Gezondheidsdienst voor Dieren (GD)

Epidemiology Group

The Animal Health Service or, in Dutch, de Gezondheidsdienst voor Dieren, founded in 1919, is an independent private organisation, dedicated to animal health, with expert veterinary knowledge, and one of the world’s largest veterinary diagnostic laboratories and extensive support facilities. The GD has about 380 employees of which 70 veterinary specialists and 80 researchers and developers. GD operates the national animal health surveillance system in the Netherlands. The Epidemiology group of the GD consists of 7 persons and is carrying out many of the statistical analyses for the animal health surveillance programs. This involves merging, validating and analysing large datasets with production and animal health records. There is a wide variety of analytical expertise available in the group, e.g. time-series and spatial analyses, Bayesian analysis, stochastic modelling.

Role in the project

Participant in WP 2, 3, 4 and 7 | Development of frameworks and tools for disease detection, freedom from disease and case detection | Facilitate communication with Dutch policy makers and other stakeholders | Provision of Dutch data for case studies | Carry out case-studies on real data from the Dutch surveillance programme in WP 2 and 4 | Developing e-learning material and moderation of the discussions in the online support service for CAP and CAHP in WP 7.

Key-persons assigned to RISKSUR

  • Dr. ir. Gerdien van Schaik:
    an MSc in Animal Sciences and a PhD in Animal Health Economics at Wageningen University, The Netherlands | Current position: Head of the Epidemiology group at the Animal Health Service | Before joining the Animal Health Service she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences of Cornell University in New York. Gerdien was an associate professor in Epidemiology at the Population Medicine Department of the Universidad Austral de Chile in Chile | Key expertise in quantitative epidemiology, animal health economics, monitoring and surveillance.
  • Drs. Petra Kock:
    obtained a DVM from Utrecht University, The Netherlands | Currently, she is managing the Monitoring and Surveillance activities of the AHS | In addition Account Manager for the dairy industry | Key expertise in monitoring and surveillance and Advising and training of stakeholders and policymakers.
  • Dr. Ingrid den Uijl:
    obtained a DVM from Utrecht University, The Netherlands and a MSc degree in Veterinary epidemiology | Her PhD in epidemiology was carried out at the Julius Center for health sciences and primary care | Currently, she is employed as a veterinary epidemiologist en the Epidemiology group of the AHS.

Contact

Dr. ir. Gerdien van Schaik
Head of the Epidemiology Group
Website http://gddeventer.com
Email g.v.schaik(at)gddeventer.com