14 June, 2013: The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) announced that it is developing a publicly accessible e-learning bioinformatics course on animal viral pathogens to support training for animal health diagnostics laboratories in developing countries.

Supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the joint FAO/International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) division, SIB made available the first of several modules designed as a self-learning course. The module addresses basic principles and applications of phylogenetics of animal pathogens, including examples based on influenza, Foot-and-Mouth and Peste des Petits Ruminants viruses.

The second module, to be published in the coming months, will address multiple sequence alignment and local sequence similarity search. The online course will be complemented by face-to-face courses offered by FAO and the joint FAO/IAEA division and other institutions. [FAO Agricultural Biotechnologies Website I][FAO News Release II][SIB Press Release][Online Course Portal]