Institute for Virology Dept. of Infectious Diseases
University of Veterinary Medicine
Bünteweg 17
30559 Hannover
Phone: +49 (0) 511 953 8843, Fax: +49 (0) 511 953 8898
christel.schwegmann@tiho-hannover.de
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Research Interests:
Influenza A viruses as well as respiratory coronaviruses like MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV are known to cause severe diseases in humans. In pigs it is known that co-infection with several pathogens leads to an increase in the outcome of clinical symptoms and severity of the disease. In addition to influenza A viruses and porcine respiratory coronaviruses we are interested in the infection with PRRSV (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus) – an arterivirus which leads to high economic losses in pig industry.
Previously we established the analysis of porcine Influenza A virus infections in ex vivo organ cultures (Punyadarsaniya et al., PLoS One, 2011; Meng et al.,Vet Res., 2013). We want to use these precision cut lung slices (PCLS) to analyze single infection with influenza A viruses, coronaviruses, and PRRSV. In a second step we want to compare and analyze single, double, and triple infection with these viruses. The impact of multiviral infections on pathogenesis and virus-host interaction using PCLS will be studied.