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GERMANY - Prof. Hans Nauwynck, Prof. Joaquim Segalés, Danja Wiederkehr together and Dr. Xaver Sidler are the first ever winners of the European PCV2 Research Award
Initiated and sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, the awards were recently presented to the award winners by Prof. Maurice Pensaert, former head of the Laboratory of Virology of the Ghent University and Dr. Gerald Behrens from Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, at an official ceremony at the pharmaceutical company's global headquarters in Ingelheim, Germany.
The award honours convincing proposals for research projects in the area of applied immunological PCV2 research. The winning research projects outlines were:
- A new approach for the set up of a reproducible model of PMWS2 in pigs(Prof. Hans Nauwynck, Ghent University, Belgium). PMWS in pigs is characterized by poor growth (wasting) and increased mortality. To date it is not possible to induce these clinical signs by artificial infection with PCV2 in a reproducible model. With his work Hans Nauwynck aims to close this gap.
- The impact of genetic diversity of PCV2 isolates on vaccine efficacy (Prof. Joaquim Segalés, University of Barcelona and CReSA, Spain). Joaquim Segalés is going to investigate if a novel one-shot PCV2 piglet vaccine protects against both recently described types of PCV2, genotype 1 and 2.
- The differences in pathogenicity of Porcine Circovirus type 2 (PCV2) subgenotypes in Switzerland (Danja Wiederkehr and Dr. Xaver Sidler, Vetsuisse University, Zuerich, Switzerland). Danja Wiederkehr and Xaver Sidler try to identify which parts of the PCV2 genome are responsible for disease expression.
European Porcine Circovirus (PCV2) Research Award
This annual PCV2 Research Award offers, in total, 75,000€;. Three prizes of 25,000€ each are granted to European researchers who convince the independent jury with their outline of innovative research approaches in the field of swine immunology to explore Porcine Circovirus Disease (PCVD).
With the award Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health aims to promote further scientific progress to better understand and ultimately control this devastating swine disease.
The European PCV2 Award has an independent judging panel with leading European scientists in applied porcine research. They review the entries and decide upon the winning proposals. The panel is chaired by Professor emeritus Maurice Pensaert from the Laboratory of Veterinary Virology at the University of Ghent in Belgium.