Pigs - Meet the Team

Peter Bown – BVMS (Hons) FRCVS

Pete graduated with Honours from the University of Glasgow in 1968. He was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College by examination in 1974 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in 2000.
Pete has spent his entire professional career in private practice, helping to grow the George Veterinary Group from 4 vets in 1970 to 27 vets in 2008 when he retired from the Partnership. He still works with a wide pig client base within the South and South West of England. He has been the consultant vet for PIC UK since July 2001, and is a member of the editorial board of Pig Marketing.  He was President of the Pig Veterinary Society in 2009/2010.
Pete has work with pigs for over 40 years and his main interests are pig health and production.

Richard Pearson BVSc  MRCVS

Richard qualified from Liverpool in 1993 with an interest in cattle and pig medicine.  Since then he has developed interests in infectious diseases in pigs, bovine reproduction, Johne’s disease, mastitis control, biosecurity and parasite control in both species. He is a director of Vetscore providing pig health reports to pig farmers throughout the south of England via the British Pig Health Scheme and also a reporting vet for NADIS (National Animal Disease Information Service).  Richard joined the partnership in 2003.

Fran Baird BVMS MRCVS

Fran is a dairy farmer’s son from Renfrewshire in Scotland.  He qualified from Glasgow Vet School in June 1990 and started work at The George Veterinary group in August of that year.  Initially he worked as a mixed practitioner and then increasingly in the large animal department as the business became more specialised.  He became a partner in July 1997 and has responsibility for the pig and farm animal departments.

His main interests lie in pig production systems and he provides an advisory service to clients with all types of pig breeding, rearing and finishing businesses predominately throughout the South and South West of England (from Cornwall to Staffordshire and Sussex to Leicestershire).  He also advises pig businesses in Northern and Southern Ireland.

Annie Davis BVMS MRCVS

Annie qualified from Glasgow University in 1997, and joined the George as a pig practitioner in August of that year. Her main areas of interest are farm health and welfare, and the improvement of pig fertility on farm. She has become heavily involved in the continuing development and education of farm workers and managers, performing a key role in the BPEX on farm training schemes in the South West. She is currently the Welfare Representative on the Pig Veterinary Society Executive, and is studying for a post graduate Certificate in Pig Medicine. Annie became an Associate at the George in 2009.

Alex Thomsett B Vet Med (Hons), Cert PM, MRCVS

Alex Thomsett qualified with Honours from the Royal Veterinary College in 2003, joining the practice in the August of that year.
Initially concentrating in general farm animal practice she now devotes most of her time to pig health and production.  Daily commitments cover all stages and types of production including routine and emergency work.  Other professional interests include delivering education programmes for stock people and biosecurity.
Alex completed General Practitioner Certificate in Farm Animal Practice in 2006 and is now studying for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Certificate in Pig Medicine.
Outside of work Alex enjoys a range of sporting activities and is currently developing and showing her “Driftwood” herd of cattle.

Ciara O’Neill BSc MVB MRCVS

Ciara graduated from Dublin in 2011. She had previously obtained her BSc (Hons) in Veterinary Pathology from the Royal Veterinary College, London in 2009. As part of the work for her dissertation Ciara undertook a five month research project on APP prevalence, characteristics, and the possibilities for vaccination in the UK herd. Further to this work she was also involved in lung lesion surveillance project involving Irish abattoirs.

Prior to starting work with the pig team in November 2011, Ciara spent time as a locum in dairy practice in Southern Ireland.

Outside of veterinary, Ciara spends most of her time trying to retrain her very energetic Pointer puppy.

Angie Reeves

Angie has worked for The George Veterinary Group for 26 years in all aspects of the Practice.  She has been the Pig Practice co-ordinator for 18 years.

Angie works from the main practice building in Malmesbury.  She is responsible for the general day to day management of the pig office including organising farm visits, drug orders and processing feed prescriptions.

Lindsay Wakefield 

Lindsay joined the practice in July 2008 and is in charge of the practice dispensary.  Along with Fliss she helps dispense the pig drug orders.  She is responsible for ordering all drugs for the practice.   She is interested in all animals and has a small holding.

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