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IAH opens new dairy and announces unique cattle breeding programme

April 18, 2005

On Wednesday 13 April NFU President Mr Tim Bennett officially opened a state-of-the-art dairy facility at the Institute for Animal Health in Compton, Berkshire. Through the availability of the new unit, the Institute will be establishing a large herd of 'MHC-defined' cattle that will provide a powerful research tool, which will be as important for veterinary medicine as genetically defined mice are for studies of human diseases.

Acting Director Professor Martin Shirley, "Our new dairy is a world-class facility, which reflects our commitment to the mastery of infectious diseases through scientific discovery. The MHC-defined herd will bring a level of detail to our studies that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago, and a level of detail that researchers elsewhere in the world can only aspire to."

The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a set of highly variable genes found in all animals. They play a crucial role in protection against infectious disease. They are also involved in tissue and organ graft rejection, so they have been studied in great detail in human medicine.

Immunologist Dr Shirley Ellis explained, "We have developed a simple blood test to 'tissue type' our dairy herd. This has allowed us to develop a group of animals that carry very well-characterised MHC genes. We can also use this method to study MHC diversity in different cattle populations. This information could act as a type of early warning system, allowing some predictions of how robust animals and populations will be from an immunological point of view. This information may indicate how well animals will deal with outbreaks of infectious diseases such as foot and mouth disease."

"By knowing our herd's genetics we will have a better idea of how they will respond to infection or vaccination, which means that fewer animals will be used in research," said Dr Ellis.

NFU President Mr Tim Bennett said, "I was delighted to be asked to open this new facility. I am a great believer that research and development is core to maintaining a world class business. We need innovation, and we need farmers to understand the value of research, such as that carried out at the IAH."

"2005 is going to be the most important year for UK farming since World War II. The recent CAP reforms are changing the way we look at our business, and this makes R&D such as this more important for farming to stay competitive."

Institute for Animal Health

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