Avian Infectious Diseases Programme

The nature of the challenge presented by infectious disease in poultry is continuously changing as the result of changes in the environment, legislation, market forces and the pathogens themselves. Because of legislation leading to the discontinuation of the use of antibiotics and other drugs, we need to find alternative methods of control, including vaccination. There is increasing evidence that vaccination using live attenuated vaccines may select more virulent pathogens. To develop new effective control measures we must develop detailed knowledge of the mechanisms that cause pathogens to infect, and of the host mechanisms for resisting infection that can be manipulated by vaccination, genetics or other means. The ultimate aim of this ISP is to generate the knowledge required in these areas, leading to continued development of novel solutions to the welfare problems, economic burden and threats to human health that accompany infectious disease in poultry.

The immune systems of birds differ from those of mammals to such a degree that we cannot simply apply what we know from mammals to understand host-pathogen relationships, or the factors determining the outcomes of vaccination, in birds. We aim to understand these special features of birds immune systems, and how to manipulate them. Pathogens directly interfere with the host?s immune response, and different arms of the host?s immune response can control different pathogens. We study these hostpathogen interactions in their natural hosts.

Overall, we aim to understand host-pathogen interactions to such a degree that we can begin to predict responses to pathogens and vaccines, and therefore move quickly towards new and effective control strategies, using both genetics and vaccination.

 

Programme Leader: Professor Venugopal Nair
Deputy Programme Leader Professor Paul Britton

The Programme consists of the following Workpackages and Principal Investigators:

WP1 Enabling immunology - Mark Fife, Colin Butter, John Young, Richard Beal
WP2 Genetics of host resistance - Mark Fife, Michael Watson, John Young
WP3 Avian influenza - Paul Britton, Colin Butter, Mark Fife, Munir Iqbal, Venugopal Nair, Richard Beal, John Young
WP4 Marek?s disease -Venugopal Nair
WP5 Coronaviruses - Paul Britton
WP6 Avian bacterial disease - Mark Stevens, Richard Beal, Mark Fife
WP7 Parasitology - Fiona Tomley, Richard Beal