Press releases

The Pirbright Institute, working in collaboration with the University of Oxford have successfully shown that two doses of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine produce a greater antibody response than a single dose in pigs. 

Scientists from The Pirbright Institute are a step closer to developing a vital vaccine for African swine fever (ASF), a pig disease that the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has warned could kill a quarter of the world’s pigs, partly due to the absence of a commercially available vaccine. Their study, published in Vaccines showed that 100 percent of pigs immunised with the new vaccine were protected from a lethal dose of ASF virus (ASFV).

Scientists from The Pirbright Institute have worked with UCL to map the expression of genes across the entire African swine fever virus (ASFV) genome, which has helped to establish their order of activation as well as uncovering new genes. The research could provide vital information for those developing vaccines and antiviral drugs to prevent the deadly pig disease caused by this virus.

Researchers from The Pirbright Institute have been awarded US $5.5 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a Livestock Antibody Hub aimed at improving animal and human health globally. The ambitious programme of work will see extensive collaboration between multiple UK research organisations in order to utilise research outcomes in livestock disease and immunology to support human health as part of the ‘One Health’ agenda.