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Viral infections pose a significant risk of long-term disease and death to cats. In Europe alone, over 30 million domestic cats are vaccinated each year against three core pathogenic viruses. Research performed at the University of Glasgow has systematically supported the development of key technologies against major feline viral diseases. This work has delivered incremental but wide-reaching benefits to veterinary healthcare and animal welfare by providing: (i) reagents used in the diagnostic industry; (ii) viral screening services for big cat conservation programmes; (iii) developmental input into the creation of one of the most efficacious and widely used vaccines against feline leukaemia virus; (iv) testing of feline vaccines for efficacy and safety; and (v) development of best practice guidelines and training for veterinary practitioners on feline viruses.
Recent outbreaks across Europe of Bluetongue, a viral disease particularly affecting sheep, have driven research at LSHTM by Professor Polly Roy and her team, resulting in the Bluetongue virus (BTV) becoming one of the best understood viruses at the structural and molecular levels. The research has ultimately enabled the creation of several promising new vaccines. In addition the Roy group has contributed towards exploiting virus-like particles (VLPs) as a method to produce safe vaccines against human and animal viral pathogen. The most advanced example is a BTV vaccine for livestock, which is manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim (BI).
Research from the University of Oxford has played a major role in the development of effective vaccines to combat the urgent worldwide problem of influenza. This methodology, licensed to AstraZeneca, has been used to prepare the currently licensed live attenuated influenza vaccine FluMist. Since its introduction in 2006 it is estimated that FluMist or other vaccines produced using reverse genetics have saved the lives of thousands of people worldwide who would otherwise have died from flu and its complications. FluMist has generated close to $1 billion income for the manufacturers (MedImmune, owned by AstraZeneca).
Since its discovery in the 1980s, avian metapneumovirus (AMPV) has spread in poultry populations worldwide with major adverse health and food security implications for commercial chickens and turkeys. Research at the University of Liverpool (UoL) led to the registration of a live vaccine in 1994 which has played a global role in AMPV control, thereby safeguarding the supply of poultry meat and eggs. Recent research and development at the UoL has identified key control measures, relating to vaccine application, vaccine selection, efficacy and safety, which have had a significant impact on poultry health and consequently, poultry producers and consumers. In particular, demonstration that live AMPV vaccines can revert to virulence, that vaccine type applied influences field protection and that continuous use of a single vaccine can influence circulating field strains, has resulted in UoL leading policy making with regard to current AMPV vaccine protocols.
Clinical Trials undertaken by the Oxford Vaccine Group led to the recommended immunisation of three million UK children during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. This research was also used to inform World Health Organization (WHO) global policy. The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, or "Swine Flu", was first identified in April 2009 and declared a pandemic by the WHO in June 2009. After acquiring two novel flu vaccines for the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, the UK government approached the Oxford Vaccine Group to provide paediatric data on the safety of each vaccine. Rapidly recruiting 943 children to the study, the Group delivered essential data to the Department of Health prior to the onset of the winter influenza season. In August 2010, the WHO declared the H1N1 pandemic over.
Research performed by the University of Oxford has led to increased protection against meningococcal meningitis, through childhood immunisation in the UK and internationally. Around 600,000 infants each year receive meningococcal vaccines, which prevent up to 1,000 cases of meningitis per annum. Research into the immune responses to polysaccharide conjugate vaccines has changed policy by leading to the introduction of new meningococcal C vaccines in early childhood and booster vaccination in adolescents. Oxford University research has also led to the planned use of vaccines against serogroup B meningococcal disease, which have been licensed and recommended for the prevention of disease in high-risk individuals, and broader use is under consideration.
Research conducted by LSHTM has informed the delivery of a 30-year WHO strategy aimed at reducing the devastating burden of liver cancer in Africa and least developed countries in other regions. Studies evaluating the effectiveness of the Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study (GHIS) - the only randomised trial of a hepatitis B vaccine with a disease endpoint in Africa - have shaped current WHO policy recommendations for vaccinations against the virus, enabling WHO to advise against the need for a booster programme, and protecting governments in the less developed world from significant additional expenditure.
Research at the University of Oxford into molecular evolution led to the development of BEAST, a powerful suite of computer programs for evolutionary analysis. Viral genome sequences from infected populations can be analysed to infer both viral population history and epidemiological parameters. This approach has been used to track and predict the transmission and evolution of pathogens, particularly viral infections of humans such as influenza and HIV. BEAST was used alongside traditional epidemiological methods by the World Health Organization to rapidly assess and identify the origins of the 2009 H1N1 `Swine Flu' pandemic; immediate recommendations for necessary international action followed. This approach is now widely adopted by health protection agencies and health ministries around the world and is being applied to understand viral diseases of both humans and animals.
Globally the most important cause of encephalitis (inflammation and swelling of the brain) is the mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), which causes an estimated 70,000 cases annually across Asia. Although vaccines were developed years ago, their uptake in Asian countries has been hampered through lack of disease burden data, a consequence of poor surveillance, complicated diagnostics, and insufficient knowledge about disease outcomes. Research at the University of Liverpool has addressed each of these areas in turn, to overcome the roadblocks in vaccine implementation. The University of Liverpool (UoL), through its leading role on all the relevant WHO committees groups and meetings, has ensured that its research findings are translated through to impact by supporting new vaccination programmes across Asia. By 2013 vaccination had begun in 11 new countries, and the vaccine had reached more than 200 million people. The public health benefits, estimated from a health economic modelling study, are 854,000 cases and 214,000 deaths avoided, with an associated saving across Asia of US$ 1.024 billion.
Researchers in the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology have developed a new methodology to analyse pathogen evolution. This `antigenic cartography' has led to the group becoming integrally involved in the World Health Organisation (WHO) influenza vaccine strain selection process, and has directly contributed to more accurate and appropriate flu vaccine design, with associated international impacts on disease prevention and public health (the flu vaccine is given to ~350 million people annually). The research has directly affected how public health professionals conduct disease surveillance and sampling.