Location: Research Programs
2019 Annual Report
Objectives
Obj. 1. Develop CCHF virus diagnostic tests for early detection and surveillance of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus including development of viral detection methods for ticks and viral detection methods for cattle, sheep, and goats. Comp. 1: Problem Statement 1A
Obj. 2. Determine mechanisms of CCHF transmission including development of CCHF tick and animal infection methods and CCHF tick-animal transmission models. Comp.1: Problem Statement 1A
Approach
The goal of National Program 103 (NP 103), Animal Health, is to protect and ensure the safety of the Nation’s agriculture and food supply through improved disease detection, prevention, and control. Basic and applied research approaches will be applied to solve animal health problems of high national priority. The National Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF) will take over the mission of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) and be the ARS lead facility for Foreign Animal Disease research. NBAF will 1) provide solutions to problems associated with the control, eradication, and recovery of foreign and emerging diseases, and 2) maintain a portfolio of expertise that will allow ARS to rapidly respond to new and unforeseen disease threats.
Progress Report
Funds were transferred via a temporary funds transfer to the Foreign Animal Diseases Research Unit to support the following specific projects (as listed herein). Agreements were established to achieve these objectives.
Project Number 8064-32000-060-00D, African Swine Fever
Project Number 8064-32000-061-00D, Foot-and-Mouth Disease
Project Number 8064-32000-059-00D, Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (vector-borne diseases)
Animal Health projects include:
African swine fever (ASF): Enhanced Objective for Project Number 8064-32000-060-00D.
Objective 2. Develop intervention strategies to control ASFV, including identify functional genomics of virus-host determinants of virulence and transmission, determining host mechanisms of ASF immune protection, determining host mechanisms of ASF disease tolerance in wild suids, discovering effective ASF vaccine platforms specifically designed for disease control and eradication, identifying the immune mechanism mediating effective homologous and heterologous protection against virus infection, researching potential antigenic vaccine markers to differentiate infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA), and identifying host cell factors that contribute to ASFV growth in cell culture conditions to inform the development of a cell line for ASFV vaccine production.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and Nipah virus disease
New Objectives for project:
Objective 1. Develop CCHF virus diagnostic tests for the early detection and surveillance of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus including the development of viral detection methods for ticks and viral detection methods for cattle, sheep, and goats.
Objective 2. Determine mechanisms of CCHF transmission including the development of CCHF tick and animal infection methods and CCHF tick-animal transmission models.
Objective 3. Develop Nipah virus diagnostic tests for the early detection and surveillance including the development of viral detection methods for pigs.
Objective 4. Determine mechanisms of Nipah virus transmission including the development of CCHF tick and animal infection methods and CCHF tick-animal transmission models.
Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD): Enhanced Objectives for Project Number 8064-32000-061-00D.
Objective 1. Develop intervention strategies to control and eradicate FMDV, including the discovery of vaccine platforms that will provide cross-protective immunity against different FMDV subtypes, determining mechanisms mediating duration of immunity, discovering biotherapeutic platforms that address rapid onset of immunity as a companion to an effective FMDV vaccine, discovering products to control/abrogate FMDV persistence, and developing vaccine formulations and delivery targeting the mucosal immune responses.
Objective 2. Elucidate the host-pathogen interactions of FMDV, including identifying viral determinants of FMDV that control virulence in susceptible hosts, determining virus/host interactions associated with FMDV persistence, determining the mechanisms of protective immunity to FMDV, investigating virus-host interactions at the primary sites of infection in ruminants and pigs with focus on factors defining tropism and early host responses, and determining characteristics and mechanisms of FMDV within-hot evolution over distinct phases of infection.
Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV): Enhanced Objective for Project Number 8064-32000-059-00D.
Objective 1. Ascertain the viral ecology of disease and factors mediating the emergence of VSV, including the characterizing epidemiological factors associated with the maintenance of disease in endemic versus non-endemic settings (ABADRU) and (FADRU), determining the environmental conditions that influence vector dominance in endemic versus non-endemic settings, and identifying environmental-vector interactions responsible for the emergence of viral infections in new geographical locations.
Accomplishments
