GD Update 2 2015

Teaming up for animal health

Update

Marcelo Paniago from Ceva about GD Academy:

“This building breathes a professional atmosphere�

New manager of International Accounts draws his vision

PED in the Netherlands:

Threat or warning?

Experts in ruminant health tell their story

02 NOVEMBER 2015

Teaming up for animal health

Diagnostic services Contract research Research & Development Training & Consultancy

Team up with us for animal health Good health is in the interest of animals and contributes to sustainable farming. We offer you more than ninety years of experience in animal health. We support farm managers and their veterinarians, industrial customers and governments, with laboratory diagnostic services, animal health programmes, contract research, research and development, training in our GD Academy and consultancy. Based in Deventer the Netherlands, GD Animal Health exploits one of the largest and most modern veterinary laboratories in the world. Our employees are international experts in the fields of animal diseases, pathology, histopathology, microbiology, virology, molecular biology, serology, chemistry and toxicology.

We would like you, to team up with us for animal health. Get in touch at www.gdanimalhealth.com

GD, P.O. Box 9, 7400 AA Deventer, the Netherlands, T. +31 (0)570-63 33 91, F. +31 (0)570-63 41 04 www.gdanimalhealth.com, info@gdanimalhealth.com

| COLUMN

| CONTENT 04 PED in the Netherlands: Cooperation in dealing with PED

04

06 “Reinforcing each other through collaboration”

07

ew challenges for GD N Animal Health in Myanmar

08 The specialists of

GD Animal Health: Passionate and skilled

10 Sharing experiences to learn

08

from each other

11 Proficiency testing schemes 2016

12

News & communications

10 Contact information GD Animal Health If you want to know more about what GD Animal Health can do for you, please contact one of our staff members, responsible for international sales:

Jan Willem de Vries, Manager International and Large Accounts

Annemiek Kolkman, Senior account manager Laboratories and Test kit manufacturers

Hans Lambers Senior account manager Feed

Fanny Nieuwenhuis Account manager Pharmacy

Eveline Peereboom,

Maaike Vrijlink,

Senior account manager Pharmacy

Sales support Pharmacy

phone In the Netherlands 0900-1770, Outside the Netherlands +31 (0)570-63 33 91 Fax + 31 (0)570-63 41 04 | E-mail info@gdanimalhealth.com | Website www.gdanimalhealth.com | Mail address GD, P.O. Box 9, 7400 AA Deventer, the Netherlands | Delivery address for samples and post mortem ­material GD, CMD, Arnsbergstraat 7, 7418 EZ Deventer, the Netherlands.

What’s new?

Another new issue of GD Update. But what’s new? We have a new manager of our international department and a new manager for our poultry department. There is a new virus in the Netherlands that was identified first by GD. We have news about our proficiency testing schemes. And we will tell you about all this, and much more.

Let me introduce first Jan Willem de Vries as the new manager of the International department. Obviously, Jan Willem is new to GD, but not new at all in our field of work. He is really a seasoned veteran, even at his young age. Please take a look further in this issue and meet Jan Willem. The ‘new’ guy on the block.

A new outbreak of AI to the Netherlands and another new was the presence of the virus in wildlife. But that is not the news that I want to bring up here. One of the key players in the control of this highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak was Ruth Bouwstra. Ruth was then virologist at the central veterinary institute, but is now joining our team as the new manager of our poultry department.

So, what is new? If I think about it, new is often a relative term. What is new to me, may be long existing knowledge to someone else. Often though, the relative newness is exactly what innovation and renewal is all about. Looking at people or at an issue from a new angle. Starting a job at a different place or implementing existing solutions to a new problem. Learning about renewal and innovation at GD is certainly what we think is new and very exciting in our eyes, but that is not necessarily a universal ‘newness’. The opposite is also true of course, what may look to us at GD as common solutions to existing problems, may be a complete new solution and innovation to you as reader. So, please read about our ‘news’, read about our existing solutions and maybe find your next innovation in our GD Update.

YNTE SCHUKKEN, DVM, PHD CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER ANIMAL HEALTH

GD Update | November 2015 |

3

ped | Copy: PAUL FRANSSEN, DVM

PED in the Netherlands:

Cooperation in

During the PED outbreak in the Netherlands, GD Animal Health has found the basic tools for diagnosis, disease control and virus eradication. By combining all newly generated foreign knowledge with the experience gained at the first eleven infected Dutch pig farms, GD was able to develop tests to check for antigens and antibodies. The story told chronologically.

