• Question: What kind of animals do you take samples from?

    Asked by Aoibhinn02 to Ruth on 9 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Ruth Hamill

      Ruth Hamill answered on 9 Nov 2015:

      Hi Ninja T. We mainly take samples from cattle, pigs, sheep, sometimes chicken. Occasionally we need to take blood samples, but usually we sample the animal post-mortem. In the past, I have taken samples from hares and crickets though not for food research, despite the fact that plenty of people eat crickets around the world. We took hair follicles from the hares, and took one leg from each cricket, it had 5 more and its a natural response to predators to drop the leg when picked up, so it wasn’t too harmful to the animal.

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