Avian Genomics Group

The poultry industry in Europe faces increasing political and consumer pressure to change current rearing practices to more sustainable ones. This includes moving to less intensive systems of rearing e.g. to free range, and the removal of prophylactic antibiotics and other chemical treatments that currently control infectious disease agents (pathogens). As such, diseases that were controllable within an enclosed environment, such as helminthic worm and certain viral infections, are re-emerging and becoming a source of disease and economic loss. We have little understanding of a chicken's immune responses to such infections, as these pathogens have not been studied in the laboratory for many years.

To combat this, we are determining host-pathogen interactions for selected pathogens, in particular to understand the biology of the chicken's immune system. In developing this understanding we have two main aims:

  • the development of novel vaccines based on the identification of the pathogen's proteins that induce protective immunity, and chicken molecules that have the potential to enhance the immune response.
  • the identification of disease resistance genes or markers which can feed into existing breeding programmes to give more "robust" chickens.