Accolade awarded to British scientist

- Published: 31 August, 2007

A British scientist has been honoured for his work in reducing the number of animals used in experiments on dangerous infections in both farm animals and people.

Professor Mark Stevens of the Institute for Animal Health has been awarded the 2007 Intervet Dieter Lütticken Award for his work on bacteria that cause gastroenteritis. Stevens and his colleagues, at the Institute's Compton laboratory near Newbury, are identifying what makes some types of salmonella and E.coli cause the stomach bug.

The number of animals tested has been reduced because of surgical techniques developed within the Institute for Animal Health, which speed up the identification of bacterial factors that play a role in the production of diarrhoea.

Stevens accepted the award on 24 August in Tokyo, during the sixth World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the

Life Sciences. He said: "By

implementing novel methods throughout our portfolio of

research we believe we have

contributed significantly to the development of veterinary medicines with minimal use of animals in our experiments."