The PED disaster, which struck the heart of the USA pig industry in April 2013, is commonly known. It spread rapidly over most US states in the subsequent months

4

and even crossed the borders into Canada and Central and Southern American countries. The European pig producing countries watched the situation in the USA and Canada closely, since clinical PED had not been seen in most European countries since the early 1990s.

It was unknown what the effect might be if the PED virus were to cross the Atlantic.

The EU therefore decided to implement a number of measures in order to prevent the virus entering the European continent, doing so by means of restrictions on raw materials for feed production.

animals tested negative; making it reliable to state that PED was not present in the Netherlands before November 2014.

At the same time, GD decided to prepare and validate a PED PCR and a PDCoV PCR. Both PCR tests were ready for use by the time the first Dutch veterinarian sent in some manure samples from diarrheic fattening pigs from a farm, in November. This appeared to be the first farm confirmed positive for PED infection.

Taskforce Since then, a PED taskforce has been formed with participants from the government and every organisation in the pig industry, supported by a PED veterinary specialist team. GD chairs this taskforce.

dealing with PED

GD preparations PED is not a notifiable disease and there is no obligation for structural disease control. Therefore, Dutch scientists were surprised to experience the detection of the PED virus in Germany in May 2014.

Very rapidly, GD and the Veterinary Faculty of Utrecht University organised a so called ‘Baseline’ since there were no signs of the disease having affected Dutch pig farms or wild boars. Nearly 800 sera from randomly chosen sows and nearly 200 sera from wild boars were tested in a newly developed PED antibody ELISA. Almost all

The formation of the PED taskforce, with a central role for GD, is the result of a solid analysis of the PED control in Northern America. The Canadian approach to controlling the number of PED outbreaks, via a cooperation between several parties in the pig industry with a central director, seemed to be much more successful than the USA approach.

The virus found at the first eleven positive tested farms appeared to be the US Indel OH851 coronavirus, which is considered to be a mild variant.

Among the fattening pigs, the virus showed high morbidity but no mortality.

At the sow farms however, the losses were more severe, with 30 to 100 percent of the piglets lost in one production week, bad piglet quality at and after weaning for around three to four weeks following the start of the outbreak, and an increase in fertility problems in the sows after weaning and in the early gestation period.

GD veterinarians monitored the first five infected fattening farms, the first five sow farms and one piglet rearing farm and advised on how to deal with the virus by using the knowledge gained from the USA and Canada. Biosecurity is found to be the key factor in spreading of the virus.

Successful PED eradication Ten months on from the first outbreak around fifty farms in the Netherlands

are infected. These are mainly fattening farms, making the infection route via transport vehicles suspect. Infection routes via other contacts are seen in the breeding farms. During the last ten months, several farms once again acquired PED negative status, after 3 times 30 PED PCR negative manure samples, in all age groups at the fattening farms or in the weaned piglets. PDCoV has not been found in any submitted manure samples.

Culturing PED in the laboratory GD scientists succeeded in developing a method for culturing the PED virus in cell culture, making it possible to continue research on several issues e.g. the production of a vaccine. Another scientist group of GD completed the setup of a high-sensitive and high-specific PED ELISA test, making it possible to check whether a herd has had recent PED contact.

GD Update | November 2015 |

5

Interview | Copy: YONI PASMAN, MA

The strength of GD Animal Health lies in the combination of know-how and data in collaboration with many parties, according to Jan Willem de Vries. As the new manager for International and Large Accounts at GD Animal Health, he explains that he was hired for his international profile and his broad network within the agricultural sector. “I’m a generalist rather than a specialist.”

“Reinforcing each other through collaboration” “I was already familiar with GD via my work at the Foundation for Dutch-Russian Livestock, of which GD is also a member. I see it to be a fantastic company which connects people and animals, with a conviction that the optimum output of animals is closely related to their good health.”

Where do you recognise the greatest opportunities for GD International?

“There are few parties worldwide in the agricultural sector who can interpret data in the way we apply our monitoring. That data is then converted into information via news reports and monitoring flyers. We need to profile what we do more clearly, to establish a role in relation to other companies. Our system is interesting for other countries. We can help them implement such a system, geared to their individual situation, in order to eventually raise animal health to a higher level.”

