Chicken Meat

Chicken Meat Advisory Panel

Katherine Balding (Chair)

Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd

Katherine has over 20 years’ professional experience in the chicken meat industry and her career has spanned Technical Director, National Nutrition Manager, Nutritionist, Quality Control Manager and Laboratory Manager with Ingham’s, an Australia/NZ integrated poultry producer. Katherine recently joined Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd , Australia’s largest poultry integrator. Katherine has a Bachelor of Science, Food Science and Technology (Honours) from the University of New South Wales.

Susan Klein (Deputy Chair)

Ingham’s

Susan is the National Technical Services Manager for Ingham’s Enterprises. Susan commenced her career with Ingham’s as a trainee microbiologist in 1995, after completing a Bachelor of Science majoring in Microbiology and Biochemistry at the University of Queensland. Susan’s portfolio includes food safety, quality and animal welfare systems across primary processing, further processing, supply and logistics, livestock, feedmilling and R&D, and she is a technical assessor for the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA).

Dr Sheridan Alfirevich

Sheridan’s expertise spans meat and layer chicken breeders, turkey breeders, meat chickens, turkeys, layers, hatcheries and processing facilities. Sheridan graduated from Murdoch University with a Bachelor of Science (Veterinary Biology) and Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, with Honours. She is a member of Avian Health Chapter of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists, President of the Australasian Veterinary Poultry Association and Board Member of Free Range Egg and Poultry Australia.

Dr Janine Chang Fung Martel

Janine oversees the national animal welfare portfolio across breeders, hatcheries, broilers and processing plants. Janine trained as a Veterinarian and later completed her PhD investigating the impacts of extreme climate events on welfare and productivity, developing strategic recommendations to support adaptation initiatives and inform government policy. Over the last 10 years, she has worked on assessing climate change impacts, integrating precision technology in agricultural systems, epidemiological surveillance of avian influenza and other important diseases, and establishing biosecurity initiatives. Her experience spans extensive and intensive animal production systems in dairy and beef cattle, wool and meat sheep, aquaculture and poultry.

Brian Astridge

TUROSI Food Solutions Group

Brian is an industry leader in, food safety, animal health and welfare, innovation, environment and sustainability. Brian is a member of the TUROSI Executive Team. He has been involved heavily in poultry industry initiatives including being the representative for the NZ Food Research Science Centre. Prior to this, Brian was Operations manager for the Food Innovation Centre in NZ. He has significant international experience on issues relating to trade in food and animal products holding diplomatic roles including a posting to Brussels. Brian has a Bachelor in Food Technology (BTech) and a Post graduate Diploma in Business and Administration.

Karen Gurney

Redsun Nutrition Pty Ltd

Karen is the Nutritionist and Director of Redsun Nutrition, with a career spanning over 20 years in poultry nutrition for Australia’s meat and layer industries. She has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Animal Production) from the University of Sydney, specialising in poultry through earlier roles before building her consultancy. Her experience includes working with international producers and promoting quality assurance to navigate supply chain and diplomacy for welfare-first results. Karen was a member of the Executive Team for the Poultry Information Exchange, and is driven to generate results by innovation, through the sharing of information and encouragement of future talent pipeline.

Ashley Etherington

ProTen Pty Ltd

Ashley is currently Development Manager at ProTen Pty Ltd, the largest contractor grower of broiler chickens in Australia. Over his 36 year career in the chicken meat industry Ashley has held a variety of Technical, General Manager and Director roles in integrated poultry meat processor organisations, and served on the NSW Poultry Meat Industry Committee prior to deregulation of the industry. Ashley is a registered veterinarian and has a Masters degree in Veterinary Public Health Management and a Masters of Business Administration. Ashley’s interests lie in animal health and welfare, production efficiency and sustainability.

Richard Shephard

Herd Health Pty Ltd

Richard is a veterinary epidemiologist and farming systems scientist with over 25 years experience in animal production in Australia and internationally. He has veterinary and masters degrees in veterinary science and a PhD on disease surveillance. Richard founded Herd Health Pty Ltd in the late 1990s offering consultancy in cattle medicine, epidemiology, farm economics, statistics and data mining, animal welfare and climate adaptation. He has a special interest in measuring, analysing and interpreting data from complex farming and ecological systems and in the practical application of technology into farming systems.