Peter graduated from the Royal Veterinary College London in 1987 with a distinction in clinical Pathology and Diagnostics. He worked in small animal practice, and facilitated involvement in Pathology and Diagnostics via the practice laboratories. Looking for new challenges in 1992 he took a veterinary post at Sun Valley Poultry, having seen some poultry practice as a student.
Over the next five years he gained valuable experience in broiler breeders, broilers, turkey breeders and growing turkeys as well as gaining the RCVS Certificate in Poultry medicine and Production (CertPMP) in 1995.
In 1996 Peter moved to Rhone Merieux (soon to become Merial) as technical support to the Rhone Merieux avian vaccine range in the UK and Ireland (where the tables were turned and Peter provided technical support to Daniel). Ten years with Merial brought several different roles before management of Global Technical Support and Marketing for the Merial avian vaccine range.
Peter gained experience working in most poultry producing countries in the world, as well as a deep understanding of vaccine, development, manufacturing, registration and use in the field. His involvement in various research projects with various academic institutes led to co-authorship of several scientific papers.
Now based in Hereford, Peter focuses on commercial layers, breeders and broilers. He has been involved in the revision of guidelines for poultry meat inspection that have been used by the practice to effect recent changes beneficial to the broiler industry. He has helped develop the Government standards related to evaluation of salmonella control measures included in table egg assurance schemes such as the Lion Code and Laid in Britain.
Specific areas of interest include a practical approach to salmonella control and eradication, manipulating vaccines and vaccine programmes and involvement with turkeys. Peter has provided poultry lectures to veterinary undergraduates at Liverpool Veterinary College, and has also lectured on Vaccines and Vaccination and Commercial layer disease and epidemiology at the annual Poultry Diseases course, organised by the IAH at Compton, attended by veterinarians and field staff from around the world.
Peter completed a five-year tenure as the poultry expert member of the Veterinary Product Committee, an advisory committee to the UK regulatory authority and is one of 3 expert poultry advisers appointed by DEFRA/AHVLA and has recently contributed to two reference texts, ‘Veterinary Vaccines for Livestock’ and ‘Poultry Health – a guide for practitioners’.