Animal Health

One of the great challenges of the current Animal Health is to preserve the welfare and health of the animals; monitor the production of healthy foods; prevent the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to humans; and monitor the emergence and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance genes. For this, it is necessary to develop vaccines and diagnostic tests that allow to control the prevalence of pathogens and avoid antibiotic treatments in animals. The Animal Health group of the IdAB is studying infectious diseases caused by viruses such as ovine Maedi Visna and Orf and by zoonotic bacteria such as Brucella or Salmonella, from different angles: immune response to the pathogen, genetic and antigenic characterization of the pathogen, virulence, efficacy, and other pathogen-host interactions. The team uses different microbiological and immunological techniques, and cellular and animal models, to generate transferable results.