“In many countries both outside but also within Europe, consolidation and intensification is resulting in more and more attention for animal health. Optimum animal output, in combination with animal health, is becoming increasingly important. That’s how the game works.”

6

What role can GD play?

“As far as most companies are concerned, GD is but one of the many links. We stand for healthy animals. However, we cannot do so without collaboration with all other links. Our target is animal health, but just like the farmer we are looking for optimum animal performance. We can reinforce each other through collaboration between all contributing parties, including technicians, feed and additives suppliers, and suppliers of pharmaceuticals and genetic material. Through interaction and exchange of information, we can jointly improve the final results.”

How do you see that in concrete terms?

“We can be a direct partner, with a more active role, for all these companies. Total management is needed across the board. We can think along with them on corporate plans, and provide training courses at production companies. Using the data and know-how gathered, we can establish cooperative agreements with other links, so that we may profit from their know-how as they profit from ours. The target in the end is to improve results. We can connect people and companies, in the same way we now connect people and animals.

Copy: GERARD WELLENBERG, PHD, BSC | GD IN MYANMAR

New challenges

for GD Animal Health in Myanmar Because of growing demand for poultry meat and quality eggs in Myanmar, a consortium has been contracted to help strengthen its poultry sector. GD Animal Health is part of this consortium of leading companies and knowledge institutes. It pays specific attention to several aspects of animal health, in order to achieve significant improvements.

The support is aimed at (a) animal health, prevention of diseases (biosecurity), control of animal diseases, (b) breeding, hatching, farm management, (c) feed production, and (d) food safety and product quality, as it is expected that significant improvements in these segments need to be achieved. The envisioned timeline for this is 2.5 years, from September 2015 to December 2017.

2g@there OS programme Core activities of the consortium are transfer of knowhow (e.g. providing training programmes) and demonstration of best practices. Part of the activities within this project will be executed and funded under the Dutch Government programme ‘2g@there OS’ of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Within this project, GD Animal Health will play a role in the market study, to identify detailed and accurate information on the poultry chain (structure and organization), poultry health and disease control, prevention and treatments (bio-security), reduction of mortality rates, medication and vaccination strategies.

GD’s role In the near future, GD will be playing a role in training programmes focusing on poultry health, disease control

Market trends & developments in the Poultry sector The current consumption of poultry meat (6.0kg/head/year) and eggs (40pcs/head/year) is still relatively low versus other countries in South East Asia (Thailand: 20kg/160pcs; Malaysia: 32kg/240pcs). However, the demand for poultry meat is expected to double within the next three to five years, with a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent.

In addition, an increase in the scope of the middle class will lead to a changing consumer preference towards protein-rich products and to a demand for safe poultry meat and eggs of high quality.

and food safety. Within these programs, GD Animal Health will focus on the following activities: • T raining and workshops on poultry disease recognition (awareness), surveillance and monitoring programmes • Implementation of poultry health and disease control programmes • Training and workshops on the use of antibiotics and vaccination strategies.

• Collection of (epidemiological) data and training in risk analyses.

All participants of the consortium in Myanmar

GD Update | November 2015 |

7

OUR SPECIALISTS | Copy: YONI PASMAN, MA

The specialists of GD Animal Health

Passionate and skilled The specialists of GD Animal Health gather and use their extensie knowledge of animal diseases to monitor animal health and prevent disease outbreaks. How did they develop their passion and what are their focus areas? Every edition of the GD Update, we emphasise on a specific sector. This time: the specialists of the Ruminants department.

Linda van Wuijckhuise, DVM, dip. ECBHM Cattle Veterinarian Specialist in foot-and-mouth disease, bluetongue, BSE, leptospirosis, monitoring and nutritional and milk production problems

Farmer as an ‘all-rounder’ “When studying Veterinary Medicine, I consciously opted for farm animals, as I was increasingly fascinated by the dynamics of Dutch livestock farming. A farmer in the Netherlands is a well-trained ‘all-rounder’, who grows roughage, needs to compile a healthy feed ration, take care of his animals and achieve good production levels.

And all this must be done with attention for food safety and economics. That’s an enormous performance to which I wanted to contribute.

