Ruud was born on September 19, 1939, in Maastricht Netherlands. In 1960 he served in the Dutch Army (compulsory) as an assistant at the Military Medical Clinical Laboratory.
In 1962 he received his HBO BS in General Microbiology and Immunology in Groningen Netherlands. He attended the Hatfield College (part time) in Hatfield UK as a grant from Intervet and received in 1977 his MS in Applied Biology with a major in Microbiology and Biochemistry. Ruud is an associate member of the AAAP (member of the Tumor Virus Committee) and a member of the WVPA and USAHA.
Ruud joined Intervet International in Boxmeer Netherlands from 1963 to1972 as Manager of Vaccine Quality Control and Animal Services. He developed the avian leukosis free vaccines and established SPF flocks for production of SPF eggs. In 1973 he moved to the UK and joined Intervet in Houghton UK, as member of the RD project team and developed the first cloned Newcastle Disease vaccine :Clone 30. He joined Dr. Bill Baxendale who isolated the first EDS76 virus (BC14) in EDS characterization trials and developed the first inactivated EDS76 vaccine. In addition, he served as Director Global Technical Service Poultry providing worldwide technical service from 1980-1989.
He moved permanently to USA in 1990 and joined Intervet US acquired by Schering Plough in 2006 and by MSD/Merck Animal Health in 2008. During this time as member of the Global /US RD team, he developed for the US market the combined broad spectrum live IBDV 89/03+ HVT vaccine, Newcastle Disease C2 and live Reo virus 2177 vaccine. From early 2000 as RD team member primarily involved in development of the HVT recombinant vector ND vaccine, introduced in the US 2007. Retired in 2009 and started his own consultancy in Poultry Diseases/Molecular Vaccine Technology with the main focus on the development and technical support recombinant HVT vector vaccines.
Ruud has been married to Mary and has two children Maurice and Natalie and two grandchildren in the US, and two children Bas and Pascal and two grandchildren living in the Netherlands. He enjoys contacts with colleagues in the different poultry disease research institutes and attending US and International Poultry Disease meetings.
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