Veterinarians need a quick, flexible way to deal with current and emerging disease challenges, and custom vaccines and diagnostics offer that tool. At Cambridge Technologies, research scientists work alongside the diagnosticians as they explore new technologies and practices to keep the company, and thus our customers, at the forefront of herd health solutions.
Part of our research work is to monitor trends, strain variability and new diseases as they emerge in the animal population of the people we serve.
Influenza D
The discovery of the Influenza D virus, which was first identified and characterized by our own Dr. Ben Hause and colleagues, and its application in creating new technologies for animal health products is one important area we are developing right now.
Dr. Hause explains some of the implications below:
“While influenza D virus was first identified in swine, subsequent research demonstrated that it is a common bovine pathogen. Results from several research groups have shown that influenza D virus is part of the bovine respiratory disease complex. Commercial BRD vaccines have changed little over the past several decades and despite their widespread usage, the incidence of BRD continues to increase. The finding of a novel pathogen with a demonstrated etiological role in BRD provides a potential path for the development of new vaccines to improve animal health.”
Recent published research by Dr. Hause
- An inactivated influenza D virus vaccine partially protects cattle from respiratory disease caused by homologous challenge.
- Senecavirus A in Pigs, United States, 2015.
- Metagenomic characterization of the virome associated with bovine respiratory disease in feedlot cattle identified novel viruses and suggests an etiologic role for influenza D virus.
- Discovery of a novel Parvovirinae virus, porcine parvovirus 7, by metagenomic sequencing of porcine rectal swabs.
- Discovery of a novel putative atypical porcine pestivirus in pigs in the USA.
- Characterization of a novel influenza virus in cattle and Swine: proposal for a new genus in the Orthomyxoviridae family.
- Isolation of a novel swine influenza virus from Oklahoma in 2011 which is distantly related to human influenza C viruses.