Award details

Understanding influenza A virus: linking transmission, evolutionary dynamics, pathogenesis and immunity in pigs

Reference	BBS/E/T/000GP024
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Federica Di Palma
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Earlham Institute
Department	Earlham Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	64,483
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2014
End date	31/03/2017
Duration	35 months

Abstract

Swine influenza attracts considerable public attention because of the threat of zoonotic infections causing human pandemics. During the most recent pandemic, a fear that viruses emerging from pigs may infect people resulted in the widespread destruction of animals and trade bans. The primary disease caused by influenza virus in usually mild, but results in greater susceptibility to secondary infections. Vaccination will be a key control measure to improve general herd health, however, such vaccination is not routinely performed in Europe mainly for two reasons: the cost benefit has not been demonstrated and it is not clear that the available vaccines will protect against the strains currently circulating, for example the pandemic H1N1 antigen. Our studies will provide essential evidence to design control programmes, most notably: i) how efficient are the current prophylactic methods at controlling the spread of infection; ii) what level of immunity is required in a population to prevent the spread of infection and the evolution of new strains of virus and iii) determine whether new, broadly cross protective vaccines are more effective at controlling influenza infections in swine. As part of our studies we will perform a series of transmission studies with naïve donors, determining the optimal exposure time for transmission, the immunopathology associated with the onset and cessation of transmission, and determine the efficacy of vaccines to block transmission. Further we will study the evolutionary dynamics through transmission chains in naïve and vaccinated animals and model influenza transmission in both naïve and immune pig populations. We can then apply this new knowledge to population wide models of disease spread to predict the efficiency of any proposed control measures and inform the design of novel vaccines. Our studies will provide essential evidence to design control programmes for influenza in pigs and further control measures for other mammalian hosts.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
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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