On October 28th, according to a notice issued by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), a key joint program foundation of “Research on the Epidemic Transmission Law and Pathogenic Mechanism of Toxoplasma gondii in Major livestock and poultry in Yunnan”, led by our school and jointly applied by Yunnan Agricultural University, was approved by the NSFC. Professor Zhu Xingquan, the Project Leader, from the College of Veterinary Medicine was supported 2.34 million RMB by “NSFC-Yunnan Joint Foundation” for a four-year research. By 2022, a total of 56 foundations applied by our school were approved by NSFC.
Toxoplasma gondii, with wide-distributed host, is a kind of zoonotic parasite widely spread around the world. Many food animals with significant economic value (such as pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks) are important intermediate hosts of Toxoplasma gondii. The foundation aims to reveal the population genetic structure and distribution and analyze the transmission and evolution characteristics of Toxoplasma gondii in major livestock and poultry in Yunnan. It preliminary unveils the molecular basis of the difference in virulence of Toxoplasma gondii strains with different virulence and analyzes molecular basis of pathogenicity difference of Toxoplasma gondii to pigs, sheep and chickens.
The College of Veterinary Medicine, SXAU&The College of Veterinary Medicine,Yunnan Agricultural University
Professor Xingquan Zhu, winner of the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars, was introduced as high-level talent by our school in 2020. In the past two years, he has led the building of “Key Animal Diseases and Zoonoses Research Innovation Team” of Shanxi Province Key Project, a National Program on Key Research Project of China, a General Program of NSFC, a Key Program of “NSFC-Yunnan Joint Foundation”. He also published 8 high-level academic papers on international famous journals, such as Clinical Microbiology Reviews, Journal for Immuno Therapy of Cancer, and Influential Diseases of Poverty. He has been selected as Elsevier’s “Chinese Most Cited Researchers” for eight consecutive years. (2014-2021)
