PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New film series 'The Deadly Five' highlights global animal infectious diseases

2025-05-09
(Press-News.org) The EU-funded WiLiMan-ID project (https://www.wiliman-id.eu/)  is excited to announce the launch of a brand-new short film series, The Deadly Five. This series is aimed at raising awareness of five critical animal infectious diseases, classified as high priority. Each film in the series focuses on a different disease and the experts studying and fighting them, highlighting the risks each disease poses to animal and public health, as well as the strategies being developed to mitigate their impact.

“Through this series, we aim at bringing the attention on the complexities of animal infectious diseases, and the global efforts required to monitor and control them. Our work at WiLiMan-ID is crucial in understanding and mitigating the economic and health threats posed by these pathogens,” said Christine Citti, Project Coordinator of WiLiMan-ID.

The Deadly Five video series explores:

Avian influenza (AI): A highly contagious viral disease affecting poultry, wild birds, and occasionally mammals, with pandemic potential. African swine fever (ASF): A devastating non-zoonotic disease affecting domestic and wild pigs, with severe economic consequences. African horse sickness (AHS): A deadly disease affecting horses, mules, donkeys, and zebras, transmitted by biting midges. West Nile virus (WNV) & Usutu virus (USUV): Mosquito-borne viruses cycling between birds and mosquitoes, with potential human and equine impact. Chronic wasting disease (CWD): A fatal prion disease affecting deer populations, recently emerging in Northern Europe. Most of these diseases, including African swine fever and African horse sickness, cause serious economic losses to agricultural systems. In addition, three of these – specifically avian influenza, West Nile fever, and chronic wasting diseases – pose a threat to human health. Each film delves into the latest scientific insights on these diseases, highlighting disease surveillance, prevention, and control.

Working Together to Improve Global Health

The series is produced in collaboration with leading research institutes from three countries, including the Norwegian Veterinary Institute (Norway), the Animal Health Laboratory of ANSES (France), the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (Germany), and the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (France). In fact, WiLiMan-ID brings together 14 partners from 11 countries with expertise in virology, genomics, cell biology, biochemistry, epidemiology and modelling, to name just a few.

“The general public might have heard about avian influenza or African swine fever, but is perhaps rather unaware of these diseases, the global challenges they present to economies and public health, and the efforts and resources the EU and each of our experts put into combatting them and preventing outbreaks.  This is why we created a series of five films to allow each disease its own spotlight,” said Markus Schmidt, CEO of Biofaction (Austria), which oversees communications for WiLiMan-ID.

For more information on The Deadly Five series, visit https://www.wiliman-id.eu/the-deadly-five/.

 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Four organizations receive funds to combat food insecurity

2025-05-09
DALLAS, May 7, 2025 — One in eight U.S. households struggles to access enough food, and that number is on the rise.[1] The American Heart Association is building on its 100 years of lifesaving service to fund social enterprises to sustainably improve this driver of health and change the future of health for all. To that end, the Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund, part of American Heart Association Ventures’ Social Impact Funds, is distributing $900,000 to four organizations:   Attane Health, based in Kansas City, Missouri, provides access to personalized, nutritious groceries and educational resources for those living with chronic health conditions; Farm Generations Cooperative, ...

Ultrasound unlocks a safer, greener way to make hydrogels 

2025-05-09
Researchers at McGill University, in collaboration with Polytechnique Montréal, pioneered a new way to create hydrogels using ultrasound, eliminating the need for toxic chemical initiators. This breakthrough offers a faster, cleaner and more sustainable approach to hydrogel fabrication, and produces hydrogels that are stronger, more flexible and highly resistant to freezing and dehydration. The new method also promises to facilitate advances in tissue engineering, bioadhesives and 3D bioprinting.  Hydrogels are gels composed of polymers ...

Antibiotics from human use are contaminating rivers worldwide, study shows

2025-05-09
Millions of kilometres of rivers around the world are carrying antibiotic pollution at levels high enough to promote drug resistance and harm aquatic life, a McGill University-led study warns. Published in PNAS Nexus, the study is the first to estimate the scale of global river contamination from human antibiotics use. Researchers calculated that about 8,500 tonnes of antibiotics – nearly one-third of what people consume annually – end up in river systems around the world each year even after in many cases ...

A more realistic look at DNA in action

2025-05-09
Most scientists look at DNA behavior in isolation, without considering how matter within a cell interacts with DNA Researchers observed DNA strand separation preceding replication and repair suppressed by molecules pushing strands together Findings challenge the standard in biochemical practice of heating DNA to separate strands EVANSTON, Ill. --- By creating a more true-to-life representation of DNA’s environment, researchers at Northwestern University have discovered that strand separation — the essential process a “resting” double helix undergoes before it can initiate replication or make repairs — may take more mechanical force ...

