Scientists at The Pirbright Institute have shown that the strain of bluetongue virus (BTV) currently circulating in France poses a threat to susceptible animals in Europe, despite causing less clinical disease than the original BTV-8 strain responsible for the first UK bluetongue outbreak in 2007.
The Pirbright Institute has received an award worth up to $2.6 million to develop proof-of-concept tools that could prevent mosquitoes from transmitting a broad range of viruses. The project forms part of DARPA’s Preventing Emerging Pathogenic Threats (PREEMPT) programme, which aims to predict and contain viral mutations to prevent cross-species transmission of viral infectious disease from animals and insects to humans.
Dr Pip Beard’s research is focused on the control and prevention of animal diseases caused by large DNA viruses.
Her group concentrates on African swine fever and lumpy skin disease, two viral diseases which have severe impacts across the globe on the welfare of livestock and the people that rely on them for income and food.
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