A grouse moor owner has pledged £250,000 to Moredun Research Institute’s louping ill vaccine crowdfunding campaign in a match funded donation designed to encourage other upland industries to contribute. The pledge means that every pound donated by other supporters will be matched, up to £250,000, potentially bringing the total raised to more than £1.5 million toward the £1,800,000 required to complete phases one and two of vaccine development. The campaign has currently raised £1,027,556.
The announcement was made at the Royal Highland Show on Thursday 19 June by Dr Beth Wells, Moredun Research Institute.
Louping ill is a tick-borne viral disease affecting sheep and other livestock, causing significant welfare and economic losses across upland areas of the UK. No commercial vaccine is currently available.
Having reached its first funding milestone at the start of 2026, the vaccine development programme is already underway. The first phase involves transferring the vaccine production method to industrial scale and validating the process to meet the standards required for commercial manufacturing. The second phase involves testing the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine produced using that scaled-up process, confirming that the manufactured vaccine offers the same protection against louping ill as the laboratory-produced version. Although we know the laboratory-produced vaccine protects sheep from louping ill, these studies are a necessary step before any commercial product can be licensed.
Phase three, the final commercialisation stage costing £2,820,000, will bring a fully tested and licensed vaccine to veterinary practices in the shortest possible timescale.
The donation is the latest in a series of significant fundraising milestones. In 2025, the Scottish Government announced £100,000 in match funding at the Royal Highland Show. This was followed by a successful funding application to DEFRA, in partnership with the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the UK Health Security Agency and the Dartmoor Hill Farm Project, which allocated £450,000 to the vaccine development programme, reflecting the seriousness of louping ill to both animal and human health. The remainder of donations to date have come from industry, with contributions from the sheep sector and the bulk from the moorland industry.
Dr Wells, said: This extraordinarily generous donation from a grouse moor owner takes us a step closer towards our phases one and two funding target. The momentum behind this campaign reflects how seriously the upland farming and moorland communities and its supporters take the threat louping ill poses to sheep and other animals, including red grouse and now cattle, horses and dogs, and the livelihoods that depend on them. We are grateful to every donor who has helped bring a licensed vaccine closer to reality.”
To draw down the full match funded donation, the campaign needs a further £250,000 from industry and government.
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