Moredun Mobile Laboratory

The new Moredun Mobile Laboratory

The new Moredun mobile laboratory and outreach bus (BioBus) has been busy out and about since Covid restrictions were eased and allowed events to go ahead. It has been a great success with staff and visitors alike and has had some VIP visitors, including HRH The Princess Royal at the Scottish Game Fair.

Orkney

The first outing with the BioBus was to Orkney on 24th to 27th August, for a range of roles which showed how versatile it is.

Research bus: Moredun scientists, Clare Hamilton, Eleanor Watson, Nuno Silva and Scott Hamilton accompanied Lee Innes and Beth Wells to several farms on Orkney to sample geese, cattle and sheep to further our

Mobile lab in Caithness.

Dr Nuno Silva and Dr Clare Hamilton collecting samples.

Dr Eleanor Watson and Scott Hamilton collecting samples on farm. work on the Orkney Goose Project, working with farmers and policy makers to establish the risk of disease transmission from geese to livestock and people. Here the bus was crucial for the ability to keep samples cool until they were transported back to Moredun.

Equine Grass Sickness outreach bus: That evening, Lee Innes and Beth Wells attended a meeting at the Orkney Riding Centre to raise awareness of the EGS project and biobank with horse owners and vets. Orkney has a history of EGS cases so this meeting was well attended and the bus was an ideal way to show people how the project has progressed and how they can contribute.

Knowledge Exchange bus: The next day we attended a drop-in event at Orkney Auction Mart, organised with the Orkney Livestock Association, who are Moredun associate members. The bus was in KE mode for this and we had useful discussions with farmers, vets and policy colleagues, particularly on the Orkney Goose Project.

Meeting bus: That evening the bus was in meeting mode with NorthVets, one of the Orkney vets practices, to discuss sheep health. The main topics were OPA and toxoplasmosis, but the Orkney Goose Project was also discussed with a large audiences of farmers and vets present.

Westmorland Show near Kendal, Cumbria

Parasite bus: The next event for the bus saw Lee Innes, Beth Wells, Dave Bartley and Philip Skuce head to Cumbria for a two-day county show (8th and 9th September). The bus featured The Visible and Invisible (parasites of sheep) which included posters, hand-

Westmorland Show.

outs, animations and a pop-up lab covering roundworms, liver fluke, ticks and sheep scab. We had a very productive two days, discussing parasite control with many farmers, vets and RAMAs, and also took part in an Access to Knowledge live interview with Elanco Animal Health at the show, featuring the bus and how we are using it to improve our KE channels. This was shown at a live event where Philip Skuce was part of a panel with TV presenter Adam Henson!

Education event at SSERC, Dunfermline

CPD bus: The BioBus was invited up to SSERC in Dunfermline by Dr Annie McRobbie, Biology Education Manager, for a CPD event involving secondary school teachers across Scotland. Lee Innes and Philip Skuce were there discussing some of Moredun’s educational resources involving food security and climate change topics and they were also joined by colleagues from SEFARI, QMS and RHET. The teachers really enjoyed the tour of the BioBus and there were several invitations to visit schools to engage the children in science activities.

Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace

Tick bus: As part of the GWCT central exhibit at the Game Fair (24th-26th September) the bus became a ‘tick’ bus, focusing on the project “The development of a new generation Louping Ill vaccine,” where GWCT are partners and the project was funded through them by Scottish Estate Owners. The first day of the Game Fair saw Lee Innes, Beth Wells and Mara Rocchi welcome HRH The Princess Royal on to the bus where she was very impressed with both the bus itself and the projects highlighted, which she discussed with her usual depth of knowledge and interest. Following HRH’s visit and throughout the rest of the Game Fair, we welcomed many policy makers, including MSP Mairi Gougeon, and many interested in the LIV vaccine for which there is a critical need within the grouse and hill sheep industries, including Estate owners, land managers, shepherds and gamekeepers. We also spoke to members of the public on tick, and particularly Lyme Disease, awareness where we were working in conjunction with the GWCT Education Area and ID Maps who are developing a Lyme App.

Farm Event at Firth Mains Farm

Event bus: The next event for the bus was at our on-farm event at Moredun’s Firth Mains Farm featuring ‘Farming technology - What is it good for?’ This included a morning workshop for Sm@RT Sheep, an EU project led by SRUC and involving Moredun’s Fiona Kenyon’s work on Innovation and Targeted Selective Treatment for roundworm control. In the afternoon, attending farmers got the opportunity to see some Precision Farming Tools in action, improving sheep production and welfare, and many of Moredun’s Fellows, postdocs and PhD students attended with an impressive array of posters depicting their research. The bus was again in action giving our bus sponsors, board members and regional advisors the opportunity to see round the bus with an eye to future partnership events.

HRH The Princess Royal visits Mobile Lab at Game Fair.

Dalehead Vets

The sheeb scab control project for England (funded by the Rural Development Programme for England, RDPE) involves the use of diagnostic testing with the Moredun sheep scab ELISA to identify infested flocks and target treatments within a farmer-led cluster based approach.

The project focuses on hot spot areas for sheep scab in England and covers: i) The South West (Devon & Cornwall); ii) The Midlands (Herefordshire & Shropshire) and iii) The North

Discussing sheep scab mites. Launch of the new farm vet building at Dalehead Vets.

(Cumbria, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and Northumberland) with an overall target of recruiting 300 farms (100 per region). As part of the efforts in the Northern region we took the Biobus to one of the veterinary practices in North Yorkshire (Dalehead Veterinary group in Settle) who are coordinating some of the farm clusters in this region. The timing was perfect as it coincided with the launch of their new farm vet building, which involved a hog roast, beer tent, fairground attractions, a plunge dipper for the vets and of course the BioBus. Despite the typical Yorkshire weather a great, engaging day was had by all with over 150 people attending on the day and lots of discussion about sheep scab and the RDPE project.