New £40m animal vaccine centre to be established in Surrey

The new centre will draw on Pirbright’s expertise to accelerate the delivery of vaccines for livestock diseases
The new centre will draw on Pirbright’s expertise to accelerate the delivery of vaccines for livestock diseases

A £40 million animal health vaccine centre will soon open in Surrey with an aim to stop new zoonotic diseases before they put people at risk.

The creation of the UK Animal Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre is to develop vaccines to prevent animal-borne diseases that spread to humans.

Three in every four new human diseases originate in animals and these diseases are emerging at an increasing rate.

Controlling zoonotic diseases is a key element of the government’s new plan for preventing future pandemics.

The centre, which has received the backing of bodies including the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will be established at the Pirbright Institute campus in Surrey.

It will draw on Pirbright’s expertise to accelerate the delivery of vaccines for livestock diseases, which pose a risk to people if they mutate to become transmissible to humans.

The centre will rapidly assess promising new technologies in the field, and develop and test novel vaccines for emerging diseases.

Pirbright played a role in the UK-led fight against Covid-19 through its support for the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine, by using an established pig model to test immune responses to the vaccine.

Two devastating global diseases - smallpox and rinderpest - were eradicated using vaccines developed by British scientists.

Professor Bryan Charleston, director of Pirbright said: “There is a global unmet need to accelerate the development of vaccines from the laboratory to provide effective products for livestock keepers to control disease in their animals.

"Preventing disease by vaccination will help secure food supplies and so improve human health and welfare."

The new vaccine centre is part of the Carbis Bay declaration, which sets out the steps G7 countries will take to prevent a future pandemic.