News
Machine learning to fight antibiotic resistance in farmed chickens
A new research project aims to improve the health of farmed chickens in China and reduce the risk of disease and antibiotic resistance transferring to human populations. The FARMWATCH project will use machine learning to find new ways to identify and pinpoint disease in poultry farms, reducing the need for antibiotic treatment and lowering the […]
Tuberculosis test differentiates infected from vaccinated animals
Skin tests that can distinguish between cattle that are infected with tuberculosis (TB) and those that have been vaccinated against the disease have been created by an international team of scientists. The findings of the study are published in Science Advances. The traditional TB tuberculin skin test shows a positive result for cattle that have […]
New Zoetis-Colorado State University joint laboratory
Zoetis, and Colorado State University (CSU) are establishing a research laboratory to explore the livestock immune system and target new immunotherapies – paving the way for new alternatives to antibiotics in food animals. The new 3,000-square-foot Zoetis Incubator Research Lab will operate at the Research Innovation Center on CSU’s Foothills Campus, Fort Collins, starting in […]
STAR-IDAZ IRC at Animal Health Innovation, Latin America
STAR-IDAZ IRC will be at Animal Health Innovation: Latin America on the 6-7 August where they are hosting a special session on Shortening the innovation pipeline – focusing the research effort. Animal Health Innovation brings start-ups and biotech companies together with financial investors and established multinational veterinary pharmaceutical companies to better stimulate the growth of […]
Feed additives may help stop the spread of viral diseases in pigs
Initial results of a study conducted by Pipestone Applied Research, finds that five commercially available feed additives may stop the spread of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) and Seneca Valley A (SVA) through contaminated feed. Dr. Scott Dee, Research Director at Pipestone Applied Research, presented the results of the first […]
Changing climate impacts bluetongue vectors
Scientists at The Pirbright Institute, Rothamsted Research, The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the Met Office have provided evidence that the UK midge season has extended over the last 40 years due to climate change. The findings could help scientists to make better predictions about how the spread of livestock diseases that are transmitted […]
Antimicrobial resistance at the wildlife-livestock-human interface in Nairobi
In a paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health, scientists from the University of Liverpool and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) show that urban wildlife in Nairobi carry a high burden of clinically relevant antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria, resistant to recently developed drugs that the World Health Organisation deems critically important to human medicine. […]
Developing a peptide-based vaccine for Johne’s disease
Researchers are investigating the possibility of developing a peptide-based vaccine for Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). Vaccinating animals with dead MAP cells can generate misleading false-positive results when vaccinated cattle are tested for bovine tuberculosis. An alternative approach could come from vaccinating the animals with specific pieces of MAP rather than using the entire bacterium, […]
Identification of African swine fever virus antigens for vaccine development
Scientists at The Pirbright Institute have identified African swine fever virus (ASFV) proteins that can induce cellular and humoral immune responses in pigs. Published in Frontiers in Immunology, the study shows that when some pigs were challenged with a virulent strain of ASFV after receiving a vaccine that included the identified proteins, the level of […]
Chicken cells gene-edited to resist Influenza A virus
Scientists have used gene-editing techniques to stop Influenza A virus from replicating in chicken cells in vitro. They speculate in the journal eLife that it might be possible to generate a gene-edited chicken that is resilient to influenza. Researchers at Imperial College London found that during an infection, Influenza A viruses hijack the cell protein […]