Lonneke graduated from Wageningen University and after obtaining a PhD, she continued her research on immune responses to avian pathogens at the Institute for Animal Health in Compton U.K. In 1998 she started at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in the Netherlands where she investigated ruminant immune responses to intestinal parasites. In 2002 she started her own research group on Avian Immunology and her main scientific interests are ever since focused on how the innate immune responses to pathogens and vaccines in chicken drive adaptive responses and can be exploited for optimal protection. In 2013 she joined the Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, where she became Professor in Veterinary Immunology. She expanded her research to the field of in vitro mucosal organ cultures and organoids. In 2024 she started at Royal GD (Animal Health Service the Netherlands) as senior scientist continuing her work on organoids and novel immunological tools.

Teun van de Braak (born 1987) joined Hendrix Genetics Layers in 2010 after completing his studies at Wageningen University. With a Master’s degree in Poultry Breeding and Genetics and a minor in Business Management and Marketing, he began his career as a geneticist. His early fascination with the veterinary and animal husbandry world was sparked by the stories of James Herriot, whose warm and practical view of animal care inspired him to pursue a career dedicated to improving poultry health and welfare.

Today, as Director of Global Technical Services and Customer Support, Teun leads the Global Technical Service, Product Management, Data Strategy, and Communication teams. His focus is on supporting customers both technically and promotionally, ensuring that field insights flow back into the breeding program and that product development remains aligned with the evolving needs of the global egg market.

Teun’s professional interests include poultry husbandry, genetic improvement, poultry welfare, and sustainability. He is actively involved in scientific research initiatives and represents the poultry genetics sector in collaborations with research institutes and industry partners, working to strengthen the sustainability and resilience of the global egg industry.

Ian provides a broad range of disease consultancy at both international and national level to a wide range of stakeholders on all the aforementioned diseases, specialising in science evidence and laboratory application as directly relevant to disease control.

His specific research interests include the epidemiology, vaccination, pathogenicity, transmission and infection dynamics in relation to the control of influenza in animal hosts including zoonotic threat. He works closely with UK poultry industry and government (all administrations) providing support and advice.

He is a founder member of the OFFLU Laboratory Network and is currently chairperson of the OFFLU steering committee. He has undertaken country specific missions to advise on the control of HPAI. Recently, he led the implementation of the AIM (Avian Influenza Monitoring) programme through OFFLU to provide all stakeholders with science information to guide H5 vaccine strain selection.

Ian gained his PhD on ‘Epizootiology of influenza in pigs in Great Britain’. He has published over 250 peer review papers and 17 book chapters principally on animal influenza. He currently leads a UK research consortia of eight partners researching high impact science on animal influenza. Ian holds a visiting Professorship position in Avian Virology at the University of Nottingham and Honorary Professorship in Pathobiology and Population Sciences with Royal Veterinary College, University of London.

Previously, he worked as Head of Virology and subsequently as Director of Science at APHA which included being Director of WOAH/FAO (also EURL until Brexit) International Reference Laboratories for Avian Influenza, Newcastle Disease and Swine Influenza.