New people in the PPILOW project: Marine Perard, Koen Riep, Jeroen Imholz

Marine Perard (INRAE, Assistant coordinator)

Marine Perard studied environmental engineering at the French engineering school Ecole des Mines d’Alès. She spent the last year of her studies at Cranfield University (UK), and obtained a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management for Business. Driven by her interest in agriculture and animals, she joined INRAE at the beginning of 2024, supporting the coordination of the action “Animal welfare and sustainability in livestock systems” of the recently European Union co-funded European Partnership on Animal Health and Welfare led by Ghent University. She is now joining the PPILOW consortium to contribute to its coordination.

 Koen Riep (Master student at Utrecht University veterinary medicine)

After having studied veterinary medicine (bachelor and masters) at Utrecht University for seven years, Koen started his final research project at the division of Animals in Science and Society at the veterinary faculty of Utrecht University. His thesis will be covering feather pecking behaviour in laying hens at four Herenboeren farms in the Netherlands. The aim of his study is to reduce feather pecking and so improving chicken welfare, by using straw as environmental enrichment. A parallel study at the same farms, focusing on other welfare aspects, will be done by Jeroen Imholz. His research project is supervised by Saskia Kliphuis, a PhD candidate in the PPILOW project. Results of his project regarding chicken welfare and conclusions about feather pecking behaviour will be communicated soon!

Jeroen Imholz (Master student at Utrecht University veterinary medicine)

Jeroen has been studying veterinary medicine for a couple of years and has now started at the DWM department (animal welfare) where he will be finishing his master degree researching the influence of using straw as ground coverage on the footpad lesions, egg production and fear behaviour in laying hens at four different Herenboeren farms in the Netherlands. He is doing a parallel research with his co-student, Koen Riep, who is studying the plumage in the same laying hens. Both of them are being supervised by Saskia Kliphuis who is currently doing a PhD inside PPILOW.