Dr Helen Gray

Lecturer in Pig and Poultry Welfare

Background

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Biology

MRes Animal behaviour

PhD Laboratory animal welfare

I am a trained mental health first aider.

Research

My research involves a combination of behavioural assessment, with statistical modelling to investigate problem behaviours in laying hens, though I have previously also worked on rhesus macaques, rats and pigs. More broadly, my interests lie in both the mechanisms of animal behaviour and in exploring ways in which behaviour can be measured and used as an indicator of welfare. I have recently developed an interest in invertebrate welfare, and would love to explore this further in the future.

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

NES2008 Sustainable animal production systems - Module Leader

NES3010 Applied animal nutrition

NES3012 Animal welfare and behaviour

Postgraduate Teaching

MMB8054 Theoretical aspects of animal welfare

MMB8055 Practical aspects of animal welfare

Publications

Articles
- Cuff JP, Barrett M, Gray H, Fox C, Watt A, Aimé E. The case for open research in entomology: reducing harm, refining reproducibility and advancing insect science. Agricultural and Forest Entomology 2024, (ePub ahead of Print).
- Armstrong D, Asher L, Rayner A, Ngidda H, Sharma B, Gray H. The effect of piling behavior on the production and mortality of free-range laying hens. Poultry Science 2023, 102(10), 102989.
- Gray H, Friel M, Goold C, Smith RP, Williamson SM, Collins LM. Modelling the links between farm characteristics, respiratory health and pig production traits. Scientific Reports 2021, 11(1), 13789.
- Gray H, Davies R, Bright A, Rayner A, Asher L. Why Do Hens Pile? Hypothesizing the Causes and Consequences. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 2020, 7, 616836.
- Lee H, Perkins C, Gray H, Hajat S, Friel M, Smith RP, Williamson S, Edwards P, Collins LM. Influence of temperature on prevalence of health and welfare conditions in pigs: Time-series analysis of pig abattoir inspection data in England and Wales. Epidemiology & Infection 2020, 148, 1-8.
- Zhang L, Gray H, Ye X, Collins L, Allinson N. Automatic individual pig detection and tracking in pig farms. Sensors 2019, 19(5), 1188.
- Bushby EV, Friel M, Goold C, Gray H, Smith L, Collins LM. Factors influencing individual variation in farm animal cognition and how to account for these statistically. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 2018, 5, 193.
- Simcock NK, Gray H, Bouchebti S, Wright GA. Appetitive olfactory learning and memory in the honeybee depend on sugar reward identity. Journal of Insect Physiology 2018, 106(Part 1), 71-77.
- Gray H, Pearce B, Thiele A, Rowe C. The use of preferred social stimuli as rewards for rhesus macaques in behavioural neuroscience. PLoS ONE 2017, 12(5), e0178048.
- Gray H, Bertrand H, Mindus C, Flecknell P, Rowe C, Thiele A. Physiological, behavioral, and scientific impact of different fluid control protocols in the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta). eNeuro 2016, 3(4), 1-15.
- Simcock NK, Gray HE, Wright GA. Single amino acids in sucrose rewards modulate feeding and associative learning in the honeybee. Journal of Insect Physiology 2014, 69, 41-48.
Review
- Soulsbury CD, Gray HE, Smith LM, Braithwaite V, Cotter SC, Elwood RW, Wilkinson A, Collins LM. The welfare and ethics of research involving wild animals: A primer. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 2020, 11(10), 1164-1181.