New technologies to tackle livestock diseases

Despite best use of currently available health technologies, in the order of 15% of livestock production in the developed world (nearer 30% in the developing world) is lost to disease.

Disease is therefore a major cause of inefficiency and impaired animal welfare. Very cost effective use of genome sequencing of pathogen species opens up an array of new commercial opportunities from rational vaccine design to molecular epidemiology.

Helping to improve animal health and welfare

The KTN will assist in relevant areas including diagnostic methodologies, vaccine development, therapeutic regimes and integrated disease control strategies to protect and improve animal health and welfare.

Also relevant to welfare are the opportunities to exploit developments in neurobiology and behaviour research for the identification of genes underlying behaviours associated with poor welfare, such as aggression in cattle and pigs or feather pecking in poultry.