£9m livestock disease research funding package announced
Fourteen projects are being backed in the latest stage of the scheme that aims to improve welfare and productivity in the sector.
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A £9 million funding package to support research into potential new ways of tackling endemic livestock diseases has been announced.
Funding will be shared between 14 projects – part of a broader initiative that aims to reduce the impact of disease on both welfare and productivity.
Details of the benefiting projects were outlined in a joint statement from Defra and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
Serious challenges
CVO Christine Middlemiss said: “The UK remains committed to working collaboratively with farmers to overcome infectious animal disease.
“This funding brings together farmers, vets, and researchers to develop and test new solutions to some of our most serious animal health challenges on farm, making a real difference to the health and well-being of the UK’s livestock.”
Guy Poppy, the BBSRC’s interim executive chairperson, added: “We are confident this initiative will lead to ground-breaking advancements in disease control, fostering a healthier and more productive livestock sector.”
Funded projects
Funded projects include:
- Forestry by-products as novel therapeutics for parasite control in livestock – Spiridoula Athanasiadou, SRUC
- Monitoring the gut microbiome via AI and omics: a new approach to detect infection and AMR and to support novel therapeutics in broiler precision farm – Tania Dottorini, University of Nottingham
- AI to monitor changes in social behaviour for the early detection of disease in dairy cattle – Andrew Dowsey, University of Bristol
- Preventing drops in egg production in UK free-range flocks: understanding the interactions between farm practices, flock co-infections and immunity – Kannan Ganapathy, University of Liverpool
- Next generation vaccines for bovine respiratory disease complex utilising virus vaccine vectors to target both bacterial and viral pathogen – William Golde, Moredun Research Institute
- Precision solutions for controlling fasciolosis in sheep – Rhys Jones, Aberystwyth University
- Digital platform for sustainable health: a step change in reducing endemic disease in dairy cattle – Jasmeet Kaler, University of Nottingham
- CO-ADAPT: adaptive management of endemic co-infections in ruminant livestock under climate change – Eric Morgan, Queens University, Belfast
- A UK platform for the control of bovine viral diarrhoea: application of a novel disease simulation model to guide programme development and policy design – Luke O’Grady, University of Nottingham
- Genetic and management solutions for lameness-associated endemic diseases in dairy cattle – Georgios Oikonomou, University of Liverpool
- Unravelling the aetiology of stunting in UK broiler flocks through the use of novel micro-dissection and viral metatranscriptomic sequencing tools – Victoria Smyth, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute
- Protecting pigs from enzootic pneumonia: rational design of safe attenuated vaccines – Dirk Werling, RVC
- Delivery of rapid diagnostic tests for sustainable control of parasitic diseases in sheep and cattle – Diana Williams, University of Liverpool
- Effects of co-infections on Marek’s disease in poultry and development of novel recombinant Marek’s disease virus vector vaccines – Yongxui Yao, Pirbright Institute
