IZSAM hosts "PALE-Blu" project

The 3rd “PALE-Blu - Understanding pathogen, livestock, environmental  interactions involving bluetongue” project meeting has been held on 25th and 26th September 2019 at the Hotel Cristallo in Giulianova. Over 50 delegates from 19 project partners coming from 14 different Countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Morocco, Netherlands, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey and UK) joined the event.

During the two meeting days, project partners shared the intermediate results reached into different work packages, and presented the outcomes of the ongoing researches.

Moreover, the Consortium experts discussed about factors influencing the BTV’s transmission and spread, including its interactions between virus, animals and hosts, and on the latest advances on laboratory diagnosis.

The Institute, the only Italian project partner and the meeting organiser, contributed also with the presentation titled “Bluetongue in Italy: we can’t let our guard down” given by Dr. Giovanni Savini, Head of Laboratory of Animal Health and of the OIE Reference Laboratory for BT.

The main project objective, financed by the HORIZON 2020 Programme (the UE initiative focused on Research and Innovation projects), is to analyse the interactions between the Bluetongue virus, the “host” ruminants and the “vector” insects with high relevance in the European ecosystem.

The project focuses on both genetic and environmental factors (including the distribution of different insect species and populations) able to influence the virus replication and transmission and, consequently, the diffusion, spread and control of different strains into the interested Regions.

PALE-Blu aims also at elaborating the most effective control strategies thanks to advanced analysis models, more accurate diagnostic tools, better vaccines and antivirals.

More details are available on the project website www.paleblu.eu e on Twitter @PALEBluH2020.