£600K Industrial Partnership Award from the BBSRC and the Erich Wesjohann Group

Professors Mark Stevens and Peter Kaiser at The Roslin Institute, and their collaborator Dr Mark Fife at the Institute for Animal Health, have received a £600k Industrial Partnering Award from the BBSRC and Erich Wesjohann Group to investigate the basis of resistance to fowl typhoid, a systemic disease of poultry caused by Salmonella.

Professors Mark Stevens and Peter Kaiser at The Roslin Institute, and their collaborator Dr Mark Fife at the Institute for Animal Health, have received a £600k Industrial Partnering Award from the BBSRC and Erich Wesjohann Group to investigate the basis of  resistance to fowl typhoid, a systemic disease of poultry caused by  Salmonella.

The project aims to fine-map quantitative trait loci associated with  resistance to fowl typhoid, to assess the penetrance of  resistance-associated alleles or polymorphisms in commercial bird  populations, and to unravel how these exert their effect.

Salmonella is an animal and human pathogen of worldwide importance.  The project will yield markers for the selection of birds with improved  resistance to systemic salmonellosis. Similar approaches are being used by the EID researchers to map genes mediating resistance to carriage of Salmonella and Campylobacter in the intestines of chickens to improve  food safety.

This project will benefit from recently-awarded BBSRC, Wellcome Trust  and University of Edinburgh investment in a National Avian Research  Facility, which will be located at Easter Bush and house inbred chicken  lines to be used in the study.