Veterinary medicine
Department of infectious and parasitic diseases
Veterinary Virology and animal viral Diseases
Lab history
The laboratory of virology was created in 1971 by professor Fernand Schoenaers at the school of veterinary medicine, located in Cureghem, Brussels. The unit of virology, viral diseases, immunology and epidemiology was then created in 1975 and Paul-Pierre Pastoret, appointed since 1971 as assistant, was in charge of the development of this unit.
Nominated professor, P.-P. Pastoret succeeded Prof. Schoenaers in 1979, chairing this unit until 2002. Among a huge number of subjects, Prof. P.-P. Pastoret has studied bovine herpesviruses (BoHV-1 and BoHV-4), bovine rotaviruses, bovine viral diarrhoea virus, rabies virus and hantaviruses. He has been deeply involved in the development of a recombinant vaccinia-rabies vectored vaccine used for the oral vaccination of wildlife in Europe and in the United States. He is one of the co-founders and the first chairman of the European Society for Veterinary Virology (ESVV).
In 1993, P.-P. Pastoret became professor of immunology, immunopathology and vaccinology, whereas Etienne Thiry, previously assistant in the same unit, was appointed as professor of virology, viral diseases and epidemiology. In 2006, the unit of epidemiology and risk analysis (Prof. C. Saegerman) was created in the department of infectious and parasitic diseases allowing the unit headed by E. Thiry to focus its activities in Virology and viral diseases.
Over these years, the main subjects of research dealt with the study of alphaherpesvirus glycoproteins, the definition of the seronegative latent carriers of bovine herpesvirus 1, the development of new vaccine concepts (vectors and adjuvants), the neuropathogenesis of bovine herpesvirus infections, the study of animal noroviruses, of ruminant alphaherpesviruses, of the emerging serotype 8 of bluetongue virus, and the recombination in alphaherpesviruses, orbiviruses and noroviruses.