.
His specific area of scientific expertise lies in the field of poultry and swine nutrition, with an emphasis on micronutrition, feed hygiene and environmental impact. In particular, he has a strong interest in feed enzyme innovation and actively participates and leads projects tasked with developing and bringing to the market new enzyme molecules as well as conducting research in allied areas of mineral, fibre and amino acid nutrition.
Christine McAlinden
Christine is a board-certified and European Registered toxicologist with over 20 years’ experience within the industry. In toXcel International Ltd, in her role as Associate Director, she provides leadership in business and scientific affairs on behalf of European operations. Christine has served on the education committee of the British Toxicology Society, as a Panel member for the UK Register of Toxicologists, and as a toxicologist for the Food Standards Agency’s Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs (ACAF).
Derek Renshaw
Derek is an independent toxicologist with more than forty years of experience evaluating the safety of a wide range of substances in national European and international fora. He was employed by the FSA since it was set up in 2001, and before that by the Department of Health. For the last twenty years his work has included evaluation of the safety to humans on animal feed additives. He has served several terms as a member of the FEEDAP committee, which evaluates European Union submissions for use of feed additives, and as a member of its predecessor, the Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition (SCAN). Since retiring from FSA in 2020, he maintained his scientific activity by continuing his work with FEEDAP and its working groups.
Dr Donald Morrison
Prior to my present post as lecturer in Microbiology at Edinburgh Napier University Donald worked for 21 years as a Clinical Scientist/Microbiologist in two public health microbiology laboratories – at the Health Protection Agency (1986-1997) and the Scottish MRSA Reference Laboratory (1997-2007).
Antibiotic resistant pathogens (ESBL and carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, VRE and MRSA), in the clinical setting and more recently in the natural environment, have formed the basis of his research activities. Donad’s recent research has focused on investigating the prevalence and diversity of antibiotic resistant pathogens and the contribution of wastewater treatment plants, rivers, coastal waters, fresh foods and wild animals in their dissemination.
Dr Helen Warren
In 1999, Dr. Warren achieved her primary degree in Animal Science from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, followed by her PhD in fatty acids in beef from the Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol. She is a qualified lecturer and spent five years lecturing degree students in animal and equine science before moving to industry. She is a Senior Visiting Fellow at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, a trustee of the British Society of Animal Science and a member of the Society of Feed Technologists. In the field, Dr Warren is a Cow Signals Master Trainer and a registered Animal Scientist. She currently works as a European Technical Manager for Ruminants and Horses for Alltech, involving initiating European research projects, as well as delivering nutritional education and technical sales support. She is also a free-lance technical writer for agricultural lay publications.
Dr Katrina Campbell
Katrina is a Professor in Food Security at the Queens University Belfast. Katrina has substantive experience in the development of diagnostic tools to ensure food security, safety in contaminant monitoring and sustainability in their applicability within the food supply chain. She has extensive experience of (bio) analytical method development, validation and evaluation with state of the art technologies. Her research focuses on the identification and recognition of known and emerging threats within the entire food supply chain from “environment to farm to fork”, to determine their consequential effects and to implement mitigation tools to prevent negative health and/or economic implications.
Martin Briggs (ACMSF member)
Martin currently works for GLW Feeds Ltd. with a scientific background is in applied biology. He has extensive practical experience across the feed industry in nutrition, hygiene, medicines, quality, feed assurance and manufacturing animal feed. He has experience of undertaking risk assessment for animal feed and the role it has in the human food chain.
Professor Matthew Fisher
Professor Matthew Fisher is the leader of the ‘Fungal Pathogens’ theme in the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis in the Imperial College School of Public Health. His interest spans the epidemiology, ecology and evolution of microorganisms, with a special interest in emerging fungal infections and antimicrobial resistance. His research is interdisciplinary spanning ‘One Health’ approaches linking environmental and agricultural processes to human health.
He was recently awarded the status of ‘Fellow’ by the American Academy of Microbiology (2020) and the Canadian CIFAR program (2019), and is Web-of-Science ‘Highly Cited Researcher’.
Dr Michael Salter
Mike started his working life with an agricultural contractor in the 1970’s working predominantly in the arable and dairy sectors. After a period in the pharmaceutical industry he attended Liverpool University reading Genetics at undergraduate level followed by a Plant Molecular Biology PhD working with the then Zeneca Agrochemicals. Mike stayed in Academia for 20 years but left to work in industrial research in 2010. Mike has worked for 8 years as an innovation scientist within AB Agri, a global livestock nutrition business. His focus during that time has revolved around understanding the gut microbiome, looking for scientific advances that would assist in the removal of antibiotics from livestock rearing systems and understanding how to reduce environmental impact of livestock farming by improving efficiency and reducing supply chain impact.
Nick Wheelhouse
Nick is currently Associate Professor and Research Lead in Microbiology at Edinburgh Napier University. Nick holds a BSc in Agricultural Biochemistry and Nutrition from Newcastle University and a PhD in Animal Science from the University of Aberdeen. He has worked in veterinary research for the majority of his research career and continues at Napier to collaborate on a number of agriculture and animal health related projects both in the UK and overseas with academic and industry partners. Nick is one of the leads of the Animal Health and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity Network, he is an Affiliated researcher at the University of Glasgow and external examiner for the Royal Veterinary College
Susan MacDonald
Susan is Science Lead for the areas of mycotoxins and natural toxins at Fera. In addition, she is Head of the UK National Reference Laboratory for Mycotoxins and Plant Toxins. She is a research scientist, as well as being a project manager, and providing advice & training on mycotoxins (and other contaminants) including analysis and regulations, as well as general laboratory quality. Susan is a member of two European expert committees for standardisation of analytical methods for natural toxins.