Aoife O’Sullivan has been appointed to the position of group veterinary officer at Ai Services (Northern Ireland) Ltd., which is located at Ballycraigy, Co. Antrim.
A native of Cahersiveen, Co. Kerry, she is a 2015 veterinary medicine graduate from University College Dublin (UCD).
O’Sullivan has been in general practice for the past nine years, working in both England and Northern Ireland. She takes over from Brian Kennedy, who had been in the post for 36 years.
In her new role, O’Sullivan will be responsible for ensuring that the approved semen collection centre at Ballycraigy complies with the Artificial Insemination of Cattle Regulations (NI) and all relevant EU directives and domestic legislation.
She will work closely with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) veterinary division and Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) laboratories to maintain high levels of biosecurity.
O’Sullivan will also be responsible for the welfare and treatment of all animals on stud.
From an import/export certification perspective, the Kerry woman will ensure that all semen moving into and out of the main store at Ballycraigy is of the appropriate health status.
She will also be involved in the generation of EU and third country semen export certificates, thereby ensuring all semen import certificates are EU compliant.
A full familiarisation with import health requirements for non-EU countries is critically important in this context.
O’Sullivan will also act as team leader of the licensed bovine embryo transfer service, responsible for ensuring full compliance with all bovine embryo collection, production and transplantation regulations.
Meanwhile, the recent AGM of Ai Services confirmed another successful year of trading for the business.
Ai Services group chief executive officer, Larry Burke, reported that shareholders would again benefit from a distribution from profits in terms of interest on capital invested and also a dividend payment of 1.5% of the value of trade with the company.
“The changes required to meet climate change requirements and the current lack of profitability in the dairy sector present specific challenges and genetics have a critical part to play in both economic and environment sustainability,” he said.
Ai Services
Company chair, Robin Irvine said: “We are investing in our people; ensuring we have the skills and expertise to lead the business forward in terms of breeding technologies and quality systems.
“We will also invest in a major upgrade of the stud facilities at our headquarters at Ballycraigy, which was originally built by the Department of Agriculture in the 1960s.
“The new stud facility and laboratory is key to meet the demand for beef semen and developing markets throughout the UK and Ireland.”
Irvine added that the “project represents a major vote of confidence in the livestock breeding sectors across the island of Ireland”.
The envisaged project will take two years to complete because of the need to manage as smooth a transition as possible from the current to the new stud.
“All of this activity will be taking place on the existing site,” the chair said.
