Award details

Marek's disease virus pathogenesis and disease resistance

Reference	BBS/E/I/00001111
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Venugopal Nair
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	The Pirbright Institute
Department	The Pirbright Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	308,156
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	15/06/2005
End date	13/01/2010
Duration	55 months

Abstract

Marek's disease (MD) is a highly contagious disease caused by an oncogenic alphaherpesvirus. Control of MD is currently achieved by vaccination with live attenuated vaccines. However, the emergence of more virulent strains of Marek's disease virus (MDV) has indicated that alternative strategies will be required to control this disease in the future. A key objective of this proposal is to identify genes associated with the pathogenesis and latency of MDV infection and to exploit this knowledge to develop disease resistant chickens. The strategy will involve analysing gene function using siRNA technology and generation of chickens expressing siRNA transgenically in order to define gene function during MDV infection. The investigation will focus on known transforming/latency genes such as Meq, MSRs (Marek's disease small RNAs) and ICP4 as well as characterising genes of unknown function. Meq will be used as a 'proof of principle' for siRNA disruption of viral oncogenesis in transgenic chickens.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	Animal Health, Immunology, Microbiology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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