Professor Philip Mellor has been awarded an OBE for ‘Service to Science’. Prof. Mellor is head of the Vector-borne Disease Research Programme within the Institute, based at our Pirbright Laboratory. His research includes bluetongue virus and related viruses e.g. African horse sickness virus, which are spread by midges, and African swine fever, which is spread by ticks.
Since the arrival of bluetongue virus (serotype 8; BTV-8) in neighbouring Continental countries in 2006 Prof. Mellor strongly advocated the development and application of a vaccine as being the only really effective and sustainable way of combating the virus. Although BTV-8 came to the UK in 2007, causing disease on some farms, the UK did not have any outbreaks of the disease in 2008. It is believed that the application of BTV-8 vaccine by many British farmers, especially in the east and south of the country, was a major contributor to the UK being bluetongue-free last year. In addition to the UK Government Prof. Mellor also advises the European Union, World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation on matters relating to vector-borne diseases.
The Institute’s Vector-borne Disease Research Programme encompasses many aspects of the diseases: the causative viruses; the diseases that they cause in farm animals; the vectors (midges, ticks) that spread the viruses; the influence of weather on the spread and duration of midges and growth of BTV, including mathematical modelling of the disease situation; the development of refined diagnostic tests; and the provision of diagnostic services.
Information on the Institute’s Vector-borne Diseases Research Programme can be found here. The Institute is sponsored by the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council).
For more information contact Dr Dave Cavanagh in the Institute’s press office: 07789 941568; 01635 577241; dave.cavanagh@bbsrc.ac.uk