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. Image 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.