Preventative medicine “After graduating, I spent seven years working in two departments of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University. I began at the internal medicine department before moving on to the veterinary practice of the Faculty, which was increasingly focussing on preventative medicine.

The latter in particular fascinated me: not

8

simply treating the animals once they have become ill, but rather trying to identify illness in the herd as early as possible.

Preventative measures can then be taken to avoid illness and subsequent ill effects in growth, milk production or meat production. On joining GD, I have always been able to contribute to the development and furtherance of animal disease free programs.”

Monitoring “At GD, I work with a group of experts in animal health monitoring. This means that we gather data using the available means, and apply it to visualise the cattle health situation in the Netherlands. In doing so, keeping in contact with farmers and practitioners is essential in order to detect signals as soon as possible. We discuss such signals with a group of experts within and beyond GD, in order to ensure a high level of animal health, to prevent zoonoses and guarantee good food safety.”

Linda van Wuijckhuise

Menno Holzhauer, DVM, PhD, Secretary of Board ECBHM Cattle Veterinarian Specialist in hoof health and parasitology

Spreading knowledge “As a vet, I enjoy being able to make a daily contribution to the improvement of animal health. You can support farmers and veterinarians to move forward, using the very latest know-how. You read as much literature as possible and always try to stay ahead of the field. And when you’re ahead, you spread the knowledge and start again. That works pretty well at GD Animal Health, and we can be proud of that.”

Hooves “When I joined GD Animal Health, they asked me to become a hoof health specialist. I still like the idea of enhancing my knowledge even further within a specialised field. And even though we have so

much information at our disposal, there are still aspects of hoof health to be solved. It’s very frustrating for livestock farmers to keep trailing after lame cows; the challenge is to contribute to that situation in order to improve the problem at farm level.”

Pleasure at work “It’s great having more knowledge, as it gives you the opportunity to be more helpful. This certainly applies to the farmer too. I can’t say often enough how important it is to derive pleasure from your day-to-day work. When you can increase your level of knowledge, your work becomes more pleasurable and you have a good basis with which to boost profitability.”

Menno Holzhauer

Christian Scherpenzeel, DVM Cattle Veterinarian Specialized in udder health and milk quality (Although he’s not officially a specialist, Scherpenzeel is extremely proficient in his field)

Prevention versus curing “During my studies in Veterinary Science at Ghent University and Utrecht University, I was fascinated by the prevention of diseases in large dairy herds, instead of simply curing individuals. As a young boy, my veterinary work started with ambulatory work in the calving season on a dairy farm, but in my professional career, preventative work in large dairy herds and establishment of a plan for optimal animal health management gained greater importance.”

Connecting worlds

Christian Scherpenzeel

“I have worked as a dairy practitioner in a large veterinary practice and as a researcher and teacher at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University.

It is a great pleasure to combine scientific knowledge with practical expertise and to connect both worlds.”

UGA “Together with the UGA team, we apply the Udder Health Approach; aiming for

healthy udders and, as a result, more milk and fewer financial losses. UGA integrates state-of-the-art scientific udder health expertise with the implementation of practical expertise, working closely together with dairy farmers and associated veterinarians. A true example of GD’s motto ‘Teaming up for animal health’.”

Selective dry cow therapy “When I joined GD in 2011, a large field trial was initiated in the Netherlands regarding selective dry cow therapy. A splitudder design on 97 herds with more than 1,650 dairy cows was monitored during the dry period and first 100 days of lactation. Together with our research team, which includes veterinary epidemiologists, zoo technicians, farmers and veterinarians in the field, we discovered the consequences of reduction of dry cow therapy on udder health in dairy herds. This will be the focus of my thesis, concentrating on the aspects of selective dry cow therapy in dairy practice.”

GD Update | November 2015 |

9

GD ACADEMY | COPY: YONI PASMAN, MA & ANNEMIEKE SPITSE, BSC

GD Animal Health shares knowledge through newly launched GD Academy “Courses work better when you’re closer to centres of excellence.” Marcelo Paniago, Director Global Veterinary Services Poultry at Ceva, explains why he invited around twenty ‘big guys’ to the very first Poultry Health Management Forum at GD Animal Health and why this could not have been so successful anywhere else.

