December 12, 2007

 

Scotland's Moredun's research centre battles cattle diseases old and new

 

 

As if bluetongue is not enough, old diseases are returning to farms, such as bovine tuberculosis and tick-borne diseases.

 

Aside from these threats, the modern cattle farmer also has contend with endemic diseases that affect the welfare, productivity and economic value of cattle. Examples of the effects would be abortion and pneumonia, parasitic diseases such as worms and scab, gastrointestinal diseases such as Johne's disease, skin diseases, mastitis and lameness.

 

With so many threats to farming, the role of the Moredun Research Institute and its various divisions have their work cut out for them.

 

Professor Julie Fitzpatrick, chief executive and scientific director of the Moredun Foundation, said the centre is fortunate in that the Scottish Government is providing GBP 6 million (US$12.5 million) a year in a five-year financing package to the centre.

 

The centre has also successfully attracted GBP 3.8 million (US$7.8 million)  of external income giving them an annual budget for research of nearly GBP 10 million (US$20.4 million).

 

Climate change and the intensification of livestock systems are creating new disease challenges, and the institute is at the forefront of finding solutions, Fitzpatrick said.

 

The centre is researching a vaccine for mastitis in dairy cows, an economically important disease that accounts for 38 percent of the costs of disease in the dairy industry, accounting for GBP 168 million in clinical costs a year.

 

Moredun scientists have also adopted an alternative approach to the development of a vaccine against Streptococcus uberous. the "environmental" pathogen, considered to be acquired through contact with such materials as contaminated bedding.

 

The centre said it uses state-of-the-art technologies like genome sequencing and mass-spectrometric analysis of proteins could lead to a breakthrough vaccine in the future.

 

Results gleaned from the mastitis project is equally as applicable to the study of numerous other pathogens of humans and animals, and is currently being employed in other project areas within Moredun's Control of Bacterial Diseases Division.