Wageningen UR Livestock Research
Wageningen University and Research Center

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Personal information Name:                          Yvette de Haas Nationality:                  Dutch Gender:                       Female   Work address:             Wageningen Livestock Research                                     Animal Breeding and Genomics                                     P.O. Box 338                                     6700 AH  Wageningen                                     The Netherlands Ph.:                              +31.317.480.505 E-mail:                         Yvette.deHaas@wur.nl     Employment history 2008-today       Wageningen UR Livestock Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands                         Position: Senior scientist and Project leader 2006-2008:       CRV, Arnhem, the Netherlands                         Position: Scientist 2004-2006:       ETH, Zürich, Switzerland                         Position: Post-Doc in Animal breeding and genetics 2003-2004:       Animal Sciences Group, Lelystad, the Netherlands                         Position: Junior scientist in Animal breeding and genetics 1999-2003:       Animal Sciences Group, Lelystad, the Netherlands, en Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands Position: PhD student in Animal breeding and genetics     Working experience 2008-today:      Senior scientist and Project leader (in department of Ir. Lucia Kaal)                         I am involved in several projects related to improving livestock through genetic selection with a focus of adding new traits or better phenotypes. I would like to highlight some of these projects: I coordinate the COST Action FA1302 – METHAGENE. This Action brings together experts from at least 23 COST countries. It aims to discuss and agree on 1) protocols to harmonise large-scale methane measurements using different techniques; 2) easy to record and inexpensive proxies for methane emissions to be used for genetic evaluations; and 3) approaches for incorporating methane emissions into national breeding strategies. I lead the Precision Phenotype theme within the PPP Breed4Food, in which we define and record novel phenotypes for existing or new traits for the breeding goals of all species of the B4F partners I coordinated the FP7 Marie Curie EU-project called “GreenhouseMilk”. This project held 6 PhD-projects, all helping us understand the role of energy efficiency and partitioning in the overall greenhouse gas output of dairy systems and develop innovative tools to help farmers select environmentally friendly bulls to suit their system and how to manage those bulls daughters in an appropriate manner. I initiated and set up an international collaboration between 10 countries to combine data on dry matter intake of dairy cattle and estimate direct genomic breeding values for these countries. Recently an adjacent ICAR Working Group was formed on “Feed and Gas” to formalize the work of this collaboration I worked on the introduction of a breeding value for feed efficiency in the Netherlands as one of the first countries in the world. 2006-2008:       Scientist (in department of Ir. Gerben de Jong)                         “Improving udder health through genetic selection”                         This project was part of the national programme of the Dutch Udder Health Centre 2005-2010 (www.ugcn.nl). The aim of the project was to improve the Dutch udder health index. Several index calculations were first performed to determine the effect of availability of real data on mastitis cases of Dutch dairy cows. Then I defined several alternative traits based on the somatic cell counts that are routinely recorded at the monthly milk recording schemes. These traits captured (a) averages of certain periods of the lactation, (b) descriptions of the dynamics in cell counts throughout the lactations, and (c) somatic cell count patterns. For all these traits I estimated the genetic parameters and conducted index calculations to select the most informative set of traits. In April 2009 the new Udder health index is implemented and farmers can now select those sires that inherit daughters with good udder health. 2004-2006:       Post-Doc (supervised by Dr. Haja Kadarmideen)                         “Breeding for robustness in Switzerland”                         The project was financed by the three herd books in Switzerland (i.e., Swiss Holstein Association, Swiss Braun Cattle Breeders’ Federation, and Swiss Simmental and Red & White Cattle Breeders' Federation). Robustness is defined as cows that have a good fertility and health and maintain their milk production level and body weight. Genetic analyses were performed to link body weight, fertility, udder health and milk production. The outcomes of these analyses have led to an improved selection index in Switzerland for robustness. 2003-2004:       Junior scientist (supervised by Dr. Roel Veerkamp)                         1. Quantifying the genetic variation in tail length of Dutch Suffolk sheep. Reducing tail length through genetic selection is an alternative for tail docking and improves animal welfare because it is not needed to intervene in the animals                         2. Performing breeding value estimations for birth weight of Irish beef calves       Education 1999-2003:       PhD Animal breeding and genetics (promotor: Prof. Pim Brascamp, and supervised by Dr. Roel Veerkamp, Dr. Herman Barkema, Dr. Ynte-Hein Schukken, and Ir. Gerben de Jong)                         “Somatic cell count patterns: Improving udder health by breeding and management” New insights were performed in the use of patterns of peaks in somatic cell count (SCC) in genetic selection and mastitis control programs. Patterns of peaks in SCC were defined based on SCC recorded on consecutive test-day, and are based on biological understanding of pathogens and of the immune system of the cow. Results showed that selecting for lower lactation-average SCC caused a shift in the importance of the main mastitis-causing pathogen. Genetic selection against occurrence of SCC patterns, however, was more effective to decrease the natural susceptibility to mastitis-causing pathogens, than selection for lower lactation-average SCC. Patterns of peaks in SCC are proven to be useful as basic tools for health management advice, as they can distinguish between cases of clinical mastitis associated with either environmental or contagious pathogens, whereas the currently used primary traits were indicative for contagious, but not for environmental mastitis. 1996-1999:       MSc Animal Science with specialisation animal breeding and genetics, Agricultural University of Wageningen, Wageningen, the Netherlands – with honours 1992-1996:       BSc Animal Science, specialisation dairy cattle, Higher Agricultural College, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands   Skills and certificates Languages Dutch: native language English: very good reading, writing, listening, speaking German: very good reading, listening, speaking, good writing Project management (certificates of WUR, NCOI, ETH-Zürich) BSc change management (NCOI - http://www.ncoi.nl/opleiding/HBO-opleidingen-HBO-Verandermanagement.html) Internal programmes within WUR: Talents & Topics (2010), Personal Leadership Expedition (2015-2016)   Awards 1999:    Winner of the “Prof.dr.ir. C.T. de Wit” thesis award for my thesis entitled: ‘Genetic parameters of mastitis traits and protein production in the first two lactations of Swedish Red and White cows’ 1996:    Scholarship of “Rommert D. Politiek Stichting” to perform an MSc after my BSc   Interests and hobbies Horse riding, skiing, Africa, genetics, psychology, interdisciplinary studies, management   Publication list Total no. of scientific papers = 42, H-index = 16 https://scholar.google.nl/citations?hl=nl&user=v0FzBwkAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate