A leading horse charity has teamed up with genome researchers in a bid to beat the equine disease strangles.

A leading horse charity has teamed up with genome researchers in a bid to beat the equine disease strangles.

The Home of Rest for Horses, in Buckinghamshire, has financed a £250,000 project to decode all the genes in Streptococcus equi, the bacterium that causes strangles. Strangles is one of the most common respiratory diseases in horses worldwide.

The idea to sequence the genome originally came after discussions among a group of scientists, including Professor Duncan Maskell, of Cambridge University's Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, and colleagues from the Animal Health Trust at Newmarket and the University of Newcastle.

The sequencing project will take place at the Sanger Centre, near Cambridge, which is a world-leading centre for genome research.

The funding by the Home of Rest for Horses is the largest grant in its 100-year history for a single one-year project. It is hoped that the gene-sequencing work on the bacterium will result in a better understanding of how it works, eventually leading the way to developing an effective vaccine against the disease.

Professor Maskell said: "This is an excellent example of how completely up-to-date technologies can be applied to the understanding of a veterinary problem. The Home of Rest for Horses should be congratulated for their vision and willingness to devote a substantial portion of their funds to this kind of cutting-edge basic research."

Further information:
Prof. D.J. Maskell. Tel: 44-1223-39868; E-mail: djm47@cam.ac.uk
Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine
The Sanger Centre
Home of Rest for Horses


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