Professor Barrett is a clinical veterinarian with over 25-years’ experience in livestock practice, veterinary education and research. He is both a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Recognised Specialist in Cattle Health and Production and a European Veterinary Specialist in Bovine Health Management. He is a Past-President of the European College of Bovine Health Management (2005-07), a former Chair of Directors of Vet Trust and the President of the British Cattle Veterinary Association (2018-19).
Professor Barrett worked on respiratory vaccine use in the 1990s and has a long-term interest in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and responsible use of medicines in the livestock production sector having significant insight and influence in this area. He sits on several influential policy committees including the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Antibiotic Action, the Dairy UK antimicrobial group, the Veterinary Schools’ Council on AMR and the British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) board. He also works closely with other influential groups such as the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance (RUMA) and the National Office of Animal Health (NOAH).
With colleagues at the University of Bristol, Professor Barrett has built an interdisciplinary research group focussed on antimicrobial resistance with an extensive portfolio of related research, ranging from detection of AMR organisms and genes on farm to documenting veterinarians’ and farmers’ opinions and practices in relation to veterinary medicines. This group recently won the University of Bristol Vice Chancellor’s Impact Award for their research and won the very prestigious ‘Agriculture and Food’ Antibiotic Guardian Award 2018.
He is a former editor of the journal Cattle Practice and currently sits on the editorial boards of The Veterinary Journal and Veterinary Medicine and Science as well as being the consultant editor of the journal Livestock.
He took up the position of Professor of Bovine Medicine, Production and Reproduction at the University of Bristol in April 2011, after 18 years at the University of Glasgow and was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for Meritorious Contributions to Clinical Practice in 2017.
He splits his time between Bristol (Langford), his home in Scotland with his three teenage children and his partner Jude Capper’s home near Oxford. He’s a keen runner and when time allows runs ultramarathons and undertakes other endurance events.
