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Rodney Feliciano, a PhD student in the European project ITN Protect coordinated by Enda Cummins from University College Dublin, defended his thesis on the effects of climate change on food safety with application to the dairy industry. Rodney was directed by Jeanne-Marie Membré, Senior Research Engineer at Secalim and co-supervised by Géraldine Boué, Senior Lecturer at Secalim.

Abstract of the thesis:

Climate change remains one of the significant challenges facing the dairy supply chain. Its impact can be felt throughout the whole farm-to-consumer chain by disrupting cow health and altering the quality of raw milk. The present work aimed to develop a modelling strategy to perform a deep analysis of a dairy farm dataset and then to suggest risk mitigation options. This study investigated a large-scale dairy farm located under hot climatic conditions as a proxy for climate change scenarios. Data analysis and models included Principal Component Analysis, Partial Least Squares regression, probabilistic 2nd order Monte Carlo models, Life Cycle Assessment and multi-criteria decision analysis techniques.
Lessons learned from this general modelling strategy are discussed in the broader context. Ultimately the tools presented within the modelling strategy were able to provide insights into the dairy farm quality control data and evaluate the selected mitigation strategies. Overall, these tools can be used in the preparation of dairy farms as a step towards climate change resiliency.