Sharing experiences

to learn from each other Paniago has known GD Animal Health for a while now, and already organised several poultry courses in Deventer together with GD, now organised under the heading ‘GD Academy’ (see text box). “Normally, during these courses, we express our point of view and we would have no time to hear feedback from participants.” As these kind of courses are held so often and widely around the world, Paniago did not believe that this would be attractive enough for Ceva key customers. “We needed to offer something special to entice these leaders of the industry to desert their work for four days and have their mail piling up.” And so GD and Ceva came up with something unique. “We wanted to provide a platform on which our key customers could express how they perceive our line of work, but also where they could discuss trends in the industry. It’s changing faster than we could imagine, so we need to know how people in the industry experience these changes. What are their thoughts, their hopes and their fears? We can share experiences to learn from each other.”

tend to see things according to our own point of view.

Here we have people from many different parts of the industry, like nutrition, genetics, vaccines and more, and it is inspiring to view the industry from such different angles.”

Paniago underlines that the location is one of the key factors for the success of the forum. “GD Animal Health provides a neutral meeting place where our customers feel free to express themselves, even when they don’t necessarily agree with the Ceva company. The fact that GD Animal Health provides such a location is the backbone of the success.” But there is more, Paniago explains.

“As far as the participants are concerned, it’s very appealing to be at GD. We could have held the forum at a hotel, but this building breathes a professional atmosphere.

The participants see researchers and are able to visit the laboratory. It works better when you’re closer to centres of excellence.”

Eduardo de Albuquerque Lima, Director of Veterinary Services at Aviagen Brazil and participant in the Poultry Health Management Forum at GD, is very enthusiastic.

“The idea is a very good one. We all, myself included,

New: GD Academy GD Academy brings all the knowledge and educational activities of GD together under one heading. It offers a way leading national and international education by responding to current events in science and practice. Customer-specific, contemporary and innovative.

For more information about GD Academy: www.gdanimalhealth.com/academy

10

Eduardo de Albuquerque Lima, Director of Veterinary Services at Aviagen Brazil

Marcelo Paniago, Director Global Veterinary Services Poultry at Ceva

Copy: ANNEMIEK KOLKMAN, BSC | PTS

Proficiency testing schemes 2016 Proficiency testing is an inter-laboratory study to determine the performance of individual laboratories for specific tests and to monitor laboratories’ continuing performance. The demand for external quality control is becoming more and more important. Taking part in a proficiency testing scheme is a valuable part of a laboratory’s quality-control management. GD Animal Health Service offers laboratories the possibility to participate in international proficiency testing schemes.

Why participate?

1 2 3 4 5

Evaluating the performance of the laboratory Maintaining/achieving accreditation to ISO 17025 Providing additional confidence Identifying inter-laboratory differences Identifying problems

ISO 17043:2010 GD has been formally accredited according to the ISO 17043:2010 for the organization of most of the proficiency testing schemes for anitbody detection. All other PTS offered by GD are organized accroding to this guideline.

There are five good reasons to participate in a proficiency testing scheme:

Which PTS do we offer?

Cat. no.

Proficiency testing scheme

GD Proficiency testing schemes time schedule 2016 Closing date for registration

Shipment of the samples

Submission of test results

Final report + certificate

January VLDIA234*

PTS for PRRSV antibody detection

VLDIA290

PTS for PRRSV RNA detection

VLDIA225*

PTS for IBV antibody detection

VLDIA296

PTS for IBV RNA detection

08 January 2016

Week 4

18 March 2015

Week 18

05 February 2016

Week 8

15 April 2016

Week 22

04 March 2016

Week 12

13 May 2016

Week 26

01 April 2016

Week 15

03 June 2016

Week 29

05 August 2016

Week 34

14 October 2016

Week 48

02 September 2016

Week 38

12 November 2016

Week 2, 2017

February VLDIA294

PTS for APP antibody detection

VLDIA285

PTS for PCV2 DNA detection

VLDIA226*

PTS for Mg/Ms antibody detection

VLDIA303

PTS for Mg/Ms DNA detection

March VLDIA256*

PTS for Map antibody detection (milk or serum)

