1/18/2021: 

Royal GD works closely with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht on animal health surveillance. Two years ago Prof.dr.ir Gerdien van Schaik was asked to organize a consortium for the EU H2020 call about endemic diseases in farm animals and aquaculture. The resulting project entitled: “Data-driven control and prioritisation of non-EU-regulated contagious animal diseases (DECIDE)” involving 19 partners from 11 countries was recently funded with €10 million.

The project starts in 2021 for the duration of 5 years. Gerdien van Schaik, coordinator of the DECIDE project, works at Royal GD and holds a chair at the faculty of Veterinary Medicine in ‘monitoring and surveillance of animal health’. “I think it’s great challenge to coordinate and successfully finalize a project with so many partners in different countries”, tells van Schaik.

Why do we do the DECIDE project?

The main goal of the DECIDE project is to develop data-driven decision support tools and workflows with which farmers and veterinarians can make informed decisions for the control of endemic contagious diseases in calves, broilers, piglets and salmon. These decisions take into account the presence of the infection, the direct production losses, the impact on welfare and the costs and benefits of any treatment. “I will not be satisfied until DECIDE has developed practical tools for livestock farmers and their veterinarians that improve the health and welfare of calves, broilers, piglets and salmon”, says van Schaik.

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