DTU

The Technical University of Denmark is a new Governmental research institute under the auspices of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. The DTU was established on 1 January 2004 by uniting the Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition and the Danish Veterinary Institute. It has departments in Copenhagen, Mørkhøj, Århus and on the island of Lindholm in Stege Bay and employs about 800 people.

The Department of Virology is located on the Island Lindholm, situated south of Zealand. The facility consists of high containment laboratories and stables, where large animals infected with exotic viruses can be handled. Lindholm is the Danish National Reference Laboratory for foot and mouth disease, classical and African swine fever and is responsible for the laboratory work of the National contingency plans on animal health.

The research is focused on molecular characterisation and virus-host interactions of swine fever viruses, i.e., pestiviruses and asfiviruses. As pestivirus in general tends to be eradicated in Denmark the research of pestivirus in non-porcine species such as cattle, sheep and also exotic animals are within the research field. The research at the institute is performed in collaboration with the pig and cattle breeders organisations. The group has good experience in international research, with recent participation in the EU projects of molecular virology and molecular diagnosis (QLK2-2000-00486). Lindholm was a part of the Large Scale Marker Vaccine experiment (98/S 192-129475/EN) on validation of Marker vaccines, funded by the EU commission.

The Animal Health Section at the Department for Epidemiology and Risk Assessment of the DTU hosts the International EpiLab, which is an international network research center for veterinary epidemiology. The Animal Health section and the International EpiLab conduct risk research in the area of FMD, CSF, Avian Influenza and BSE/TSE.

Dr. Ǻse Uttenthal

PhD
Leader for project work package on laboratory preparedness
Dr. Uttenthal is an expert in Veterinary Virology. Her experiences in veterinary diagnostic are based on 20 years working with virus infections in pigs, cattle, companion animals and mink. She has been supervising several PhD students and has hosted guest researchers from countries outside EU. As the leader of the Danish National Swine Fewer Laboratory Dr Uttenthal has a close cooperation with the EU Central and National Reference Laboratories, as well as the Danish veterinary authorities.

Dr. Larry G. Paisley

BS, DVM, MS, PhD
Work Package leader (WP3 Risk Research) in the FMD-CSF CA
Dr Paisley is an epidemiologist specializing in risk assessments. Previously, he has participated in the European Scrapie Network, Surveillance and Diagnosis of Ruminant TSEs CA, Small Ruminant TSE NoE (SRSTSE), Neuroprion NoE (Risk Assessment subgroup Leader), EPIZONE NoE(WP7.1 Standardization of Import Risk assessments-Leader) and the Permanent Advisory Network for Diseases in Aquaculture (PANDA)risk assessment work package. Dr Paisley has been an invited expert on EFSA Working groups on the BSurvE model and Quantitative BSE Risk Assessment. Dr Paisley has recently become involved with risk assessment for FMD, CSF, AI and other new or emerging diseases.

Dr. Jens Nielsen

Veterinarian, expert in Veterinary Virology with responsibility for the cell culture laboratory. Dr Nielsen is in charge of the animal facilities at Lindholm. He participated in EU project on PCV-2 in pigs.

Prof Sören Alexandersen

DVM, PhD, DVSc
Leader for project work package on research, gaps, duplications
Research Professor. Formerly Head of Experimental Epidemiology, IAH-Pirbright Laboratory, UK (1999-2004) and Director of the Danish Veterinary Institute for Virus Research, Lindholm, Denmark (1994-2000).