Research Focus: From coronavirus in cats to the decline in childhood vaccine uptake

Researchers from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute have been looking into cross-species transmission of coronaviruses which pose a serious threat to animal and human health.

Companion animals are often overlooked in the transmission cycle of viral diseases, however, the close relationship of feline and canine coronaviruses to human ones, as well as their susceptibility to the virus highlight their importance in potential transmission cycles.

In this paper, researchers report emergence of a novel, highly pathogenic feline coronavirus recombinant responsible for a rapidly spreading outbreak of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), originating in Cyprus.

Infection has rapidly spread, infecting cats of all ages. Development of FIP appears very frequent and sequence identities of samples from cats in different districts of the island is strongly supportive of direct transmission.

Citation: Attipa C, Warr AS, Epaminondas D, O'Shea M, Hanton AJ, Fletcher S, Malbon A, Lyraki M, Hammond R, Hardas A, Zanti A, Loukaidou S, Gentil M, Gunn-Moore D, Lycett SJ, Mazeri S, Tait-Burkard C. Nature. 2025 Jul 9. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09340-0. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40633571.

Researchers from the School of Chemistry with collaborators in Germany explored how gut bacteria help protect against infections by studying a worm called Caenorhabditis elegans and a helpful bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens MYb115. This bacterium protects the worm from another harmful bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

The team discovered that this protection relies on molecules called sphingolipids (SLs), which the bacterium produces through a unique process. Normally SLs are found in more complex organisms and some bacteria with specific enzymes, but this bacterium uses a different enzyme to produce them.

In summary, the study shows how certain gut bacteria help protect hosts by producing specific molecules that strengthen the host's immune response.

Citation: Peters L, Drechsler M, Herrera MA, Liu J, Pees B, Jarstorff J, Czerwinski A, Lubbock F, Angelidou G, Salzer L, Moors KA, Paczia N, Shi YM, Schulenburg H, Kaleta C, Witting M, Liebeke M, Campopiano DJ, Bode HB, Dierking K. Nat Commun. 2025 Jun 3;16(1):5151. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60234-1. PMID: 40461452; PMCID: PMC12134224.

Researchers from the School of Physics and Astronomy have been studying the SIRS epidemic model which is a mathematical model used to describe the spread of infectious diseases in a population where individuals can lose immunity and become susceptible again.

Case numbers of infectious diseases often oscillate. Sometimes there are obvious external drivers for these oscillations, like the seasonal influenza cycle; but others, like 3-monthly cycles observed in Covid, have no obvious cause. 

In this study, researchers simulated a basic infection model on a lattice, finding inherent oscillations, whose time scale is controlled by a slow return of susceptibility following temporary immunity. This model could explain how some real diseases oscillate without apparent external drivers.

Citation: Marenduzzo D, Brown AT, Miller CW, Ackland GJ. J Theor Biol. 2025 Aug 21;611:112169. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2025.112169. Epub 2025 Jun 16. PMID: 40516909.

Researchers from Child Life and Health at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and the Centre for Inflammation Research have found that the vaccination of pregnant women has been linked to a drop in newborns being admitted to hospital with a serious lung infection.

They found the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, introduced across the UK in late summer 2024, led to a 72 per cent reduction in babies hospitalised with the virus if mothers were vaccinated.

The findings are the first to show the real-world effectiveness of the vaccine in pregnant women in the UK.

The study suggest that uptake of the jab among pregnant women could help to limit the number of sick babies each winter, reducing hospital pressures.

Citation: Williams TC, Marlow R, Cunningham S, Drysdale SB, Groves HE, Hunt S, Iskander D, Liu X, Lyttle MD, Mpamhanga CD, O'Hagan S, Waterfield T, Roland D; PERUKI & BronchStart Collaboration. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2025 Jul 18:S2352-4642(25)00155-5. doi: 10.1016/S2352-4642(25)00155-5. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40690922.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with co-authors from Kenya and South Africa explored how well six existing risk scores can predict mortality in children presenting to hospital with acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRIs) at Kenya setting. 

Researchers retrospectively looked at a cohort of young children hospitalised with severe ALRIs in Kilifi County Referral Hospital, Kenya and assessed the performance of those risk scores. 

They found that the RISC-Malawi (MUAC) score showed the highest discrimination for the in-hospital mortality whilst all other scores showed acceptable discrimination. Their results can be used to inform future studies of improving risk scores which should also look at other aspects of score performance, such as calibration, clinical utility and feasibility, with the overall goal of implementation that results in a decrease in childhood ALRIs mortality.

Citation: Gordon B, Nyiro JU, Nair H, Sheikh Z, Katama E, Agoti CN, Pei R, Zar H, Shi T. J Infect Dis. 2025 Jul 22:jiaf377. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiaf377. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40692486.

A major infectious cause of pregnancy-loss for sheep is ovine enzootic abortion which can be controlled through vaccination. 

Researchers at Moredun Research Institute have evaluated the effectiveness of three different vaccines formulated with one of three adjuvants (Montanide ISA 70VG, Montanide ISA 61VG, and QuilA). The two low-dose Montanide formulated vaccines resulted in low abortion rates.

By measuring pregnancy outcomes, immunological and pathological features in a vaccine-challenge trial, the team have concluded that Montanide adjuvants were most protective of those tested.

Citation: Livingstone M, Aitchison K, Palarea-Albaladejo J, Caspe SG, Underwood C, Hill H, Cunnea C, Stronach K, Chianini F, Entrican G, Wattegedera SR, Longbottom D. Vaccines (Basel). 2025 Jun 5;13(6):609. doi: 10.3390/vaccines13060609. PMID: 40573940; PMCID: PMC12197603.

Researchers from the Institute of Ecology and Evolution and the Moredun Research Institute looked into how living in crowded conditions affects parasite exposure in wild sheep. They found that sheep in densely populated areas had higher parasite counts, but this was mostly true for younger sheep and less so for adults. Interestingly, one type of parasite was actually less common in crowded conditions for all ages.

The study showed that simply looking at the overall population size doesn’t explain much about infection risk. Instead, it’s more insightful to measure how crowded specific areas are within the population. This local crowding can have different and sometimes opposite effects compared to looking at the entire population size. Understanding these local density effects could help us learn more about disease spread.

In this paper, researchers from the Global Health Policy Unit in the School of Social and Political Science outline how vaccine coverage in England has followed a downward trend since 2012-13, which coincides with a harsh period of austerity that generated system-wide reform and pressures on families.

Researchers are optimistic about the UK Government's investment in the 'Best Start' approach, which may enhance vaccine access through health visiting. 

While this indicates potential to improve what works for parents, system fragmentation will persist if funding is directed to Best Start pathways but scaled back in other arms of the immunisation system.

Citation: Kasstan-Dabush B, Chantler T, Bedford H. BMJ. 2025 Jul 21;390:r1500. doi: 10.1136/bmj.r1500. PMID: 40691007.