About Us
A century of discovery for healthier livestock.
Moredun is an independent research charity investigating and preventing disease in sheep, cattle and other farmed animals, since 1920.
Founded by Scottish farmers in 1920 to fight the diseases costing them their flocks.
That focus never moved. A century on, Moredun's research still follows what farmers and vets need on the ground.
"Promoting livestock health and welfare through research and education."
The Moredun Group
What began as one small research institute is now a Group of four connected parts, working under a single mission.
In 1994 the Institute became its own legal body, and a year later that structure was formalised into the Group as it exists today.
The Moredun Foundation, one of the UK's largest health and welfare charities, owns and oversees the Group, funding the research and holding the mission. Three parts sit underneath it: Moredun Research Institute conducts research focused on preventing and controlling infectious diseases of livestock, Moredun Scientific carries out its own animal health and aquaculture product development and biosafety testing of biopharmaceuticals, and Pentlands Science Park provides a shared home for both, with profits from Moredun Scientific and Pentlands Science Park gifted back to fund the Foundation's research grants.
More on the Foundation →Moredun Research Institute
World-class scientific research into the viruses, bacteria and parasites behind livestock disease, from identifying pathogens through to the vaccines and diagnostics that control them. Recent work includes a prototype sheep scab vaccine delivered via microscopic nanoparticles, paired with a blood test able to tell vaccinated animals from infected ones.
Scotland's only large-animal BSL-3 facility Learn more →Moredun Scientific Ltd
An independent contract research organisation established in 1988, Moredun Scientific provides safety and efficacy assessment of veterinary medicinal products, with profits gifted back to fund the Foundation's research.
Over 30 years, 500+ studies completed worldwide Learn more →Pentlands Science Park
A 22-acre site eight miles south of Edinburgh, developed between 1995 and 1999 and now home to over 20 other life sciences tenants alongside Moredun Research Institute and Moredun Scientific.
Over 95% occupied since 2002 Learn more →Services & Capabilities
Contract research, diagnostics and specialist testing, delivered by different parts of the Group.
Moredun Scientific
Livestock
Contract research services supporting the development of animal health products.
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Aquaculture
Contract research services supporting the development of fish health products for the aquaculture sector.
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Biosafety Testing
Biosafety testing services supporting biopharmaceutical development and manufacture.
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Moredun Research Institute
Veterinary Surveillance
Diagnostic testing support and sample submission services for vets, animal health professionals and research partners.
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Worm IgA Testing
Antibody (IgA) testing on saliva or blood serum samples, supporting worm resistance selection in UK and Netherlands sheep breeding programmes, submitted via a simple online form.
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Immunological Reagents
Non-profit source of validated antibody and assay reagents for veterinary and animal health research, supplied through Pentlands Immunologics.
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Moredun since 1920
A century in the field
A hundred years of research, told through the milestones that shaped it.
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1920 · Animal Diseases Research Association
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1920-1933
Within a decade of its 1920 founding, the Institute found the causes of braxy and lamb dysentery and developed vaccines, then traced louping ill to a tick-borne virus.
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1930s-present
Research since the 1930s helped establish scrapie, and later BSE, as transmissible prion diseases, work that continues today.
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1959-2002
Three decades of work on pasteurellosis pneumonia led to Heptavac-P, launched in 1997 and still protecting sheep and cattle today.
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1980-2019
Decades of work on the usually-fatal Malignant Catarrhal Fever culminated in a 2019 Kenyan field trial showing 80.1% vaccine efficacy.
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1988-1999
Moredun Scientific was founded in 1988, and Pentlands Science Park was built between 1995 and 1999 to house the growing Group.
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2005-present
A vaccine targeting the bacterium behind human E. coli O157 infections, now licensed to Roslin Technologies for a US field trial.
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2010-2020
Moredun's BVD strain database has underpinned Scotland's eradication scheme as "not-negative" herds fell from over 40% to under 10%.
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Today · Moredun on the road
A novel route to market, in three phases
Moredun conducted the underlying science behind the original louping ill vaccine, protecting sheep for decades, until it was withdrawn from the market in 2017. The usual route back, through a pharmaceutical company, isn't available here: the UK market for this vaccine is too niche for that model to work.
So we're taking a different route ourselves, new territory for us, built on funding from those who need the vaccine the most and structured across three sequential phases.
Read more about the campaignStill run with farmers, not just for them
Over 40 volunteer regional advisers, farmers, vets and industry figures, feed what they're seeing on the ground straight back into Moredun's research. Each region's chair sits on the Foundation board, so it doesn't stop at a conversation.
Meet the regional advisers →Research that leaves the lab
Three ways Moredun's work is already changing how disease is controlled, from a Scottish island to three continents.
Barbervax: from a Western Australian trial to three continents
Developed at Moredun and manufactured and sold through Wormvax Australia, the Group's own Australian company, Barbervax protects sheep and goats against Haemonchus contortus, the barber's pole worm, so named for its red, blood-filled gut spiralling around a white uterus. First field trialled with Merino farmers in New England, Australia in 2013, it was registered there in 2014, and is now sold in Australia and South Africa, and available in the UK by veterinary prescription.
"It's a terrific breakthrough for our industry." Brian Lanz, Merino lamb producer, New South Wales
Catching sheep scab before it spreads: Lewis and Harris
Sheep scab costs UK farmers up to £200m a year. Moredun's blood test for Psoroptes ovis, sensitive enough to catch infestations before clinical signs appear, let crofters on Lewis and Harris move from blanket treatment to targeted ones. Co-developed with crofters, vets and the community, the project coordinated dipping campaigns treating over 60,000 sheep, reducing disease prevalence and unnecessary environmental treatment. Beyond the animal health outcome, crofters reported that working together toward a shared goal strengthened community ties. The approach, developed with Scottish Government's Animal Health and Welfare division, is now a blueprint being extended to other island communities.
Tracking BVD to elimination
Moredun holds and maintains Scotland's reference sequence collection for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus, underpinning the detailed strain-level analysis behind the Scottish BVD eradication campaign's later phases. Over 90% of Scottish breeding holdings now hold negative BVD status.
Independent, trusted and science-driven, and open to anyone
Everything here comes from Moredun's own research and the regional adviser network. Most of it is free to read, members get the full back catalogue.
Livestock health factsheets
Clear, evidence-based guidance on individual diseases, built for a lunch break, not a research afternoon.
Browse factsheets →Moredun Magazine
Interviews, research updates and sector news in one read.
Read the magazine →Field Intelligence Report
What our regional advisers are seeing on the ground, turned into a regular report you can read too.
Read the report →