Previous projects

Please select a project below to view more detail.

    2009

  1. Academia, industry and the NHS: collaboration and innovation
  2. Rejuvenating ageing research
  3. Genome-wide association studies: understanding the genetics of common disease
  4. Global health diagnostics: research, development and regulation
  5. Biotechnology innovation: opportunities and challenges
  6. Research in general practice

    7. 2008

  7. Global mental health
  8. Brain science, addiction and drugs
  9. Inter-species embryos
  10. Building clinical academic capacity and the allocation of resources across academic specialties

    11. 2007

  11. Optimising stratified medicines R&D: addressing scientific and economic issues
  12. Identifying the environmental causes of disease
  13. Careers for biomedical scientists and clinicians in industry
  14. Modernising medical careers inquiry
  15. Systems biology

    16. 2006

  16. Personal data for public good: using health information in medical research
  17. Use of non-human primates in research
  18. Pandemic influenza
  19. Science of violence
  20. Reform of research funding and assessment
  21. Public health - ethical issues
  22. Sir David Cooksey's review of UK health research
  23. Medical research: assessing the benefits to society
  24. Research ethics committees
  25. MB PhD working group
  26. Testing antibody therapies

    27. 2005

  27. Safer Medicines
  28. Human tissue consultations
  29. RAE 2008 Consultation: Panel criteria and methods
  30. The freedom to succeed
  31. Mental Capacity Bill
  32. Strengthening health services research
  33. SARS
  34. Microbial challenge studies

    35. 2004

  35. Detection and identification of infectious disease
  36. The science of ageing
  37. Choosing health
  38. Restoring neurological function
  39. Calling time: the nation's drinking as a major health issue
  40. Science spending
  41. Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
  42. Human tissue legislation

    43. 2003

  43. Strengthening clinical research

    44. 2002

  44. Unclaimed and unidentified organs
  45. Infectious disease in livestock
  46. The structure, constitution and governance of the General Medical Council

    47. 2001

  47. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE)
  48. Vaccines - current status and future needs
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Infectious disease in livestock

Summary| Working Group Membership| Project Downloads

Summary:

The Academy's response to the Royal Society Inquiry into Infectious Diseases In Livestock focussed on the following areas:

  • The list of diseases for consideration by the Inquiry is severely limited. They are all viral, include none with a zoonotic component and none which are treatable with antibiotics. We would favour augmenting this list with a parasitic/bacterial infection.
  • Whether and how disease free status can be achieved and maintained can be determined by scientific study but the desirability and practicality of doing so will be heavily influenced by political and economic considerations.
  • Surveillance is the key to the control of infectious disease that has “the potential for very serious and rapid spread”.
  • Changes can occur in the virulence of micro-organisms, and disease resulting from such changes is not easy to predict. The identification of novel agents requires clinical awareness and a good, centrally co-ordinated, reporting system.
  • Future control methods should take into account improved vaccines and therapeutic opportunities and changes in practices since the last outbreak - particularly the increased movement of livestock and people.
  • Urgent consideration should be given to determining strategic national needs in terms of the academic/scientific/industrial research base to deal with a variety of threats including those of infectious disease in the nation’s livestock.

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Working Group Membership:

Sir Peter Lachmann FRS FMedSci
Former President, Academy of Medical Sciences

Professor Peter Biggs CBE FRS FMedSci
Director, Institute for Animal Health

Sir Leszek Borysiewicz FMedSci
Principal, Imperial College School of Medicine

Professor Lance Lanyon CBE FMedSci
Principal, Royal Veterinary College

Professor Geoffrey Smith FMedSci
Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow & Professor of Virology, Imperial College London

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Project Downloads:

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