Birgit Fürst-Waltl

Birgit Fürst-Waltl is a Privatdozentin (Associate Professor) at the Institute of Livestock Sciences within the Department of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). With a habilitation completed in 2010 and a doctoral degree from 1995, she has established herself as a leading researcher in animal breeding and genetic evaluation, particularly focusing on dairy cattle and sheep. Her research extends across multiple European countries through numerous international collaborations.

Her primary research interests encompass animal breeding with special emphasis on genetic evaluation methodologies, dairy cattle science, sheep breeding programs, animal health (particularly claw health and metabolic disorders), and feed efficiency. Dr. Fürst-Waltl has pioneered work on integrating precision livestock farming technologies into traditional breeding programs, developing novel approaches for evaluating metabolic stability and lameness resistance in cattle populations.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong trend toward interdisciplinary approaches that bridge traditional animal breeding with digital technologies. Her work increasingly focuses on sustainability in livestock production, with particular attention to metabolic health, claw health, and the development of auxiliary traits that can be measured through automated systems. She has been instrumental in developing the D4Dairy project which integrates multiple data sources for improved decision-making in dairy farming.

• Elise-Richter Preisträgerin (2006)

Dr. Fürst-Waltl has been actively involved in numerous international projects and collaborations, particularly focused on developing decision support tools for dairy farmers and advancing genetic evaluation methodologies. She has supervised various research projects related to the integration of sensor data into breeding programs and has been a key contributor to developing new breeding objectives that balance production, health, and welfare traits.

Her work with the D4Dairy consortium represents a significant effort in data integration for dairy health improvement, bringing together researchers from multiple disciplines to create practical tools for farmers. She also contributes to international breeding initiatives for sheep and goats, working to establish standardized genetic evaluation systems across European countries.