Harnessing innate immunity to mitigate bovine respiratory disease. Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) is the most significant health problem faced by the beef industry worldwide, causing economic losses of up to $40 million annually in Australia alone. This Project aims to assess an immunostimulant for its ability to induce resistance to infection with bovine respiratory viruses associated with BRD. The Project is expected to generate fundamental new knowledge in veterinary virology. Expected outc ....Harnessing innate immunity to mitigate bovine respiratory disease. Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) is the most significant health problem faced by the beef industry worldwide, causing economic losses of up to $40 million annually in Australia alone. This Project aims to assess an immunostimulant for its ability to induce resistance to infection with bovine respiratory viruses associated with BRD. The Project is expected to generate fundamental new knowledge in veterinary virology. Expected outcomes include scholarly publications. The Project will provide significant benefits, such as advances to fundamental knowledge, training of higher research degree students and proof-of-concept data to promote collaborations with commercial partners to develop novel treatment strategies to limit BRD.Read moreRead less
Imperfect vaccination drives herpesvirus evolution through recombination. Vaccines are used to help control disease caused by herpesviruses in animals, but some vaccination programs may drive the evolution and spread of herpesviruses with increased fitness (transmissibility, replication and virulence) through recombination. This project aims to study an important avian herpesvirus (infectious laryngotracheitis virus) in the natural host (poultry) to gain fundamental knowledge of how vaccination ....Imperfect vaccination drives herpesvirus evolution through recombination. Vaccines are used to help control disease caused by herpesviruses in animals, but some vaccination programs may drive the evolution and spread of herpesviruses with increased fitness (transmissibility, replication and virulence) through recombination. This project aims to study an important avian herpesvirus (infectious laryngotracheitis virus) in the natural host (poultry) to gain fundamental knowledge of how vaccination programs influence the emergence of diverse recombinant viruses, and identify which types of vaccination programs are best at preventing the emergence of fitter and more virulent viruses. The results are expected to inform vaccination practices to allow more effective control of these viruses in poultry and other animals.Read moreRead less
Targeted drug discovery against blood-feeding parasite nematodes of animals. This project aims to identify more sustainable control strategies of nematode parasites of livestock, which cost more than 400 million yearly to the Australian wool and meat industry. The project expects to identify novel nematicides and generate knowledge of the parasite biology using a combination of high-throughput drug discovery screens with cutting-edge OMICs approaches to target a key molecular pathway of importan ....Targeted drug discovery against blood-feeding parasite nematodes of animals. This project aims to identify more sustainable control strategies of nematode parasites of livestock, which cost more than 400 million yearly to the Australian wool and meat industry. The project expects to identify novel nematicides and generate knowledge of the parasite biology using a combination of high-throughput drug discovery screens with cutting-edge OMICs approaches to target a key molecular pathway of importance to the survival of nematodes, namely their blood-feeding behaviour. Expected outcomes of this project include a likely enhancement of international efforts in controlling these parasites as well as nematicides commercialisation. This should provide significant benefits to agricultural producers in Australia and worldwide.
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Role of Pasteurella surface polysaccharides in pathogenesis and immunity. Livestock infections cause major economic losses worldwide. The bacterium Pasteurella multocida causes multiple diseases in a range of livestock, including hemorrhagic septicaemia in cattle and fowl cholera in poultry. Two surface polysaccharide structures, capsule and lipopolysaccharide, are crucial for P. multocida to cause disease. Our data indicate that varying the amount/content of these structures also affects vaccin ....Role of Pasteurella surface polysaccharides in pathogenesis and immunity. Livestock infections cause major economic losses worldwide. The bacterium Pasteurella multocida causes multiple diseases in a range of livestock, including hemorrhagic septicaemia in cattle and fowl cholera in poultry. Two surface polysaccharide structures, capsule and lipopolysaccharide, are crucial for P. multocida to cause disease. Our data indicate that varying the amount/content of these structures also affects vaccine performance. This project aims to identify how the production of these P. multocida structures are controlled and if changes to these structures affect its ability to infect different animals/birds. Using this information, the project aims to develop state-of-the-art livestock vaccines with superior disease coverage.Read moreRead less
How do kangaroo herpesviruses jump to new host species? . This project aims to study alphaherpesviruses of kangaroos and other marsupials. These viruses cause outbreaks of severe disease in captive populations of marsupials when they are transmitted from natural hosts to new host species, but these cross-species transmission events are poorly understood. This project aims to study these viruses, and their capacity for cross-species transmission, using new approaches that consider herpesviruses a ....How do kangaroo herpesviruses jump to new host species? . This project aims to study alphaherpesviruses of kangaroos and other marsupials. These viruses cause outbreaks of severe disease in captive populations of marsupials when they are transmitted from natural hosts to new host species, but these cross-species transmission events are poorly understood. This project aims to study these viruses, and their capacity for cross-species transmission, using new approaches that consider herpesviruses as dynamic, mixed populations of viruses. This project also aims to develop novel, practical, and accessible vaccines to prevent disease. Benefits are expected to arise through prevention of disease in captive marsupial populations, including benefits for conservation efforts and for Australian tourism.
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A next-generation whole parasite bovine Babesia vaccine. . In Australia, Babesia parasites cause most of the severe and often fatal cases of cattle-tick fever, a globally significant tick-borne disease. It can be prevented by a live-attenuated parasite vaccine which has critical limitations of a 4-day shelf-life and risk of severe disease if administered to adult cattle. This project aims to evaluate in cattle a novel whole parasite Babesia bovis vaccine that cannot cause disease and can be pres ....A next-generation whole parasite bovine Babesia vaccine. . In Australia, Babesia parasites cause most of the severe and often fatal cases of cattle-tick fever, a globally significant tick-borne disease. It can be prevented by a live-attenuated parasite vaccine which has critical limitations of a 4-day shelf-life and risk of severe disease if administered to adult cattle. This project aims to evaluate in cattle a novel whole parasite Babesia bovis vaccine that cannot cause disease and can be preserved as an off-the-shelf product without losing efficacy. The expected outcome is a significantly improved vaccine for a major infectious disease that affects primary food production. As the disease imposes a major economic burden, it will have great benefit for the Australian livestock industry.
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Reverse chemical proteomics: harnessing yeast display for drug discovery. This project aims to develop a technique that can rapidly identify the cellular protein targets of biologically active natural products. This project expects to provide fundamental biological and chemical insights into Australia's unique biodiversity that will facilitate the development of new therapeutic agents and agrochemicals based on leads provided by Nature. Expected outcomes of this project include an optimised and ....Reverse chemical proteomics: harnessing yeast display for drug discovery. This project aims to develop a technique that can rapidly identify the cellular protein targets of biologically active natural products. This project expects to provide fundamental biological and chemical insights into Australia's unique biodiversity that will facilitate the development of new therapeutic agents and agrochemicals based on leads provided by Nature. Expected outcomes of this project include an optimised and validated platform technology for accelerating drug discovery and development. This should substantially reduce the costs associated with fighting human and animal diseases, leading to improved health, productivity and quality of life.Read moreRead less