The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is devoting $2.1 million to a Massachusetts research center that will lead a global effort to develop tools needed to create vaccines and tests for infectious animal diseases that threaten agriculture and the food supply.

According to a February 7 University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) press release, the project should accelerate the characterization and treatment of ailments such as mad cow disease and avian influenza through biological tools called reagents.

Reagents are substances used in chemical reactions to detect, measure, examine or produce other substances.

“Many diseases, in addition to being a health threat, have the potential to endanger global food supplies and national economies,” said Peter Johnson of the USDA national program for animal health.

The University of Massachusetts, Johnson added, “took the lead in recognizing the need to coordinate an international effort. It will provide critical tools that can be used immediately by scientists in their research areas.”

The new U.S. Veterinary Immune Reagent Network will coordinate efforts of the veterinary immunological research community as it addresses key obstacles to understanding how to best control and prevent animal diseases.

Work will focus on six economically important species and their relatives, such as cattle, poultry, horses, swine, catfish and salmonids (members of a fish family that include salmon and trout).

More than 40 scientists from universities, institutes, USDA labs and industry will participate in the research.

Mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and bird flu (avian influenza) have become familiar threats, but less well-known ills like infectious bursal disease in poultry and IHNV in trout cost nations millions of dollars each year.

To combat diseases of greatest concern to industry and agriculture, the network will consult with an international advisory board of scientists and industry stakeholders.

The scientists will decide which reagents should get immediate attention, said UMass veterinary immunologist Cynthia Baldwin, head of the new center.

A critical step in treating and preventing the spread of infectious diseases is to identify and characterize the relevant immunological reagents - compounds and molecules such as antibodies - that organisms use to fight disease.

“Cells have a multitude of molecules for fighting infectious diseases and these are relatively well understood in mice and humans, but that isn’t the case for many other animal species,” Baldwin said.

“Yet these reagents are necessary tools for understanding a disease’s pathology and developing treatment or prevention strategies,” she added.

The researchers will develop 20 reagents per species group. Many of the reagents developed will be stored in cell banks in the United States and Europe and marketed by commercial vendors, making them publicly accessible to as many researchers as possible.

Text of the UMass press release follows:

University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Press release 143-06, February 7, 2006

National Network to Help Prevent Animal Diseases, Protect Food Supply, Based at UMass Amherst

AMHERST, Mass. - The University of Massachusetts Amherst will be the lead research center in a global effort to develop the tools needed to create vaccines and tests for infectious animal diseases that threaten agriculture and the food supply. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that the project, led by UMass Amherst veterinary immunologist Cynthia Baldwin, should accelerate the characterization and treatment of a range of ailments such as mad cow disease and avian influenza.

“Many diseases, in addition to being a health threat, have the potential to endanger global food supplies and national economies,” said Peter Johnson of the USDA's national program for animal health. “UMass Amherst took the lead in recognizing the need to coordinate an international effort - it will provide critical tools that can be used immediately by scientists in their research areas.” The USDA is funding the initiative with a $2.1 million grant to develop these biological tools, known as reagents.

The new U.S. Veterinary Immune Reagent Network will coordinate the efforts of the veterinary immunological research community as it addresses key obstacles to understanding how to best control and prevent animal diseases. Work will focus on six economically important species and their relatives: cattle, poultry, horses, swine, catfish and salmonids. More than 40 scientists from universities, institutes, USDA labs and industry will participate in the research (see related lists).

While diseases such as mad cow and bird flu have become familiar threats, less well-known ills like infectious bursal disease in poultry and IHNV in trout cost the U.S. economy millions of dollars each year. To combat diseases that are of greatest concern to industry and agriculture, the network will consult with an international advisory board of scientists and industry stakeholders, including representatives from groups such as the Catfish Farmers of America and the National Milk Producers Federation.

The scientists will first decide which reagents should get immediate attention, said Baldwin. A critical step in treating and preventing the spread of infectious diseases is to identify and characterize the relevant immunological reagents - compounds and molecules such as antibodies - that organisms use to fight disease.

“Cells have a multitude of molecules for fighting infectious diseases and these are relatively well understood in mice and humans, but that isn’t the case for many other animal species,” said Baldwin. “Yet these reagents are necessary tools for understanding a disease’s pathology and developing treatment or prevention strategies.”

Monoclonal antibodies, for example, have long been an important tool in biomedical research. Scientists make monoclonal antibodies by fusing two kinds of cells: antibody-producing cells (antibodies are proteins in the body that seek out foreign invaders and help destroy them) and “immortal” cells - such as those from a tumor - that replicate continuously. By fusing these cells in the lab, scientists can make what is essentially an antibody factory. Monoclonal antibodies are used widely - among other things, they are a critical tool for vaccine development. While scientists have developed more than 250 such antibodies for research in humans and mice, there is only one each for trout and catfish, fewer than 20 for horses and chickens, and fewer than 60 for pigs and cattle.

The researchers intend to develop 20 reagents per species group. The network’s central lab will be at UMass Amherst and overseen by Baldwin. Scientists with expertise in each species group of interest will conduct research at labs across the country: horses at the University of Kentucky, trout at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Fisheries Research Center in Seattle, and swine at the USDA’s agricultural research station in Beltsville, Md.

Project coordinators designated for each species group will survey colleagues, getting existing reagents from labs that have them. Each group will submit genetic material specific to their animals to the central university lab at UMass Amherst. The material will then be cloned, and depending on the organism, reagents will be developed and tested by either the UMass Amherst central lab, the Wagner group at Cornell University, or the species specialist labs.

Many of the reagents developed will be stored in cell banks in the U.S. and Europe and marketed by commercial vendors, making them publicly accessible to as many researchers as possible.

“The fruits of this work will not only benefit a large group of researchers such as veterinary immunologists, pathologists and microbiologists, but will help protect the food supply and the public by improving our capabilities to control and prevent the spread of infectious disease,” said Baldwin.

“UMass Amherst has a long tradition of excellence in agricultural and veterinary research,” said Chancellor John V. Lombardi. “This funding recognizes that tradition. We are proud to play such a prominent role in this important endeavor.”