Infectious Diseases

Improving the detection, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases of animals, and those that pass from animals to people.

A graphic showing the relationship between disease and diagnosis, prevention, control of zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance and animal diseases

Key Challenges

Reducing the burden of animal diseases

Endemic infectious diseases exert recurring societal, economic and welfare costs. Animal populations also face the threat of incursion of exotic pathogens that restrict trade. The challenges are growing owing to antimicrobial resistance and the waning efficacy of vaccines as pathogens evolve.

Reducing Zoonoses and preparing for pandemics

Many animal diseases originate from human-animal interface. Farmed animals can also transmit zoonoses with life-threatening and epidemic potential. Over 60% of emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonoses and these often arise in areas of high species richness where land use has shifted to agriculture. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), every year 1 in 10 people fall ill to foodborne zoonoses, resulting in 420k deaths and loss of 33M healthy life years⁽¹⁾. These exert a recurring cost of up to £9Bn/year in the UK, and farmed animals are a key reservoir. A further challenge is to understand the genesis and spread of harmful variants of pathogens, and to predict those that may be more harmful and able to escape immunity or jump species barriers.

Combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

An estimated 63k tonnes of antibiotics were used globally in terrestrial farmed animals in 2010, predicted to rise to 106k tonnes by 2030⁽²⁾. Among the antibiotics used in agriculture are some deemed critical in human medicine by the WHO. The evolution of AMR now threatens to undo decades of progress in veterinary and human medicine, with 10 million lives and $100Tn of economic output expected to be lost due to drug-resistant infections per annum by 2050⁽³⁾.

1. World Health Organization Global Estimates and Regional Comparisons of the Burden of Foodborne Disease in 2010

2. Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals

3. Review on Antimicrobial Resistance

Meeting the challenges

We adopt a multi-disciplinary approach, consisting of genetic, veterinary and epidemiological solutions. We use our combined expertise together with animal and bio-technology resources and infrastructure to develop and evaluate novel strategies to detect, treat and prevent infections.

Roslin researchers use Artificial Intelligence and other computational approaches to predict and control the emergence of AMR. We aim to lessen the need for antibiotic use in animal agriculture by driving sustainable genetic progress in disease resistance and resilience of animals and by developing vaccines and other preventative measures.

The Division of Bacteriology employs an array of genomic approaches including phylodynamics, transposon mutagenesis and hybrid applications such as TraDIS, and machine learning to explore disease transmission, and the key genes and pathways associated with colonisation, pathogenesis and host-tropism. We also use a variety of functional, metabolic and infection assays including cellular and organoid systems to dissect the molecular pathogenesis of bacterial diseases. We are addressing the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance developing and test new approaches for controlling infections including vaccines, sequence-based diagnostics informing appropriate antibiotic treatment and alternatives to antibiotics such as phage therapy.

The Division of Epidemiology works on a broad range of majorly important diseases including bovine tuberculosis, rabies, avian influenza, East coast fever, foot-and-mouth disease, African swine fever and important zoonoses. We work in a range of aspects of infectious disease from design and implementation of complex population-based surveys, diagnostic test development and novel surveillance strategies particularly using environmental samples, as well as the use of molecular epidemiological and modelling tools to understand pathogen introduction and spread as well as drivers of evolution.

The Division of Genome Biology studies complex traits including resistance to infectious diseases, and those important for sustainability of production and animal welfare, in addition to traits of commercial and evolutionary importance. We exploit functional genomics to understand normal development, cell-type specification and differentiation and molecular responses to stressors including pathogens. We study the microbiome to build a picture of the diversity and complexity of host-microbe-environment interactions and understand the role of microbes in animal health and disease.

The Division of Quantitative Biology develops models to estimate livestock genetic resilience to infectious pathogens, studying the impact of vaccination on pathogen spread, and predicting the success of novel technologies like gene editing for disease control in farm animals.

The Division of Translational Bioscience analyses DNA sequences associated with zoonotic diseases in humans, such as influenza and Covid-19, and leverage comparative genetics to identify common disease genes shared between humans and animals.

The Division of Virology's interests include host-virus interactions at scales from cells to target animals, viral evolution, epidemiology and transmission (including predicting zoonotic risk and virulence), the basis of viral tropism and pathogenesis, and the genetic and immunological basis of host resistance to viruses. This includes: host-virus interactions; viral evolution; epidemiology and transmission; basis of viral tropism and pathogenesis; genetic and immunological basis of host resistance.