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News & Reports livestock health
£3 million grant to tackle anthelmintic resistance The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has awarded almost £3 million to a new project that will help tackle drug resistance in livestock parasites. The BUG (Building Upon the Genome) Consortium aims to use genomic information from parasites to understand how worms survive drug treatment. Primarily based at the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, which is part of the University of Glasgow, the BUG Consortium comprises a team of scientists from across the UK. The consortium notes that gastrointestinal worms affect all grazing livestock species and can affect the health and welfare of animals. However, in recent years, these worms have become
82 | Veterinary Record | January 24, 2015
increasingly resistant to anthelmintics. Following on from research published in 2013, in which the genome of the economically important sheep parasite Haemonchus contortus was elucidated (Laing and others 2013, Genome Biology, 14, R88), the BUG Consortium scientists hope to identify the genetic changes that confer resistance. The main aims of the project are to develop genetic markers for early diagnosis of anthelmintic resistance; to model the spread of resistance under different treatment strategies; and to use the genome as a tool for vaccine discovery. The project will focus on two sheep parasites, H contortus and Teladorsagia circumcincta, but the researchers hope that the results will also be applicable to parasites of other livestock species. They say that the
project will include significant collaboration with the farming community and will benefit from guidance of an external advisory panel, made up of stakeholders and experts in the field. The grant was one of five awarded in 2014 as part of the BBSRC’s strategic Longer and Larger grant (sLoLa) scheme, and the project is being led by Eileen Devaney at the University of Glasgow. ‘This project brings together an excellent team of researchers to address an important problem in food security,’ said Professor Devaney. ‘It will allow scientists in the Institute with expertise in modelling and population genomics to work alongside those studying parasite genomes and mechanisms of drug resistance.’ doi: 10.1136/vr.h344
Downloaded from http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/ on June 22, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
£3 million grant to tackle anthelmintic resistance Veterinary Record 2015 176: 82
doi: 10.1136/vr.h344 Updated information and services can be found at: http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/176/4/82.1
These include:
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Notes
To request permissions go to: http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions To order reprints go to: http://journals.bmj.com/cgi/reprintform To subscribe to BMJ go to: http://group.bmj.com/subscribe/
News & Reports livestock health
£3 million grant to tackle anthelmintic resistance The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has awarded almost £3 million to a new project that will help tackle drug resistance in livestock parasites. The BUG (Building Upon the Genome) Consortium aims to use genomic information from parasites to understand how worms survive drug treatment. Primarily based at the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, which is part of the University of Glasgow, the BUG Consortium comprises a team of scientists from across the UK. The consortium notes that gastrointestinal worms affect all grazing livestock species and can affect the health and welfare of animals. However, in recent years, these worms have become
82 | Veterinary Record | January 24, 2015
increasingly resistant to anthelmintics. Following on from research published in 2013, in which the genome of the economically important sheep parasite Haemonchus contortus was elucidated (Laing and others 2013, Genome Biology, 14, R88), the BUG Consortium scientists hope to identify the genetic changes that confer resistance. The main aims of the project are to develop genetic markers for early diagnosis of anthelmintic resistance; to model the spread of resistance under different treatment strategies; and to use the genome as a tool for vaccine discovery. The project will focus on two sheep parasites, H contortus and Teladorsagia circumcincta, but the researchers hope that the results will also be applicable to parasites of other livestock species. They say that the
project will include significant collaboration with the farming community and will benefit from guidance of an external advisory panel, made up of stakeholders and experts in the field. The grant was one of five awarded in 2014 as part of the BBSRC’s strategic Longer and Larger grant (sLoLa) scheme, and the project is being led by Eileen Devaney at the University of Glasgow. ‘This project brings together an excellent team of researchers to address an important problem in food security,’ said Professor Devaney. ‘It will allow scientists in the Institute with expertise in modelling and population genomics to work alongside those studying parasite genomes and mechanisms of drug resistance.’ doi: 10.1136/vr.h344
Downloaded from http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/ on June 22, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
£3 million grant to tackle anthelmintic resistance Veterinary Record 2015 176: 82
doi: 10.1136/vr.h344 Updated information and services can be found at: http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/176/4/82.1
These include:
Email alerting service
Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up in the box at the top right corner of the online article.
Notes
To request permissions go to: http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions To order reprints go to: http://journals.bmj.com/cgi/reprintform To subscribe to BMJ go to: http://group.bmj.com/subscribe/
