Globally, around 32 percent of global human-induced methane emissions come from livestock, mainly from enteric fermentation and manure management systems. Recent meta-analysis identified that the main intervention to reduce enteric methane production is by direct impacting methanogenic Archaea in the rumen that produce it. Vaccines offer a great potential since they don’t require direct and frequent access to the animals. However, with vaccination, we are faced with diverse problems, the main one being our lack of understanding if and how rumen microorganisms, and more specifically methanogenic archaea, are detected and potentially controlled by the immune system of the animal. The rumen and the large intestine of ruminants are quickly colonized during and after birth by methanogenic archaea and the processes occurring during this colonization over the first weeks of life are critical to understand their recognition by the developing immune system of the animal. This major gap of knowledge needs to be closed before we can fully develop an immunization strategy.

Mycoplasma Hyopneumoniae (M.hyop) is a major worldwide pathogen in the pig industry that is the cause of enzootic pneumonia. Current vaccines are all based on inactivated or subunit approaches but fail to prevent circulation of the pathogen. Evidence from vaccines to other Mycoplasma species, e.g. M.gallisepticum vaccines in chickens suggests that live vaccines can be extremely effective at preventing disease spread. Barriers towards implementation of this type of vaccine for M.hyop include the lack of suitable strains that are sufficiently immunogenic without causing disease. One solution to this problem would be identification genes which contribute towards the pathogenesis of the bacteria as a basis to identify strains suitable to form the basis for new vaccines.

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease due to motile Spirochete bacteria. All vertebrates can be infected with pathogenic Leptospira species, such as Leptospira interrogans (L.i) that is responsible for the more severe forms of disease. Different mammals present various disease symptoms and susceptibility, which is puzzling and not understood. For example, rats and mice are asymptomatic renal carriers of leptospires, cattle suffer morbidity and abortions, whereas humans and hamsters can die from acute leptospirosis. Prevalence of leptospirosis is high in tropical and subtropical areas, and in low-income countries with poor sanitation, where seasonal rains and global warming favor the dissemination of leptospires via contaminated sewage. Despite its health and economic burden, leptospirosis is a reemerging neglected disease, but it is not even cited as such by the WHO.

This project will generate corneal stromal tissue in the laboratory to pave the way to the development of an artificial cornea for future disease modelling and clinical transplantation into injured and diseased dog eyes to restore vision. . Corneal diseases are one of the most common debilitating source of visual loss that may lead to permanent blindness in humans as well as in animals. 

Researchers at the RVC and Oxford University are leading an innovative research project funded by the Wellcome Trust to determine the structure and function of a parasite-derived protein complex resulting in malaria progression.

Scientists are testing the efficacy of novel vaccines that can be easily administered to farmed fish without the need for highly trained personnel and specialist equipment. Over 30 species are currently farmed, including tilapia and Pangasius (Vietnamese catfish also known as Tra catfish). These fish species are farmed in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and provide an important source of revenue for many low-income families, supplying both the domestic and export market.

The SweetAnimal project studies the presence of sugar-binding receptors in the genomes of a variety of farmed animals, how these differ between species, what ligands expressed on pathogens they bind, and how this information can be used to develop carbohydrate-based vaccines.