Skia: Shedding light on shadow branches

2025-05-09
What happens when trailblazing engineers and industry professionals team up? The answer may transform the future of computing efficiency for modern data centers. Data centers house and use large computers to run massive amounts of data. Oftentimes, the processors can’t keep up with this workload because it’s taxing to predict and prepare instructions to carry out. This slows the flow of data. Thus, when you type a question into a search engine, the answer generates more slowly or doesn’t provide the information you need. To remedy this issue, researchers at Texas ...

Fat-rich fluid fuels immune failure in ovarian cancer

2025-05-09
New research led by Irish scientists has uncovered how lipid-rich fluid in the abdomen, known as ascites, plays a central role in weakening the body’s immune response in advanced ovarian cancer. The findings offer new insights into immune suppression in ovarian cancer and open promising avenues for future immunotherapy approaches. Over 70% of patients with ovarian cancer are diagnosed at an advanced stage, often presenting with large volumes of ascites. This ascites fluid not only supports the spread of cancer throughout the abdominal cavity but also ...

The origins of language

2025-05-09
To the point Chimpanzees are capable of complex communication: The human capacity for language may not be as unique as previously thought. Chimpanzees have a complex communication system that allows them to combine calls to create new meanings, similar to human language. Combining calls creatively: Chimpanzees use four ways to change meaning when combining single calls into two-call combinations, including compositional and non-compositional combinations, and they use a large variety of call combinations in a wide range of contexts. Origins of language: The discovery of a complex communication system in chimpanzees has important ...

SNU-Harvard researchers jointly build next-gen swarm robots using simple linked particles

2025-05-09
Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a joint research team from Seoul National University and Harvard University has developed a next-generation swarm robot system inspired by nature—capable of movement, exploration, transport, and cooperation, all without the need for precise sensors or centralized control.   The study was led by Professor Ho-Young Kim, Dr. Kyungmin Son, and master’s student Kwanwoo Kim at SNU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Professor L. Mahadevan and Dr. Kimberly Bowal at Harvard. Their approach connects simple, active ...

First fossil evidence of endangered tropical tree discovered

2025-05-09
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For the first time, scientists have discovered fossil evidence of an endangered, living tropical tree species. The unprecedented find was made in Brunei, a country on the large island of Borneo, and reveals a critical piece of the ancient history of Asia’s rainforests, highlighting the urgent need for conservation in the region, according to researchers at Penn State who led the discovery.   The research team published their findings in the American Journal of Botany.  The fossils, at least two million years old, represent the first direct ...

New gene linked to severe cases of Fanconi anemia

2025-05-09
Fanconi anemia is an aggressive, life-threatening disorder. Most individuals living with this rare genetic condition, characterized by bone marrow failure and cancer predisposition, survive into adulthood only with bone marrow transplantation and regular cancer screening. But a new study demonstrates that mutations in one particular gene in the Fanconi anemia pathway result in an even more severe form of the disorder—and that many fetuses with this mutation do not survive to birth. The sobering findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Toxic metals linked to impaired growth in infants in Guatemala

Being consistently physically active in adulthood linked to 30–40% lower risk of death

Nerve pain drug gabapentin linked to increased dementia, cognitive impairment risks

Children’s social care involvement common to nearly third of UK mums who died during perinatal period

‘Support, not judgement’: Study explores links between children’s social care involvement and maternal deaths

Ethnic minority and poorer children more likely to die in intensive care

Major progress in fertility preservation after treatment for cancer of the lymphatic system

Fewer complications after additional ultrasound in pregnant women who feel less fetal movement

Environmental impact of common pesticides seriously underestimated

The Milky Way could be teeming with more satellite galaxies than previously thought

New study reveals surprising reproductive secrets of a cricket-hunting parasitoid fly

Media Tip Sheet: Symposia at ESA2025

NSF CAREER Award will power UVA engineer’s research to improve drug purification

Tiny parasitoid flies show how early-life competition shapes adult success

New coating for glass promises energy-saving windows

Green spaces boost children’s cognitive skills and strengthen family well-being

Ancient trees dying faster than expected in Eastern Oregon

Study findings help hone precision of proven CVD risk tool

Most patients with advanced melanoma who received pre-surgical immunotherapy remain alive and disease free four years later

Introducing BioEmu: A generative AI Model that enables high-speed and accurate prediction of protein structural ensembles

Replacing mutated microglia with healthy microglia halts progression of genetic neurological disease in mice and humans

New research shows how tropical plants manage rival insect tenants by giving them separate ‘flats’

Condo-style living helps keep the peace inside these ant plants

Climate change action could dramatically limit rising UK heatwave deaths

Annual heat-related deaths projected to increase significantly due to climate and population change

Researchers discover new way cells protect themselves from damage

Rivers choose their path based on erosion — a discovery that could transform flood planning and restoration

New discovery reveals dopamine operates with surgical precision, not as a broad signal

New AI tool gives a helping hand to x ray diagnosis

New Leicester study reveals hidden heart risks in women with Type 2 Diabetes

[Press-News.org] New film series 'The Deadly Five' highlights global animal infectious diseases