The Pirbright Institute has been jointly awarded £1.2 million in funding by the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (the LEP), alongside the University of Surrey. The funding will go towards a state-of-the-art ‘Animal Health Innovation Hub’ which will help scientific researchers to work more effectively with businesses.

The LEP works to secure economic growth in the area and has funded this project to help establish Surrey as a base which is internationally recognised for animal health.

The Pirbright Institute’s Trustee Board announces that Professor John Fazakerley has decided to step down as Director.

Professor Fazakerley joined the Institute as Director in 2011 and will leave by the end of the year to take on a new challenge. The Trustee Board will appoint an Interim Director shortly. The search for a new Director will commence immediately.

Scientists have shown for the first time that two different strains of the H3N8 influenza A virus (IAV) are able to infect and replicate in pigs; one isolated from seals and an avian strain circulating in poultry in the US. The study, which was led by Pirbright’s Dr Maria Montoya, also revealed that the standard Haemagglutination Inhibition test (HAI) used to detect flu in livestock and a vital tool for flu surveillance, was ineffective for the H3N8 strain in porcine hosts.

A new type of vectored vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a virus that causes respiratory disease in humans, has been shown by scientists at Pirbright to provide immunity against a closely related virus in calves, giving strong evidence that a similar type of vaccine could work in humans.