News

A study in pigs, which shows that inhaled vaccines could potentially reduce viral transmission and improve efficiency, is an important step toward advancing vaccines for human use. Interest in administering vaccines mucosally, rather than by intramuscular injections, has been growing since the SARS…

Scientists have gained new insights into African swine fever virus (ASFV), a deadly pathogen that causes major losses in global pig farming and threatens global food security. A study, led by The Pirbright Institute and published today in mBio, uses a novel strategy to make a modified live vaccine…

A new study highlights the potentially serious consequences of bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3) on the UK sheep population. This BTV-3 strain emerged in Northern Europe in September 2023 and has since been reported in 16 countries across the continent, causing outbreaks of the haemorrhagic…

The Pirbright Institute is partnering with Scitech, a leading specialist in pharmaceutical design, engineering, construction and qualification, to build and deliver a new Centre for Veterinary Vaccine Innovation and Manufacturing (CVIM). CVIM’s mission is to fulfil an unmet global need to accelerate…

A major new high-biological containment science facility, to be named The Brooksby Building, has been completed by The Pirbright Institute. Pirbright is the UK’s world-leading centre of excellence in research and surveillance of viral diseases of livestock, and viruses that spread from animals to…

The Pirbright Institute is celebrating two major doctoral training initiatives funded by the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), each offering unique opportunities for the next generation of scientists. These programmes…

Two talented Pirbright researchers have been awarded with Strategic Career Development Awards (SCDAs) to advance their research and career trajectories. Dr Rory Fortes de Brito, a Senior Postdoctoral researcher in the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) Immunology group and Dr Lidia…

Laboratory-made monoclonal antibodies are used to treat conditions including cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases. Commercial outbred pigs can be used as models to test how quickly therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) disappear from the human body after injection, according to research by…

A new study highlights significant gaps in our understanding of the transmission dynamics of epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) which primarily infects cattle and deer. EHDV was detected in Europe for the first time in 2022, with outbreaks reported in Italy and Spain, and it has since…