This time last year, Stephen Gordon and I were furiously writing a grant for funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine (DAFM) for their National Research Call.
We hoped to get funding to work towards integrating whole genome sequencing into bovine tuberculosis surveillance in the Republic of Ireland.
I came up with the acronym BTBGENIE: Bovine TuBcuolosis GENomics IrEland. 😊
In December, Steve and I found out our grant was successful and in March this year the project has begun. There were lots of interesting projects funding across all sorts of fields (read about them here).
I’ve now moved on from working at UCD but hopefully I’ll still be involved.
We’ll sequence the whole genome of Mycobacterium bovis, a bacteria that causes bovine tuberculosis, from infected cattle and wildlife. Then, by comparing these genomes we’ll use there similarity to track transmission. More similar genomes, means there may have been a recent transmission event linking the animals.
By rolling out genome sequencing for bovine tuberculosis surveillance across Ireland, we’ll hopefully be able to track the sources of infection in a herd more efficiently. Answering questions like:
- Could the infection have come from wildlife living locally?
- Has the herd been infected with this strain before?
- Have any other herds in Ireland been infected with the same strain?
BTBGENIE will be a team effort, with researchers from all over Ireland:
- DAFM Central Veterinary Research Laboratory
- Queen’s University Belfast
- The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Northern Ireland
- University College Dublin
Keep a look out for our latest research! ðŸ”