Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (HVRI)，subordinated to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)，is located in Harbin, a beautiful and famous cultural city in northeast China. It was founded in June, 1948 as the first veterinary medicine research institute in China.

The institute covers an area of more than 69,600 m2 and possesses a laboratory animal breeding farm with over 1,532,900 m2 in the outskirts of Harbin. To meet the needs of the further development of the institute, it will be relocated to a new site that covers 271,800 m2 with a building area of 145,600 m2.

     The institute comprises 566 staffs, including 76 senior researchers. As the doctoral degree authorization institution, HVRI has been authorized to confer master’s degrees and PhD degrees and has awarded 127doctoral degrees and 361 master’s degrees. At present, 210 postgraduates are studying and engaging in researches in the institute.

 Objectives and Research Activities

The primary objective of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute (HVRI), CAAS is to protect the health of husbandry animals, to ensure the security of public health, and to promote scientific and technological developments for the prevention and control of animal infectious diseases.

     Research at the HVRI covers international and domestic infectious diseases that affect swine, birds, horses, cattle, and sheep as well as zoonotic and exotic diseases. The institute’s research interests specifically focus on epidemiology, pathogenic mutations, etiology and pathogenesis, technologies for preventing and controlling animal infectious diseases, basic immunobiology and immunology of infectious diseases, and techniques used for the cultivation and quality control of the laboratory animal.

At present, HVRI hosts several national research facilities, such as the State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, the National Reference Laboratory of Avian Influenza, the National Reference Laboratory of Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia, and the National Seed Center for Laboratory Avian Animals.

  Outstanding Outcomes:

HVRI has developed more than 140 different diagnostic reagents and vaccines, and counts 335 significant scientific advances during its tenure, including numerous vaccines. In 20th century, the institute developed the first successful lentiviral vector-based vaccine, the Donkey leukocyte-attenuated vaccine, which has been widely

         used to control equine infectious anemia virus. The institute’s attenuated ovinized and caprined rindpest vaccine for cattle and attenuated lapinized bovine pleuropneumonia vaccine were used successfully for the eradication of rinderpest and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia in China. Further, the cooperative advance of attenuated lapinized Chinese strain of hog cholera virus vaccine, is the most extensively adopted vaccine in the world.  In recent years, HVRI has made significant progress studying animal influenza, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), and other important epidemic diseases in animals. The first inactivated and attenuated vaccine against PRRS in China was developed at HVRI. In addition, the institute developed the first recombinant avian vaccine, the fowl pox viral vector-based chicken infectious laryngotracheitis vaccine in China. In addition, key proteins essential for trans-species transmission of avian influenza virus have been identified.