Dennis te Beest

Dennis te Beest is a Researcher at Wageningen University & Research, part of the Biometris research group. His work focuses on animal behavior, poultry and pig welfare, microbiome analysis, and statistical methodologies in ecological and agricultural research. He leads projects involving metagenomic data analysis and has contributed to over 30 peer-reviewed publications.

Research Interests:

• Animal feeding behavior patterns in pigs and poultry
• Environmental factors affecting livestock welfare (light, ammonia levels)
• Microbiome dynamics in animals and plants
• Statistical modeling of ecological and agricultural data

Key Contributions:

Te Beest has pioneered the application of self-organizing maps to identify behavioral types in gestating sows and developed methodologies to assess light preferences in broiler chickens. His work on gut microbiota in disease vectors (e.g., Culicoides midges) has advanced understanding of arbovirus transmission mechanisms. He also led the Analysis of metagenomic data: Statistics & Tools project (2018–2019), advancing analytical frameworks for high-dimensional biological datasets.

Grants & Collaborations:

• Project Leader for LVVN-funded metagenomic data analysis initiative
• Collaborations on EU and national projects involving livestock welfare, plant pathology, and vector biology

Labs/Teams:

Active within the Biometris group, collaborating with the Animal Sciences and Plant Sciences departments at Wageningen University.