By Jim Massey
Freelance writer
Gretchen Peckler is in the middle of “crunch time” as she wraps up her Ph.D. work in animal welfare and behavior in the UW-Madison Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences.
Peckler is not only on the verge of completing more than four years of work on her doctorate degree, but three days after walking the stage to receive her diploma she will begin a post-doctorate program across the country at the University of California-Davis. And to add to the excitement, she plans to get married in August.
Peckler’s Ph.D. studies, under the tutelage of Sarah Adcock, a UW-Madison assistant professor of animal welfare, focus on subclinical mastitis in meat-producing sheep. She went directly from an undergraduate program in animal science at UC-Davis to her Ph.D. program at UW-Madison, following Adcock from California in 2021.
While in her last year as an undergraduate student at UC-Davis, Peckler developed a passion for animal welfare in production animals. It was there that she came across Adcock, doing her own Ph.D. work on dairy calves before she graduated and joined the UW-Madison faculty.
“When I started my position at UW-Madison, I was looking for graduate students, and I knew Gretchen from our interaction at UC-Davis,” Adcock says. “She had done excellent work with my colleague in the lab, so I emailed her to see if she might want to do a Ph.D. in Madison. She was very enthusiastic and up for anything.”
Peckler grew up in Los Angeles, so she didn’t know much about production agriculture until she began her graduate school studies. In fact, she had never seen a cow until she was 18 years old and had never seen a sheep until she moved to Wisconsin.
“I had a huge interest and I still do in animal welfare behavior research, specifically related to animal health,” Peckler says. “And I knew that mastitis was an important issue to take on.”
Both dairy and nondairy animals have mastitis problems, Peckler says, but sheep producers don’t have a wealth of research to turn to regarding management decisions and prevention.
“For cows, there’s so much mastitis research out there,” she says. “We have a cutoff for what’s considered healthy (cow) milk to the public at a 200,000 somatic cell count. For sheep, nothing like that exists, and the somatic cell count information is different.”
Peckler says she learned a lot about sheep during her interaction with Todd Taylor, the research program manager of the sheep unit at the Arlington Research Station, while doing her research there.
“When I first came to Wisconsin and started working with Todd, I was cleaning out the drug room at the research station, trying to get to know the species and the issues they face,” she says. “Todd asked me, ‘So you’re from L.A., what are you doing here?’ In that moment, I really had a chance to connect with Todd. We really got to know each other, more than as a researcher and facility manager. It was really cool.”
In addition to her dissertation projects, Peckler and Adcock applied for a grant to survey the sheep dairies in the U.S. to determine what they are doing when they have mastitis in their flocks.
“We decided to take it a step further because I’m a welfare researcher and also incorporated the welfare aspect in the survey as well,” Peckler says. “I think the coolest part of all of this is trying to convey that the information we collect emphasizes that the researchers and producers are all on the same side. There’s no one who cares more about those animals than the producers.”
Peckler’s research is attempting to determine if there are specific bacteria that are more likely to establish chronic infection in sheep. If farmers treat their animals unnecessarily to prevent infections, they may be introducing bigger problems than those they are trying to solve.
“Farmers need to work closely with their veterinarian to make sure they are trying to treat on a pathogen basis, kind of the way it’s handled in cows,” she says.
Adcock says Peckler’s research “contributes to addressing important knowledge gaps” for mastitis control in sheep since there has been little research on the topic in the past.
“I think it’s important that (her research) is building that knowledge base,” Adcock says. “Gretchen has been a fantastic Ph.D. student. She has so much cheerfulness and determination. Any problem that comes up, she is ready to tackle it. I’m proud of her achievements and growth as a researcher over the last four years.”
Peckler has found enjoyment outside the laboratory by teaching cycling at the Bakke Recreation and Wellbeing Center on campus. She discovered the positive effects of exercise on stress while taking a fitness class shortly after moving to Madison.
“Exercise became a habit that really truly got me through my graduate program,” she says. “I’ve learned so much about how to teach in an objective kind of way. I remember there were times when something would go wrong with my (research project) data collection that was outside of my control, and the exercise class would help me forget about some of those feelings. It’s been a rewarding experience to potentially help other people feel that same way.”
Peckler’s post-doctoral research at UC-Davis will be on breastbone fractures in laying hens, a major welfare concern in the egg industry. The fractures often occur due to the stress of high egg production rates and the design of the animals’ housing.
“I have never worked with laying hens, so that’s a new learning curve but a really, really fun one,” Peckler says. “It’s all new, so that’s what keeps it fun and exciting.”
Peckler says she owes a great deal to the tutelage of Adcock during the past four years.
“(Dr. Adcock) has been supportive through every single step of this process,” she says. “She’s been super understanding and super encouraging. She has been really proactive in helping me build my confidence in my work. I really appreciate her for that.”