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purpose-built laboratories had been erected and staff at the research station began their work. At the time fowl paralysis was a major problem of developing poultry industries around the world. For instance, in 1947 of the chickens over 8 weeks of age submitted for post mortem to the UK Central
Veterinary Laboratories 14.2% had the disease and by 1949 this figure reached 20.4%. The problem was compounded as chickens with fowl paralysis (Marek's disease) had visceral lymphoma and this was confused with lymphoid leukosis. The two diseases, with completely different aetiologies, were included together under the general term āAvian Leukosis Complexā leading to much confusion for diagnosticians and pathologists. Throughout the 1950s debate raged over the causes of different syndromes within the Avian Leukosis Complex, if it was transmitted vertically or by contact and if it could only be controlled by selective breeding, as recommended by some researchers at Cornell University. There was some hope for development of a diagnostic test; however, this proved a false dawn and reliable diagnostic tests were developed much later. Even as early as 1949, there was talk of the developing a vaccine.
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investment at
Houghton paid dividends when the causative agent of Marek's disease, a highly cell-associated lymphotropic herpesvirus, was identified. This was hailed by the press as a major breakthrough, which had implications for the study of human as well as animal tumour immunology. Although the causative virus was now identified there was still no means of prevention and the threat from acute Marek's disease assumed huge proportions with half of the birds succumbing in some flocks and losses in excess of 25% being frequent. Poultry diseases including Marek's were costing the industry a staggering 20% of annual farm income in 1969. At the time selecting for genetic resistance to Marek's disease was the only means of defence.Techniques developed to grow the Marek's disease herpesvirus in chicken kidney cells enabled researchers to attenuate virulent virus and develop the first effective vaccine. This was the first report of an anti-viral vaccine being used to effectively prevent a naturally occurring cancer.
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rabbits poultry and pigeons, as well as those of larger farm animalsā Dr Robert Fraser Gordon, a successful research worker and champion of the UK poultry industry, was appointed as the first director. He established what was to become a world-renowned centre for the study of infectious diseases of poultry from two ex-prisoner-war huts in the grounds of
Houghton Grange in Huntingdonshire, near Cambridge. It was government-run from 1956. On the board was
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In 1959 Peter Biggs was employed to head the
Leucosis Experimental Unit (LEU) devoted to unravelling the problems of lymphoid leukosis and fowl paralysis and ambitious plans were set in train for purpose-built complex of isolation laboratories and the production of disease-free chickens from another
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1961 saw the culmination of many years of confusion, when Biggs and
Campbell proposed that the leukosis complex and fowl paralysis be separately classified. At the First World's Poultry Science Conference in Utrecht, Netherlands it was agreed that fowl paralysis be called Marek's disease as a
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Facilities for working on infectious diseases at
Houghton in the 1950s were primitive but plans were ambitious, even to the extent of developing a mobile laboratory to house a āflying squadā to investigate disease outbreaks on farms. Experimental facilities improved as birds began to be kept in
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Houghton
Poultry Research Station was founded by the UK Animal Health Trust in 1948 as one of āa group of research stations devoted to the study of problems connected with farm livestock, each devoted to a single species but catering as a group for the needs of similar livestock such as goats,
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In the 1960s LEU team was joined by a number of very able researchers including Tony
Churchill and Jim (L.N.) Payne. This proved a very productive period for research on Marek's disease with collaborations, and friendly rivalry, between laboratories on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1967 the
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The first programme included work on contemporary scourges of the UK poultry industry: salmonellosis, coccidiosis, fowl paralysis (as Marek's disease was then called) and virus diseases. Fowl pest (Newcastle disease) was not included as disease control facilities were inadequate. By 1949 new
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The site became known in 1986 as the
Houghton Laboratory of the Institute for Animal Health. The site closed in the 1992 due to budget realignments. It had been planned to close the site in August 1989.
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isolation in purpose-built facilities. In addition, new permanent laboratories were built onto
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Peter Biggs attended the 1967 World Poultry Congress in Kiev. He showed that cancer in poultry was heritable, due to the
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of Leucosis, Marek's disease and acute Marek's disease. Leucosis alone caused 40% of mortality in egg-producing breeds.
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in the 1960s. In 1967 this disease was costing the industry Ā£7m or about 2.5% of revenue.
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tribute to JĆ³zsef Marek who had provided the first published description
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known as the Houghton strain, which allowed the researchers to study the
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It had 33 laboratories. Its chickens laid around 2000 eggs a week.
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FRS was head of microbiology until May 1984. In 1969 a report on
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Agricultural research institute in Houghton, Cambridgeshire
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Peter Biggs January 1974 - (became FRS in March 1976)
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isolation unit built at Boxworth, some 8 miles away.
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Marek (1907) Dtch TierƤrzt.l Wochenschr. 15, 417-21
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348:Sawtry Way
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474:History
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89:Address
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