This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Funding to combat livestock disease
23/04/2004
Scottish research today received a
further funding boost under an initiative to combat viral
disease in livestock.
Agriculture Minister Ross Finnie
announced the funding of over £400,000 which will help
researchers at the Moredun Research Institute take forward
work into viral diseases in cattle, sheep and deer and help
in the development of new vaccines.
This work will further the objectives of the
Animal Health and Welfare Strategy and highlights the
role of Scotland's pre-eminent animal science base in
raising animal health and welfare standards.
Mr Finnie said:
"These grants recogniseScotland's strength in livestock disease research.
"This initiative, funded by BBSRC, SEERAD and
Defra, will sit alongside the recently announced
Veterinary Training and Research Initiative, in which
the Moredun Research Institute and the Scottish vet
schools were also successful.
"The investments we are making in animal science and
veterinary medicine will give us a greater understanding
of, and ability to fight, the viral diseases which can do
so much damage to animal health and welfare and undermine
the success ofScotland's livestock industry."
The CVDL Initiative is a partnership between
SEERAD, BBSRC and Defra to support research projects that
will help to provide solutions to the challenges posed by
viral diseases. £11 million of funding has been provided to
this Initiative with 14 new research projects throughout
the UK receiving support.
Research projects at MRI, receiving
around £1.5 million support from the Initiative, include
research on Malignant Catarrhal Fever, a fatal infectious
viral disease of cattle, pigs and deer, and the development
of reagents to help understand the immune responses of
livestock to diseases in order to develop new control
measures such as vaccines.
SEERAD is co-funding this Initiative as part of
its programme of Agricultural, Biological and Related
Research. The Department supports and promotes the
agricultural and biological science base in Scotland
through the Agricultural and Biological Research Group
(ABRG) which annually invests around £50 million directly
into research including Animal Health.
More information on the SEERAD research
programme can be found at
www.scotland.gov.uk/abrg.
The Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK funding agency
for research in life sciences. The Department for
Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was created in
June 2001 to drive forward the UK Government's programmes
on the environment, food and rural affairs.
The Veterinary Training and Research
Initiative (VTRI) funded by the Scottish Higher Education
Funding Council (SHEFC), Defra and the Higher Education
Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has awarded £21.5
million to strengthen clinical research training in the
UK's vet schools and to encourage collaboration between vet
schools and research institutes.
The Universities of Edinburgh and
Glasgow are leading projects worth £7.6million on genomics
and epidemiology.