Six to eight week old piglets that free of antibodies against recent emerging viruses will be inoculated with akabane virus, sagiyama virus and porcine circovirus 2, respectively. After inoculation, clinical signs will be observed and recorded, and the organs and blood samples will be collected to detect the viruses distribution and antibodies response of the inoculated and control piglegs. 

Being a member of WTO and OIE, we have to follow the regulations on the diagnosis and surveillance of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) and rabies. A nation-wide early warning system is urgently needed to prevent the invasion and spreading of TSE and rabies. The epidemiological will be accumulated and used for declaration of free nation. The ultimate goal of the project is to sustain the health of public and the prosperity of husbandry industry. We try to apply an ELISA test, Western immunoblot, histopathology and immunohistochemistry staining to diagnose the brain tissues collected from cattle, goat, sheep and deer showing central nervous system signs to detect the presence of abnormal prion protein for TSE suspected cases. We also sapmle cattle brains randomly from the abattoirs, M. tuberculosis-contaminated farms, and illegal slaughterhouse for the surveillance of BSE. In order to investigate the rabies vaccinated prevalence of dogs, we apply an ELISA test to detect the rabies antibody from the serum samples of domestic and stray dogs. Besides, we examined the brain tissues collected from suspected domestic and stray dogs by direct immunofluorescent technique, RT-PCR, histopathology, and immunohistochemistry staining to detect rabies virus antigen. 

For prevent highly pathogenic avian influenza, the proposal will be going on an avian influenza virological surveillance study, include isolation, subtyping and genomic analysis in migratory birds and market ducks in Taiwan. From above studies, we will try to realize the epidemiologic relationship about avian influenza from wild bird to domestic poultry.