Press releases

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 Claire Colenutt received the Innovation in Animal Healthcare award on Monday 3 December 2018 at the Guildford Innovation Awards 2018. Dr Colenutt won the award for the creation of a new foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) field test, which could improve disease surveillance and alleviate the burden which it places on many smallholders and subsistence farmers who are reliant on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)-susceptible livestock.

The World Reference Laboratory for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (WRLFMD) marked 60 years of being the global centre of expertise in the diagnostics and surveillance of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) with a two-day symposium on Monday 5 and Tuesday 6 November.

Scientists from The Pirbright Institute’s Vaccine Differentiation group have recently returned from Chennai in India, where they conducted a mass peste des petits ruminants (PPR) vaccination campaign and awareness programme. The trip marked the end of a four year collaborative project that has successfully uncovered important details about the PPR virus and generated tools to help eradicate the disease.