VLDIA322

PTS for Map DNA detection -- NEW

VLDIA219*

PTS for NDV antibody detection

VLDIA313

PTS for EDS antibody detection

April VLDIA172*

PTS for IBDV/Gumboro antibody detection

VLDIA314

PTS for IBDV/Gumboro RNA detection

VLDIA286

PTS for BVDV antigen and RNA detection

VLDIA235*

PTS for SRLV's/MVV/CAEV antibody detection

August VLDIA255*

PTS for aMPV/TRT antibody detection

VLDIA277*

PTS for ARV/REO antibody detection

VLDIA292

PTS for ILT antibody detection

VLDIA291

PTS for Brachyspira hyodysenteriae detection

October VLDIA232*

PTS for AI antibody detection

VLDIA233*

PTS for Salmonella (poultry) antibody detection

VLDIA171*

PTS for Salmonella (porcine) antibody detection

VLDIA295

PTS for SIV antibody detection

* officially accredited according to the international guideline ISO 17043:2010

This schedule is an integral part of the "2016 PTS jaarplan V0930, annex 8.2"

GD Update | November 2015 |

11

News & communications Review of WVPA The WVPA (World Veterinary Poultry Association) conference in Cape Town, South Africa was a great success, and was attended by more than 1,300 delegates from the poultry sector. GD Animal Health specialists gave lectures, while GD Animal Health was represented each day from 7 to 11 September, in a GD information booth.

The GD Animal Health oral presentations were as follows: Wil Landman: • Escherichia coli peritonitis syndrome in laying chickens in the Netherlands: Incidence and economic impact • Mycoplasma synoviae prevalence in Dutch poultry: an update Anneke Feberwee: • Quantification of the horizontal transmission of Mycoplasma synoviae in nonvaccinated and MS–H vaccinated layers Sjaak de Wit: • T he efficacy of IBV atomizer vaccinations under experimental and field conditions: protection and association between the IgM response and vaccination application parameters in the field Ruth Bouwstra (the new Poultry sector manager at GD Animal Health): • HPAI H5N8 outbreaks in the Netherlands in 2014: Phylogenetic analysis sheds

light on introduction routes and common ancestors GD account managers Eveline Peereboom and Annemiek Kolkman had their hands full at the GD booth. Annemiek: “We had some really good and interesting, but certainly also concrete discussions, about diagnostics, contract research, research and development and the possibilities for GD

Academy. Clients came to visit our stand, as did people who did not know us but were triggered to ask what the activities are of GD Animal Health. It was a comprehensive picture of lectures, posters and an information booth with concrete products and services all in one location.”

For more information, check www.wvpac2015.com

Kees van Maanen on equine infectious diseases GD will enable Kees van Maanen from November 2015 onwards to spend most of his time on equine infectious diseases and monitoring of infectious diseases.

Kees has a long standing history with GD and has worked for GD as veterinary pathologist, head of the R&D laboratory and virologist. He holds a specialist degree

in Veterinary Microbiology and also works for about a quarter of his time as FAO consultant. His PhD thesis was about diagnosis, epidemiology and vaccinology of equine herpesviruses 1 and 4 and equine influenza virus.

More information?

Ruth Bouwstra new head of Poultry division

On www.gdanimalhealth.com you will find information about our products, services and various GD projects as well as the latest information about submitting samples to GD. Furthermore, we have an e-letter to keep you informed about new tests, recent publications by GD employees, proficiency testing schemes and much more. You can register for our eletter on the website.

Ruth Bouwstra has been appointed Poultry Sector Manager at GD Animal Health.

As of 1 October, she succeeds Jan Workamp who, following a period of 11 years in this position at GD Animal Health, has decided to pursue self-employment.

GD, PO Box 9, 7400 AA Deventer, the Netherlands, T. +31 570 63 33 91, F. +31 570 63 41 04 www.gdanimalhealth.com info@gdanimalhealth.com

After completing her Animal Health studies, Ruth followed PhD studies at the Uiergezondheidscentrum Nederland (the Dutch Udder Health Centre). She subsequently worked for a number of years as a Project Manager of viral diagnostics at the Central Veterinary Institute (CVI), part of Wageningen University & Research centre.

Since 2012, Ruth has been head of the CVI’s research team into AI (Avian Influenza) and Newcastle Disease.

In this position, she was also responsible for crisis organisation during the outbreak of bird flu in the autumn of 2014.

Ruth has broad knowledge of the poultry sector and has an extensive (international) network in the field of notifiable diseases. The combination of her scientific background and management experience makes Ruth the ideal candidate to further expand the market position of the Poultry sector at GD Animal Health.