Areas of Study & Research
Animal Welfare Science
Stress Physiology
Applied Animal Behavior
Swine Production
The primary focus of my research program is to improve the welfare of domestic pigs by: 1) developing objective measures capable of detecting physiological stress, and 2) evaluating on-farm mitigation strategies that can be employed by producers for reducing swine stress.
Courses Taught
ANSC 300 - Domestic Animal Behavior and Management
ANSC 484 - Swine Production/Pork Industry Systems
Education
- PhD, Stress Physiology, Purdue University
- MS, Applied Animal Behavior, Purdue University
- BS, Animal Science, Iowa State University
Publications
Byrd, C. J., Young, J. M., Sommer, D. M. (2022) Cross-fostering alters the post-weaning behavioral stress response in a sex-specific manner. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 249: 105593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105593
Byrd, C. J., McConn, B. R., Gaskill, B. N., Schinckel, A. P., Green-Miller, A. R., Lay, D. C., Johnson, J.S. (2022) Characterizing the effect of incrementally increasing dry bulb temperature on linear and nonlinear measures of heart rate variability in non-pregnant, mid-gestation, and late-gestation sows. Journal of Animal Science skac004. https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skac004
Shelver, W., Chakrabarty, S., Young, J. M., Byrd, C. J., Smith, D. J. (2021) Evaluation of rapid and standard tandem mass spectrometric methods to analyze veterinary drugs and their metabolites in hog oral fluid and cattle urine. Food Additives and Contaminants. Part A https://doi.org/10.1080/19440049.2021.2006801
Maskal, J. M., Brito, L. F., Duttlinger, A. W., Kpodo, K. R., McConn, B. R. Byrd., C. J., Richert, B. T., Marchant-Forde, J. N., Lay, D. C., Perry, S. D., Lucy, M. C., Safranski, T. J., Johnson, J. S. (2021) Characterizing the postnatal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response of in utero heat stressed pigs at 10 and 15 weeks of age. Scientific Reports. 11(1):22527. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01889-w
Luna, D., González, C., Byrd, C. J., Palomo, R., Huenul, E., Figueroa, J. (2021). The effect of demonstrator social rank on the attentiveness and motivation of pigs to positively interact with their human caretakers. Animals 11(7): 2140. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11072140
Wagner, S. A., Fajt, V. T., Lo C. P., Byrd, C. J. (2021). Pharmacokinetics of oral firocoxib in un-weaned calves. Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 44(5):793-798. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvp.12971
Luna, D., González, C.; Byrd, C. J., Palomo, R., Huenul, E., Figueroa, J. (2021). Do Domestic Pigs Acquire a Positive Perception of Humans through Observational Social Learning? Animals 11(1): 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11010127
Byrd, C. J., Radcliffe, J. S., Craig, B. A., Eicher, S. D., Lay Jr, D. C. (2020). Measuring piglet castration pain using linear and nonlinear measures of heart rate variability. Animal Welfare 29: 257-269. https://doi.org/10.7120/09627286.29.3.257
Johnson, J. S., Maskal, J. M., Duttlinger, A. W., Kpodo, K. R., McConn, B. R., Byrd, C. J., Richert, B. T., Marchant-Forde, J. N., Lay, D. C., Perry, S. D., Lucy, M. C., Safranski, T. J. (2020). In utero heat stress alters the postnatal innate immune response of pigs. Journal of Animal Science. 98: skaa356. https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skaa356
Maskal, J. M., Duttlinger, A. W., Kpodo, K. R., McConn, B. R., Byrd, C. J., Richert, B. T., Marchant-Forde, J. N., Lay, D. C., Perry, S. D., Lucy, M. C., Safranski, T. J., Johnson, J. S. (2020). Evaluation and mitigation of the effects of in utero heat stress on piglet growth performance, post-absorptive metabolism, and stress response following weaning and transport. Journal of Animal Science 98: skaa265. https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skaa265