Research Project - DC12

I am Teodora, born and raised in Constanta, Romania, a city located at the Black Sea. My background combines global public health, infectious diseases and One Health. I am very excited for my PhD project, in which I will design a model to explore how bird flu affects animals and the environment. This model will consider vaccination of domestic birds against the virus, different farm scenarios and control strategies! Throughout the PhD project, I will be based at Wageningen University and Research in The Netherlands, and will be supervised by Dr. Henk Hogeveen, Dr. Bart van den Borne and Dr. Wilma Steeneveld. Fun fact about me: I’ve danced my whole life, and I’ve recently even started performing aerial circus arts!

DC12 — Environmental and welfare impact of vaccination to control avian influenza

DC12 develops a flexible “multiple burden” farm model that integrates animal health, welfare, and environmental impacts of HPAI and its control, including vaccination. It identifies welfare indicators affected by infection/control, builds a simulation to quantify burdens under different strategies, and integrates environmental accounting to reveal trade-offs.

With secondments at INRAE (epidemiological modelling), EDIN (burden modelling), and UU (integration of health/welfare/environment), DC12 delivers a tool to (quasi-)optimize farm-specific strategies as new data arrive—identifying options that minimize total burden rather than just one dimension.