Lisa A Boden

Research Fellow

Large Animal Clinical Sciences and Public Health

University of Glasgow
464 Bearsden Road
Glasgow, G61 1QH

Tel (work): +44 (0)141 330  4501
Tel (mobile): +44 (0)791 351 3424
Fax: +44 (0)141 330 5602

Email: Lisa.Boden@glasgow.ac.uk

Academic History

  • 2008 - present:  Postdoctoral research assistant at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow: 
    The epidemiological and economic feasibility of using a live test for scrapie in the field at the within-flock and national flock level.
  • 2006 - 2008:  VTRI Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh: 
    Contact networks within and between Thoroughbred stud farms.
  • 2002 - 2006:  PhD student at the University of Melbourne 2002-2006:
    Determinants of Thoroughbred racehorse fatality in Victoria, Australia.
  • 1995 - 2000: BVSc: School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Queensland
  • 1990 - 1994:  AB: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA

New Study of Horse Movements and Disease Spread in Great Britain

It is critical that we have a better understanding of where horses and donkeys are and how much they move in Great Britain (GB). Diseases such as African Horse Sickness could have a devastating impact on the equine population and we need to be prepared to deal with this potential disease threat. How do we get an accurate picture of the equine population of GB? That is the question researchers at the University of Glasgow and the Institute of Animal Health will be trying to answer over the next two years.

Funded by Defra, and working in parallel with the Animal Health Trust (who will be validating the National Equine Database), the work is an important step toward improving our ability to prevent the arrival or spread of infectious diseases among horses and donkeys in GB.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow will be gathering information on the location, movement and mixing of horses in Great Britain. While these are well recorded for some GB horses, there are some sectors of the population for which we have limited information. For example, the movement of leisure horses and ponies to and from local competitions are not routinely recorded. A more complete picture of horse locations as well as horse movements (i.e. how far and how often horses move) and mixing (i.e. how horses come into contact with each other), in all sectors of the population will help us assess the potential risk of spread of African Horse Sickness and other infectious diseases such as equine infectious anaemia, West Nile Virus and strangles.

As part of this project, we are inviting horse and donkey owners to take part in a survey to research where the UK's 1.3m horses live, how often they travel, where they go and why. Only one person per family should complete the questionnaire and all information will be kept confidential. To be part of the research, go to: www.surveymonkey.com/s/horseownersurvey. If you would like more information or you would like to help us by providing other data for this project, please contact Lisa Boden.

Participate in the survey

Survey responses up to 29th November 2010: 450

Thank you all for participating!

Research Interests

Scrapie
We are investigating the epidemiological and economic feasibility of using a live test for scrapie in the field, both at the within-flock and national flock level.  Based on a previous study on the effect of culling strategies, we are using existing estimates from the scrapie postal survey, agricultural census and longitudinal genotype studies to consider the economic cost of such a test over the entire national flock profile.  In order to fully develop an understanding of the possible efficacy of such a test, we are also considering a model of the network of sheep-rearing premises and the contacts between them to evaluate contact tracing. This model will use network analysis tools to evaluate the within-flock model in the context of the UK national herd and various levels of backwards and forwards tracing from scrapie notifying flocks.

Equine epidemiology
I am involved in several other projects investigating infectious and non-infectious disease and fatality of horses.  One of my current interests is in the role of horse movements in the spread of disease.  My previous research has focussed on the role of contact networks in and between Thoroughbred stud farms.

Publications

  • Boden L.A. and Parkin T.D.H. (2008)  Current guidelines on good reporting of analytical observational studies in epidemiology.  Equine Veterinary Journal. 40: 84-86.
  • Knobel, D.L., Laurenson, M.K., Kazwala, R.R., Boden, L.A,  Cleaveland, S. (2008) Cross-sectional study of factors associated with dog ownership in Tanzania.  BMC Vet Res.  4:5  doi:10.1186/1746-6148-4-5
  • Boden L.A., Anderson G.A., Charles J.A., Morgan K.L., Morton J.M., Parkin T.D.H., Clarke A.F. and Slocombe R.F (2007)  Risk factors for Thoroughbred racehorse fatality in flat starts in Victoria, Australia (1989-2004)  Equine Veterinary Journal.  39: 430-437.
  • Boden, L.A., Anderson, G.A., Charles, J.A., Morgan, K.L., Morton, J.M., Parkin T.D.H., Clarke, A.F. and Slocombe, R.F (2007) Risk factors for Thoroughbred racehorse fatality in jump starts in Victoria, Australia (1989-2004).  Equine Veterinary Journal.  39: 422-428.
  • Boden, L.A., Anderson, G.A, Charles, J.A., Morgan, K.L., Morton, J.M, Parkin, T.D.H., Slocombe, R.F, Clarke, A.F (2006) Risk of fatality and causes of death of Thoroughbred horses associated with racing in Victoria between 1989 and 2004 . Equine Veterinary Journal. 38: 312-318.
  • Boden, L.A., Charles, J.A., Slocombe, R.F., Sandy, J.R., Finnin, P.J., McCaffrey, J., Morton, J.M., Clarke, A.F. (2005) Post mortem study of Thoroughbred fatalities in Victoria, Australia between 2001 and 2004 Proceedings of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. Seattle, Washington, USA. 303.
  • Boden, L.A., Charles, J.A., Slocombe, R.F., Sandy, J.R., Finnin, P.J., Morton, J.M., A.F. Clarke
    (2005) Sudden death in racing Thoroughbreds in Victoria. Equine Veterinary Journal. 37: 269-271.