School of Infection & Immunity

The Centre for Virus Research's Dr Yasmin Parr has been awarded the 2021 European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCD) Young Scientist Award, funded by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health.

The ABCD is an independent panel of 16 leading veterinarians from 11 European countries, with an expertise in immunology, vaccinology and/or feline medicine, set up to compile guidelines for the prevention and management of major feline infectious diseases in Europe, based on current scientific knowledge.

Dr Parr was recognised for her PhD work 'Distinguishing FeLV regressively and progressively infected cats' and said: "In our study, we measured the humoral response in naturally exposed cats using a novel ELISA to measure antibodies recognising the surface unit (SU) glycoproteins in plasma.

"We found that cats with regressive FeLV infection had significantly higher levels of antibodies against SU glycoproteins, which correlated well with neutralising antibodies."

Dr Jean-Philippe Tronel, director of the global technical services for pet vaccines at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: "Our company is strongly committed to supporting independent research in the field of feline infectious diseases, and the Young Scientist Award represents a wonderful collaboration between Boehringer Ingelheim and the ABCD.

"We warmly congratulate this year’s winners and encourage everyone to check out the previous winners, most of whom are still very active researchers and contributing to the health of our beloved cats."

The awards will be officially presented to Yasmin, and fellow winner Julia Klaus, during the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM) International congress, held virtually from 25 to 27 June 2021, where both will deliver short presentations with their posters also available for viewing.

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First published: 10 June 2021