News from February 2024

Talented early career scientists at The Pirbright Institute are celebrating new horizons. Researchers Dr Tim Harvey-Samuel and Dr Christine Reitmayer were supported by Pirbright to transition from Senior Postdoctoral positions to their first independent positions at Keele University. Their…

Researchers from The Pirbright Institute are joining UCL experts in a study to understand how African swine fever virus (ASFV) enters and replicates in pig cells. Scientists at UCL’s Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, led by Professor Finn Werner and funded by BBSRC and the Wellcome…

The Pirbright Institute has joined a European Union-funded project which will study next-generation vaccines against African swine fever (ASF). Backed by support from Horizon Europe and led by the biotechnological pharmaceutical company, HIPRA, the four-year VAX4ASF project builds on the potential…

A unique study has highlighted an important role for ‘helper’ T-cells in enabling sheep to mount a timely protective immune response to bluetongue virus (BTV) infection. Transmitted by Culicoides biting midges, bluetongue virus has recently been detected in over 80 sheep and cattle across farms…

The Pirbright Institute has co-signed a Memorandum of Understanding with India’s National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB) to create an animal disease and zoonosis laboratory partnership with the UK. Pirbright director, Professor Bryan Charleston, joined representatives from the UK’s Animal…

A member of the animal services team at The Pirbright Institute has been elected to the council of the UK’s leading expert body on the care of animals used in experimental studies. Lauren Cresser, Home Office Liaison Contact and Named Information Officer at The Pirbright Institute, has accepted a…

Defra has announced a seasonally ‘vector low’ period when midge activity is much lower, leading to some changes to disease control measures for bluetongue virus (BTV-3). BTV-3 is the new strain of virus currently being found in northern Europe and UK. The virus is mainly transmitted via biting…