Dominique Blache

Dr Blache has completed his PhD in Neurosciences at INRA in France and the AFRC Neuroendocrine Laboratory at Babraham in the UK. Dr Blache was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of Western Australia and then joined UWA. Since 1993, Dr Blache worked on projects funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), Australia Wool Innovation (AWI) and the French, Danish and Norwegian research agencies.
Dr Blache has published over 200 papers and has an h-index of 29 (Web of Knowledge: 15-09-2017) and a ResearchGate score of 40.91 and h-index of 36 (ResearhGate: 25-09-2017). He has successfully supervised 24 PhD students, 7 masters and around 40 undergraduate projects.

Roles
Associate Professor - School of Animal Biology
Associate Professor - UWA Institute of Agriculture

Expertises

Animal Ethics and Welfare

Emotion and stress in animals

Genetic markers for emotional reactivity in sheep

Methods to teach Animal Ethics

Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation: Ass/Prof Dominique Blache, Prof Shane Maloney, Assis/Prof Amin Mugera
Method of Castration in Alpacas - 2013-2017 AU$98,000

NHMRC Project Grants: Ass/Prof/ Jennifer Pillow, Ass/Prof Dominique Blache, Prof Kurt Albertine, Assis/Prof Peter Noble, Dr Andrew Gill, Ass/Prof Mary Black, Assis/Prof Jonas Rubenson
Separating the adverse neurodevelopmental consequences of mechanical ventilation and postnatal steroids in preterm lambs - 2014-2017: AU$$1,689,652

WA Department of Health:Ass/Prof/ Jennifer Pillow, Ass/Prof Dominique Blache, Dr Andrew Currie, Assis/Prof Peter Noble
Postnatal Steroids & Antenatal Chorioamnionitis - Between the Scylla & Charybdis of Inflammation & Apoptosis After Preterm Birth - 2013-2014: AU$$200,000

2005 - 2010: Senior Lecturer
School of Animal Biology – Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, UWA

2000 - 2005: Lecturer
School of Animal Biology – Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science, UWA

1993 - 2000: Research Fellow
NHMRC and ARC funded position
Animal Science – Faculty of Agriculture, UWA

Current projects with the following PhD Students:

Lorelle Barrett: Welfare indicators of commercial breeding ducks

Anna Amir: Secondary plant compounds and reproduction in sheep

Aprille Chadwick - Improving welfare of reproductive technologies for goats

Daud Dzulsuhaimi - Thermoregulation and reproduction in male alpacas

Travis Murray - Dairy ewes and temperament: shape up or sheep out


Projects with past PhD students:

Xiaoyan Qiu: Gene polymorphisms associated with temperament in Merino sheep

Stacey Rietema: Temperament and activity of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis in sheep

Kelsie Moore: Pelt characteristics and insulation in alpacas

Mikaela Ciprian: Ethical theories and decision making in Animal Ethics Committee

Miriam Sullivan: How can we improve welfare for aquarium fish?

Kirrin Lund - Energy and nitrogen metabolism in alpacas

Alex Wells - Why producers do what they do: the case of mulesing in the Australian wool industry

Joanne Elliott - Attitudes, social influence and human behaviour in the adoption of strategies to improve lamb survival

Sharon Tay - Does mums diet affect her offspring?

I currently lecture in the following units:

SCIE2100: Social Responsibility in Action (Sem 1)

NEUR1001: Neuroscience in Society (Sem 1)

ANIM2208: Animal Ethics & Welfare (Sem 2)

ANIM3306: Clean Green and Ethical Animal Production (Sem 2)

AGRI4403: Animal Science and Technology 1 (Sem 1)

1) Animal emotional reactivity: development of reliable and practical phenotypic measures, relationship to maternal behaviour and metabolic status, identification of genetic markers.

2) Neurodevelopment of preterm lambs (as a model for preterm infants) including emotion reactivity, cognitive function and regulation of food intake and growth.

3) Animal Welfare: strategies to optimise diet of alpacas, thermoregulation and heat stress, stress physiology, pain management, attitude towards animals, development of predictive indicators of animal welfare.

French (mother-tongue)
English (fluent)
Spanish (Knowledge) Thai (Knowledge)