Search | The Pirbright Institute

Filters

default publication image

Combating mosquito-borne diseases using genetic control technologies

Mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue and malaria, pose significant global health burdens. Unfortunately, current control methods based on insecticides and environmental maintenance have fallen short of eliminating the disease burden. Scalable, deployable, genetic-based…

Vaccine on a colourful background

Pirbright’s new bird flu vaccine provides rapid protection, could reduce virus spread and is less costly to produce

An improved poultry influenza vaccine has been developed by researchers from The Pirbright Institute. The potential vaccine triggers a rapid immune response which protects chickens against signs of disease and reduces the level of virus that they could pass on, a key element…

default publication image

Differential susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 in animals: Evidence of ACE2 host receptor distribution in companion animals, livestock and wildlife by immunohistochemical characterisation

Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is a host cell membrane protein (receptor) that mediates the binding of coronavirus, most notably SARS coronaviruses in the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. Although SARS-CoV-2 infection is mainly confined to humans, there have…

default publication image

Targeting haemagglutinin antigen of avian influenza virus to chicken immune cell receptors Dec205 and CD11c induces differential immune-potentiating responses

Improving the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of vaccines is critical to reducing disease impacts. One strategy used to enhance the immunogenicity of vaccines is the selective delivery of protective antigens to the antigen presenting cells (APCs). In this study, we…

default publication image

Retrospective characterisation of the 2006-07 swine vesicular disease epidemic in northern Italy by whole genome sequence analysis

Advances in the epidemiological tracing of pathogen transmission have been largely driven by the increasing characterisation of whole-genome sequence data obtained at a finer resolution from infectious disease outbreaks. Dynamic models that integrate genomic and…

default publication image

Targeting Toll-like receptor 2: polarization of porcine macrophages by a mycoplasma-derived Pam2Cys lipopeptide

Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) ligands are attracting increasing attention as prophylactic and immunotherapeutic agents against pathogens and tumors. We previously observed that a synthetic diacylated lipopeptide based on a surface protein of Mycoplasma agalactiae (Mag-Pam2Cys)…

default publication image

Evaluation of lesions and viral antigen distribution in domestic pigs inoculated intranasally with African swine fever virus Ken05/Tk1 (genotype X)

The understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms and the clinicopathological forms caused by currently circulating African swine fever virus (ASFV) isolates is incomplete. So far, most of the studies have been focused on isolates classified within genotypes I and II, the only…

default publication image

The history of foot-and-mouth disease virus serotype C: the first known extinct serotype?

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious animal disease caused by an RNA virus subdivided into seven serotypes that are unevenly distributed in Asia, Africa, and South America. Despite the challenges of controlling FMD, since 1996 there have been only two…

default publication image

Development of a blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of antibodies against African swine fever virus

The incursion of African swine fever virus (ASFV) into Eurasia presents a threat to the world’s swine industry. Highly sensitive and specific diagnostic assays are urgently needed for rapid detection during an outbreak, post-outbreak investigation, and disease surveillance…

default publication image

Vaccination Strategies, Implementation, and Monitoring

This chapter considers different vaccination strategies and important concepts for monitoring vaccine performance in the field, including vaccine coverage, herd immunity, and vaccine effectiveness studies. Where infectious agents are endemic, with a high risk of exposure to…