It is spring time, and the idyllic image is of new-born lambs and their mothers feasting on lush pastures. But a potential killer lurks in the grass.

Today, the hiding places for that killer - a bacterium called Chlamydophila abortus - are fewer because of the genome sequence produced in a collaboration between the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Moredun Research Institute and the Scottish Crop Research Institute.

Infection with Chlamydophila abortus is the most common cause of infectious abortion in sheep in the UK, leading to loss of lambs and economic costs of around £30M each year. Chlamydial infections of humans and animals are of enormous public and animal health significance worldwide, both in terms of disease and economic impact.

The genome sequence, published in Genome Research, will bring new possibilities in the fight to control the spread of infection.

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Source: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
June 9, 2005

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