Moredun scientists are involved in three out of the eight new grants recently awarded through the BBSRC’s Animal Health Research Club (ARC) initiative which aims to understand and combat endemic disease in farmed cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry and fish. The ARC initiative is a consortium between the BBSRC, the Scottish Government and leading companies from the animal health, breeding and farming sectors to encourage research approaches that are relevant to industry needs.
The Moredun projects are focusing on: resistance to cryptosporidiosis in cattle; diversity in immune responses to a worm vaccine in sheep; and improving our understanding of inflammatory responses in sheep footrot. The three projects are being conducted in collaboration with the Roslin Institute, Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland, The University of Glasgow and the University of Nottingham. These endemic diseases are of significant economic and welfare concern to the livestock industry.
Professor Julie Fitzpatrick, Scientific Director Moredun Research Institute, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded research funding through this initiative to help tackle some very serious diseases that significantly impact on the efficiency of livestock production. Moredun’s approach has always been to work in collaboration with the livestock industry to ensure that our outputs are relevant to the needs of farmers.”
Over £6M of funding was awarded to eight different projects across the UK, with £5.8M from the BBSRC and £800 000 from the Scottish Government.
Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment, Richard Lochhead, said: “Scotland is the home to world-leading scientific research into livestock health and diseases. The impact of diseases can be crippling to the livestock sector, and costs industry millions of pounds every year. It is particularly important that research is carried out that has direct relevance to and the involvement of industry, and the Scottish Government are happy to have funded such research through supporting the Animal Health Research Club.”
Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC Executive Director, Innovation and Skills, said: “By targeting these livestock diseases the Animal Health Research Club projects have the potential to protect farmed animals and food supplies and save UK farmers and the wider economy millions of pounds a year.”
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Notes to editors
The Moredun projects funded through the ARC initiative are:
Host factors in determining resistance to cryptosporidiosis in cattle - Professor Elisabeth Innes, Dr Frank Katzer and Dr Emily Jane Hotchkiss from Moredun Research Institute – £576,493. In collaboration with Dr Liam Morrison, Dr Neil Mabbott and Dr Jayne Hope at The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh – £506,989, and Dr Mintu Nath, Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland – £20,630.
Cryptosporidium parasites are a major cause of intestinal disease in farmed livestock worldwide, and are also a leading cause of infant diarrhoea in humans. There are no safe and effective treatments or vaccines currently available.
This project will provide the fullest exploration yet of how cattle resist infection of Cryptosporidium parasites. Detailed accounts of the host responses will provide important knowledge to support the development of vaccines to aid disease prevention and the identification of relevant biomarkers will enable selective breeding programmes to improve resilience.
In addition, the researchers will develop a new in vitro bovine system, which will revolutionise the study of host-pathogen interactions with Cryptosporidium, minimising the need for use of animal models.
Dissecting variation in host responsiveness to a recombinant vaccine designed to control teladorsagiosis in sheep – Professor Jacqueline Matthews, Dr Alasdair Nisbet, Dr Tom McNeilly and Dr Stewart Burgess from the Moredun Research Institute – £386,938. In collaboration with Dr Simon Babayan from the University of Glasgow – £300,629.
Worm infections are the most costly endemic disease affecting sheep in the UK.
Dewormers (known as anthelmintics) have been used for over 40 years to control worm infections in sheep, but resistance to several of these drug classes is common and increasing.
Recently, this research group have discovered an effective vaccine prototype for control of Teladorsagia circumcincta – the dominant worm present in the UK sheep industry.
By understanding the variation in sheep responsiveness to the new prototype and by examining if this is affected by age of the lamb, this study will deliver the next steps to developing a commercially relevant vaccine.
Understanding inflammatory processes in ovine footrot to inform rational vaccine design – Dr Sabine Totemeyer, Dr Tracey Coffey, Dr Jasmeet Kaler, Dr Richard Emes and Mr Peers Davies from the University of Nottingham – £620,891 in collaboration with Prof Gary Entrican and Sean Wattegedera for Moredun Research Institute – £72,408
In England more than 95% of sheep flocks have footrot, with an estimated cost to the UK sheep industry of £24-84M per annum. Footrot is caused by bacteria that invade the skin of the foot, and cause pain and separation of the horn from the hoof.
Antibiotic injection early in disease leads to recovery within a few days. In the long term however, it would be preferable to instead use vaccination (currently vaccination is part of a 5 point management plan, rather than a single preventative measure), helping to reduce our reliance on and use of antibiotics.
By studying the local immune defences in the sheep foot and how the bacteria causing footrot are recognised by the immune system, in addition to a complementary molecular analysis of the primary pathogen associated with disease, researchers hope to explain better how the clinical signs of footrot are caused and how the immune system contributes to this. The study will help to inform new approaches to disease management and ultimately disease prevention.