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RVC part of major scientific
consortium to tackle bird flu
n June the RVC announced mathematical modelers to focus on The RVC’s involvement will include
involvement in a new major UK key areas aimed at containing future establishing a robust, UK-focused
research consortium, convened outbreaks and supporting the UK’s dataset of wild bird distribution and
Ito battle bird flu, following poultry sector and rural economy. movements and combining it with
unprecedented outbreaks which have Research areas include understanding available genome sequence data to
led to more than 100 cases in the UK why some strains form larger and reconstruct viral diffusion patterns.
this year alone. longer outbreaks, the difference in Additionally, the RVC’s work will include
transmission and infection in different an investigation of farmers’ perceptions
The group is comprised of eight of the bird populations, the spread of infection of biosecurity measures. This work
UK’s top scientific organisations, including over time and across species, resistance will be led by Dr Guillaume Fournié
the RVC, Animal and Plant Health in some species, predicting how the virus (Senior Research Fellow), Dr Sarah
Agency (APHA), The Pirbright Institute, will evolve and spread in the future and Hill (Research Fellow in Genomic
Roslin Institute, University of Cambridge, protecting against zoonotic transmission Epidemiology), Professor Nicola Lewis
Imperial College London, the University of occurring from animals to humans. (Professor in One Health Evolutionary
Leeds and the University of Nottingham. Biology), and Dr Eve Houghton and
The consortium has been awarded Dr Ivo Syndicus (both Postdoctoral
£1.5 million of government funding to Research Fellows in Social Sciences).
bolster research projects and develop The team was enhanced in September
new strategies to tackle outbreaks. The by Dr Jayna Raghwani, who joined the
findings from this research will be shared RVC as Senior Postdoctoral Researcher.
with international partners to enhance
global risk mitigation and better inform Dr Guillaume Fournié commented:
current efforts to tackle the disease. “The scale of the incursion of highly
pathogenic avian influenza virus in
The project brings together expertise the UK and Europe over the winters
from microbiologists, epidemiologists, 2020-21 and 2021-22 makes it
virologists, genomics specialists and
necessary to review gaps in our
understanding of the dynamics of these
viruses, and especially the role of wild
birds in spreading, and potentially
maintaining, their circulation.
“As part of this project, the RVC will
contribute to improve our understanding
of highly pathogenic avian influenza
virus dynamics in wild bird populations,
at the interface between wild birds and
domestic poultry, and its potential to
cause large outbreaks among farms.
This information will allow us to inform
the design of more targeted surveillance
activities and risk mitigation interventions
better tailored to the UK poultry sector.”
This research is funded by the
Biotechnology and Biosciences Research
Council and Defra. The RVC has a strong
track record of cross-agency research,
largely through the RVC’s Veterinary
Epidemiology Economics and Public
Health (VEEPH) group, and its work on
‘One Health’, such as through the UKRI
GCRF One Health Poultry Hub
(www.onehealthpoultry.org).
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