King’s Birthday Honours 2025: Professor Joe Mayhew honoured for equine medicine contributions

When Professor Emeritus Joe Mayhew learnt he had been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, he wondered who among his friends and colleagues had “embellished” his career.

Mayhew was recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to the veterinary profession, especially equine medicine.

“I wondered who was the best fabricator,” he said of his reaction upon opening the letter.

He is a world authority in his field of equine neurology and large animal medicine.

Mayhew and his wife Rachael (nee Busby) retired to Gisborne, her hometown.

“It’s a coming home for her,” Mayhew said, adding their two Dunedin-based children “like this area”.

Originally from Wellington, Mayhew and his wife worked and practised in Whanganui before going overseas.

“We went on our OE and came back 30 years later,” he said. “We were in North America for quite a while.”

From 1977 to 1988, Mayhew was Associate Professor and then Professor in the Department of Medical Sciences at the University of Florida, significantly impacting the development of the school’s teaching and research programmes.

From 1988 to 1994, he was head of the department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences of the Animal Health Trust, based at Newmarket in the United Kingdom.

From 1994 to 2006, he was Professor of Equine Studies and chair of Veterinary Clinical Studies of the University of Edinburgh, where he oversaw the building of a new veterinary hospital and developed successful clinical training research programmes.

In 2006, he returned to New Zealand as Professor of Equine Studies at Massey University, enabling the veterinary school to become a world leader by ensuring compliance for accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

He has been Professor Emeritus since 2017 and editor for the New Zealand Equine Veterinary Association since 2014.

Mayhew has been a board member of various professional colleges in the United States, Europe and New Zealand, and was president of the European College of Veterinary Neurology for three years.

His honour citation said he implemented a test in New Zealand for inherited deafness in certain dog breeds while in retirement.

Mayhew estimated he was “about 40% retired”.

When the Gisborne Herald spoke with him, Mayhew had earlier been on a Zoom call with an overseas colleague at 4am.

An American-based colleague recently moved further to the east, which meant Mayhew could have another two hours’ sleep before another Zoom call.

Later in the year, Mayhew will be a keynote speaker at a conference in Brisbane.

“I’m pretty lucky to still have the opportunity to contribute and keep my hands dirty, as it were.”