Mustafa Cam is a Visiting Professor from Animal Science Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Selcuk University, Türkiye. At UBC, he is leading a project investigating different ways of feeding ‘transition milk’ to dairy calves at the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre. His visit to UBC is funded by a grant by the International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK).
How did you first get interested in animal welfare?
Since starting my PhD, I have been interested in dairy calf rearing and recognized a strong connection between animal welfare and calf performance; calves perform better when they are healthier, less stressed and treated with respect. I know that UBC’s AWP is an excellent host institution, internationally recognized for their research on calf welfare.
What do you hope to learn from your time with UBC AWP?
In collaboration with Dan Weary and Nina von Keyserlingk, I’m running a study on the effects of feeding calves ‘transition milk, which is produced by cows in the first days after calving. Until now, research on transition milk feeding has only included treatments that feed milk manually to calves, but we are interested if the positive effects of feeding transition milk to calves may be accentuated by allowing calves to suckle transition milk directly from the dam. This project is helping develop my research skills, as well as practical skills in newborn calf care, colostrum management, and keeping calves and cows together, a practice now gaining interest on dairy farms. Academic life in the AWP, including weekly lab meetings with all the students and professors, has exposed me to new research ideas and perspectives related to animal welfare. At the end of my project, I’m looking forward to sharing the research results at international conferences and peer-reviewed journal publications. I’m also excited to expand my professional network with the wonderful colleagues I am meeting in the program.