Marie Bhanugopan

Associate Professor Marie Bhanugopan

Veterinary Physiologist

Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences

Biography

Dr Marie Bhanugopan's  research interests include  physiology particularly energy and mineral interactions, peri-parturient disorders and their impact on production and reproduction . Her special interest includes calcium homeostasis and role of minerals and vitamins in immunity and bone health in sheep, cattle and poultry. Her major research interests are in animal nutrition, physiology and their impact on production and reproduction in sheep, cattle, pig and poultry. Her special interest includes calcium homeostasis and role of minerals and vitamins in immunity and bone health in sheep, cattle, and poultry. Marie has been successful in securing external grants as both principal and co- investigator from within Charles Sturt and external industry funding from DSM nutritional, Meat & Livestock Australia, and Australian Wool Innovation Australia.

Marie has developed and is interested  in the development of online interactive tools to teach anatomy and physiology to animal and veterinary science students. She has developed resources for anatomy teaching under the Pacific Paravet training project aimed at improving animal health capacity.

Research
  • Role of Minerals and Vitamins on immunity, production and reproduction
  • Metabolic disorders and embryonic mortality in sheep and dairy cows
  • Supplementation of late pregnant and lactating ewes grazing dual purpose wheat
  • Investigating the role of Vitamin D in fetal programming of bone development: defining early roles using an in vivo and in vitro model of fetal osteogenesis
  • Assessing bone health on mineral and energy metabolism during growth, pregnancy and lactation
Publications
Full publications list on CRO

Recent publications

Ataollahi, F., McGrath, S., Friend, M., Dutton, G., Peters, A., & Bhanugopan, M. (Accepted/In press). Evaluating the effect of calcium, magnesium and sodium supplementation of Merino ewes on their lambs' growth. Australian Veterinary Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/avj.13274

Robertson, S. M., McGrath, S. R., Scarlett, S., Bhanugopan, M., Hocking Edwards, J. E., Winslow, E., Hancock, S., Thompson, A. N., Refshauge, G., & Friend, M. (2022). Calcium and magnesium supplementation of ewes grazing pasture did not improve lamb survival. Animal Production Science, 62(18), 1766-1776. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1071/AN22113

Ataollahi, F., Bhanugopan, M., Friend, M., McGrath, S., & Freire, R. (2021). Impact of mineral supplementation on parturition behaviour of ewes. cxvii. Abstract from 33rd Biennial Conference of the Australian Association of Animal Sciences, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.

McGrath, S. R., Street, S. H., Krebs, G. L., Ataollahi, F., Bhanugopan, M. S., & Friend, M. A. (2021). Utilising dual-purpose crops to produce prime lambs: Comparison of White Dorper and Merino sheep on crops and pasture. Animal Production Science, 61(11), 1089-1103. https://doi.org/10.1071/AN19139

Friend, M. A., Bhanugopan, M. S., McGrath, S. R., Edwards, J. H., Hancock, S., Loudon, K., Miller, D., McGilchrist, P., Refshauge, G., Robertson, S. M., Thompson, A. N., & Masters, D. G. (2020). Do calcium and magnesium deficiencies in reproducing ewes contribute to high lamb mortality? Animal Production Science, 60(6), 733-751. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1071/AN17588