Archive for August 4th, 2011

Fiona Fishpool, a research student at the University of New England, has developed a reliable method of measuring an individual grazing animal’s intake of dietary supplements.

Fiona (pictured here) has shown that the oral worm drench Fenbendazole, when included in a lick block containing feed supplements, emerges in blood samples as a reliable marker of the amount of the block – and therefore of the supplements – that an animal has eaten.

“We can tell from the blood samples just how much of a block each animal has eaten,” she said. “This has been quite difficult to determine until now.”

“It gives us an opportunity to understand not only how much, but why animals eat supplements,” she continued. “Using this technique, I’ve found that sheep are more driven to look for feed supplements when they have a worm infection.”

Fiona explained that Fenbendazole had a number of advantages over other markers of supplement intake, which had proved difficult to work with: it is non-toxic, can be added to any supplement mixture, does not create aversion to the lick block, and does not degrade in the paddock.

“This is a new tool for researchers exploring feed supplements,” said the principal supervisor of Fiona’s PhD project, Associate Professor Lewis Kahn from UNE’s School of Environment and Rural Science. “It’s a technique – unlike others – that can be used over a long period.”

Fiona’s project has brought her success not only in the field but also in the academy: at a recent conference of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production at Invercargill, NZ, she won the Young Member Award for her paper titled “Fenbendazole as a possible marker of supplement intake in sheep”. With only six months to go before she completes her PhD thesis, she’s focusing on that while considering her options for a career in research – a career that’s already off to a promising start.

Students at the University of Copenhagen will soon be exposed to Australian culture as portrayed through the satirical lens of Kath & Kim and The Chaser.

These popular Australian television programs are included in the works they’ll be studying as part of a Master’s degree program at the Danish university’s Centre for Australian Studies.

The course, titled “The Dangerous Art of Satire”, will be taught by the University of New England’s Dr Anne Pender, the biographer of Barry Humphries and a leading authority on all forms of satire. “Two-thirds of the course will be on Australian literature and drama,” Dr Pender said, “and will include the work of writers such as Peter Carey, Christos Tsiolkas (author of the award-winning Dead Europe), and Andrew McGahan (pioneer of ‘Grunge Lit’) and stage/film productions such as Bran Nue Dae.”

Dr Pender’s appointment as Visiting Professor (i.e., holder of the “Distinguished Visiting Chair in Australian Studies”) at the University of Copenhagen from September 2011 to January 2012 is being supported by the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. She will be leaving Armidale for Copenhagen on the 10^th of August.

“The appointment was through a competitive process,” she explained. “As part of the application, we had to design a course we’d be teaching at Master’s level – and I chose to design one on satire.” Anne Pender (pictured here) is a Senior Lecturer in English and Theatre Studies at UNE. Her published books include One Man Show: The Stages of Barry Humphries (ABC Books, 2010) and Christina Stead Satirist (Common Ground, Melbourne, 2002).

“I’m looking forward to the experience,” she said. “The University of Copenhagen has a well-established Australian Studies Centre, and employs – among others – Australian academics such as the eminent historian Professor Stuart Ward. And I’m excited about the possibility of establishing new connections for UNE – both at the Centre itself and elsewhere in Europe.”

While in Copenhagen she will be finishing her latest book – a study of Australian expatriate writers in the UK. “It will be interesting to be in a place away from Australia and its British heritage while teaching – and thinking about – Australian literature,” she said. “I’m also really interested in contemporary Danish society and the operation of its Welfare State. I was in Denmark for a performance studies conference a few years ago, and found that interest – and grass-roots activity – in the arts was very vibrant.”