Name of the infrastructure:

Aarhus University (AU)

Faculty of Agricultural Sciences

Department of Animal Health and Bioscience

Laboratory involved: Laboratory of Chicken Immunology

Address:

Blichers Alle 20

8830 Tjele

Denmark

Research topics

Immunogenetics, cellular immunology, experimental immunology, vaccinology, disease resistance

Access contact person
Helle R. Juul-Madsen, Senior Scientist

Helle.JuulMadsen@agrsci.dk

Activities and services

We have excellent experimental animal and housing facilities in all species. In addition to the housing facilities for experimental animals, the Department has access to “intensive” barn units and a slaughter unit for detailed studies.

Our laboratories are functionally divided into analytical chemistry, metabolism laboratory, biochemistry, cell biology, endocrinology and qualitative gene expression, immunology and haematology, clinical chemistry, proteome laboratory and microbiology. At the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Foulum there is a well-equipped library with access to relevant data-bases. Meeting rooms, office buildings etc. are also of high standard.

The challenge facilities consist of one unit under negative pressure where 10 isolators are placed in two rooms with a laboratory in between and one infection barn divided into four rooms. The former may be used for virus-challenged experiments and the latter for bacterial and helminths-challenged experiments. It will be possible to hire experienced technical staff.
Aarhus_isolator-450px

Aarhus University

Description of the access to provide

Within the framework of NADIR Transnational Access, we could provide 2 access.

• Unit of access: 2 months
• Unit cost: 47,000 EURO

Available protocols:

• Inbred and partly inbred chicken lines available at the unit: http://www.agrsci.dk/media/webdav/filer/sve/smf/inbred_or_partly_inbred_chicken_lines_at_dias_2004
• Measurement of the acute phase protein Mannose Binding Lectin (MBL): http://www.agrsci.dk/media/webdav/filer/sve/smf/measurement_of_the_acute_phase_protein
• Haplotyping the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC): http://www.agrsci.dk/media/webdav/filer/sve/smf/genetic_resistance

Number of participants accepted:
2 participants

Travel and subsistence costs

• Travel by flight: approx. 800 EURO
• Accommodation: approx. 400 – 600 EURO
• Subsistence: approx. 400 EURO

Conditions of participant involvement

After the end of each project the candidate will:

• Submit a short report
• Fill a questionnaire available on-line at: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/capacities/questionnaire_en.html
• The participant is entitled to publish the results of its work at the infrastructure in the open literature.All publications resulting from the project should acknowledge this EC-support by mentioning : “The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community‘s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 228394”
• Proprietary research (research where results are not generally available to the public or only made available under confidentiality arrangements) cannot be supported.
• Travel and subsistence expenses linked to the access will be reimbursed upon approval of the report. Reimbursements will be done according to administrative rules of each hosting organisation.
• For more information about transnational access conditions, see the ANNEX III to the Grant Agreement - Infrastructures
• In addition, guests will only be able to book the facilities if nobody else has already booked the them. Once facilities are booked there will be a binding agreement.

Infrastructure ethical rules

Scientific projects involving invasion of live organisms must always be subjected to strict ethical control, especially projects like the present one, where animals are infected with disease. In order to reduce the number of animals involved in the experiments, the lowest number of animals justifying statistical evaluation will be used.

In order to minimize experimental distress, the experiments are performed under optimal conditions (e.g. bedding, temperature regulation) and the normal social behaviour of the animals is maintained (e.g. rooting, social contact). All animals are closely monitored during the experiments, clinical signs will be recorded. Animals will be euthanized if reaching the humane end-points which have been defined in the application for the experimental study and consequently approved by the Animal Experiments Veterinarian at the infrastructure. All experiments are supervised by educated animal caretakers and a veterinarian is available for assistance.

In the present project, ethics is considered very important, and all key scientists and barn staff are specially educated in the use of experimental animals in order to limit pain and discomfort, and all experiments are supervised by a veterinarian. The planned techniques are accepted by the Danish Experimental Animal Inspectorate and new techniques will be presented to the Council as soon as possible.

Recent publications

• H.R. Juul-Madsen, L.R. Norup, K.J. Handberg, and P H. Jørgensen 2007. Mannan-Binding Lectin (MBL) Serum Concentrations in relation to Propagation of Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) in chickens. Viral Immunology 20: 562-570 (DOI: 10.1089/vim.2007.0036).
• Norup L.R., Jensen K.H., Jørgensen E., Sørensen P., and Juul-Madsen H.R 2008. Effect of mild heat stress and mild infection pressure on immune response to an E. Coli infection in chickens. Animal 2: 265-274.(DOI: 10.1017/S1751731107001097).
• Norup, L.R., Dalgaard, T. S., Friggens, N., Sørensen, P., Juul-Madsen, H. R. 2009. Influence of chicken serum mannose-binding lectin levels on the immune response towards Escherichia coli. Poult Sci. 88(3):543-53. (DOI:10.3382/ps.2008-00431).
• Juul-Madsen H.R. Jensen K.H., and Damgaard B.M. 2009. Ontogeny and characterisation of lymphocyte subset and serum proteins in piglets. Vet. Immun Immunpathol. DOI: 10.1016/j.vetimm.2009.07.006.
• Dalgaard T., Bøving M., Handberg K., Jensen K., Liselotte L., Juul-Madsen H.R. 2009. MHC expression on spleen lymphocyte subsets in genetically resistant and susceptible chickens infected with Marek’s Disease virus. Viral Immunology 22 (5): 321-327. DOI: 10.1089/vim.2009.0033.
• Dalgaard T.S., Norup L.R., Rubbenstroth D., Wattrang E., and Juul-Madsen H.R., 2009. Establishment of a carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) based method for flow cytometric analysis of antigen-specific proliferation of chicken T cells. Manuscript submitted to Vet. Immun Immunpathol.