wire - news in brief

Forests in Europe are under pressure from logging, forest fires, storms and pests. Rapid insight into where and when disturbances occur is crucial for sustainable forest management and nature conservation policy.

Dairy's expanding climate footprint The dairy sector is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and a key focus of climate strategies.

What happens when academics leave their comfortable armchairs and genuinely engage with the people they write about? According to David Ludwig, that is precisely what is needed.

VHLGenetics invested in an advanced Aviti sequencer in autumn 2025, while WUR-Bioscience guarantees a minimum number of runs per year.

VHLGenetics invested in an advanced Aviti sequencer in autumn 2025, while WUR-Bioscience guarantees a minimum number of runs per year.

Fatigue, concentration problems, muscle weakness and sensory overload: many people still experience persistent symptoms after a coronavirus infection.

A tiny parasitoid wasp from Asia has established itself in the Netherlands without deliberate release.

Julia Keppler has been appointed personal professor within the Food Process Engineering group at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) as of 1 March.

A harmonised set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at farm level is intended to help Dutch farmers, governments and supply chain parties steer more effectively towards climate, biodiversity, water, soil, scarce resources and animal welfare goals.

Famine is still being measured as if the world has not changed. By relying on fixed mortality thresholds, today's classification systems risk recognising mass starvation only when it is already too late.

What is avian influenza (bird flu) and how does this virus spread? Can humans also become ill from it? And what measures are available to prevent bird flu? You can read about this and more on this page.

Habitats much more vulnerable for nitrogen deposition than previously thought Highlight Nitrogen is an essential building block for life, but high nitrogen deposition on natural areas causes biodiversity loss.

Methane emissions from cows and sheep can be reduced by 25% using breeding programmes Highlight Dutch livestock farmers have already made considerable strides towards a sustainable livestock sector.

Next-gen businesses produce meat without animals and fish without a catch Highlight Cultivated meat and fish, and animal-free dairy products are rapidly becoming viable alternatives to animal-based products and could significantly reshape our future protein supply.

Society is asking ever more pressing questions about animals and the way in which we live alongside them.

Eating less meat and dairy benefits both public health and the climate. Yet the Netherlands is falling behind on the government's goal to source half of all protein from plant-based foods by 2030.

Huge mussel beds and large numbers of flatfish have surprised the researchers studying underwater life in the Wadden Sea over the past year.

From waste collection and repairs of quayside walls to energy poverty: for over a decade, AMS Institute has been helping to resolve problems faced by cities.

33 million mussels in Grevelingenmeer lake, nearly 2 billion cockles in the Western Scheldt, 306 hectares of oyster beds in the Wadden Sea.

Our intestines probably have an influence on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as well as depression and stress.

A tick bite can not only cause Lyme disease, but recently other diseases too, such as those caused by the Tick-Borne Encephalitis virus (TBE).

Anyone who eats a bag of peanuts should be able to assume it's safe. Behind the scenes, Wageningen Food Safety Research works 24/7 to monitor food and feed for pathogens, pesticides, antibiotics and other substances.

A highly destructive bacterium is threatening the cultivation of oranges, mandarins and lemons worldwide.

To find out whether migratory fish use the gaps in the Haringvliet sluices to access the rivers, Melanie Meijer zu Schlochtern is using transmitters to monitor over three hundred fish.

What if farmers were to fertilize their land with urine instead of inorganic fertilizer? Scientists at Wageningen University & Research show this is possible - and in fact better.

Trees and plants store carbon. In biobased materials that are made from wood and plant fibres, the carbon remains sequestered for longer.

Exploitation and environmental pollution are still far from uncommon in the countries that our coffee and chocolate come from.

The exception for Dutch dairy farmers to spread more manure than the EU allows is being phased out, and as a result the amount of manure on the market has increased still further.

Nico Claassens' aim is to help bring about a circular bio-economy in which bacteria use CO2 as an input to produce the raw materials for bioplastics and proteins.