Jose-Alfonso Abecia (PhD, Dip ECSRHM) is Professor of Animal Production at the Department of Animal Production and Food Science of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Zaragoza, and is deputy director of the University's Research Institute in Environmental Sciences of Aragon. He obtained his degree in Veterinary Medicine in 1988 (Universidad de Zaragoza) and his doctorate in 1992 (same university). He spent a year and a half as a postdoctoral researcher at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland (1992-1993). His main areas of research are the study of the relationships between nutrition and reproduction in sheep, the use of melatonin to improve lamb production, and how socio-sexual signals arise from sexual activity in sheep. It is also involved in some aspects of precision farming, such as electronic identification and virtual fences. He is the former president of the UEECA (Union of Spanish Entities of Animal Science), which is the association of the thirteen animal science societies present in Spain.