Developing Rapid Responses to Emerging Virus Infections of Poultry (DRREVIP)

The study of viruses of poultry made important contributions to the development of the modern science of virology, due to the ready availability of infectious materials and experimental subjects and by the fact that the majority of the poultry viruses posed no threat to humans. Subsequently the same factors allowed development of techniques for the assay and propagation of viruses in the laboratory, using eggs then tissue culture. These same techniques then played important roles in mammalian virology. Nowadays poultry virology helps protect us from emerging zoonotic viruses such as H5N1 and West Nile virus. It also helps protect the supply of the most important and universally acceptable sources of animal protein to feed a growing world population. That supply has to be protected throughout the sophisticated modern industry, from elite founder stocks in worldwide (including UK and European) breeder companies right down to the massive, obvious level of broiler and egg production. Infectious threats arise regularly, sometimes from previously unknown viruses. Less obviously, poultry virology plays major roles in human health and in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical industries. Isolation and diagnosis of viruses is often conducted in eggs or avian cells, and some important vaccines (notably seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines) are produced in them. Diagnosis and isolation of viruses that remain unknown, and their production to make new vaccines, will probably require the development of genetically modified eggs and chicken cells. The UK has traditionally been strong in poultry virus research, arguably leading to the development of the influenza vaccine and to the discovery of antiviral interferon. It has also contributed extensively to work on emerging viruses. BBSRC plans increased effort in poultry virology in the new National Centre for Livestock Virology at IAH Pirbright, working alongside a new National Avian Research Facility at Roslin, Edinburgh. However, until those facilities are completed, the field faces difficulties in recruitment, retention, succession and critical mass. This proposal addresses important scientific challenges in the design and development of modified cells to allow better isolation and diagnosis of emerging viruses as well as faster and better production of vaccines against them (to protect global food supply but also to benefit the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical industries). It will cover endemic and exotic viruses as, in the poultry sector, new viruses rapidly cross national and continental boundaries to become global problems. More importantly, it will help secure effective capacity in UK poultry virus research in advance of the new facilities. It establishes a small, focussed and focal network of university teams, with considerable experience of poultry virology, to recruit young post-doctoral scientists. It will be supported by a leading, representative researcher each from Roslin and IAH, offering network access to those facilities and assisting in managing the programme. Recruits will be trained in the demands of the academic sector, alongside and in collaboration with biomedical scientists, to publish in high impact journals and regularly aim for academic fellowships, yet they will receive strong guidance in poultry virology (and related disciplines) from their teams and the network, with strong support from the IAH and Roslin. The programme cannot cover all aspects of poultry virology and related disciplines but it is hoped that other centres of excellence with interests in poultry virology (e.g. Edinburgh, Belfast, Liverpool, Warwick, DEFRA's AHVLA) will participate in training and collaborating with those who will form the core of the next generation of UK poultry virologists. At the end, some recruits are expected to join the national poultry research facilities while others will remain in universities, but in strong positions to collaborate with those in the facilities.