The virus is half a meter in diameter
Scientists from the WMG Research Center at the University of Warwick in the UK have embodied in plastic a large three-dimensional model of the African catarrhal fever virus. To do this, they were provided with data on the structure of the virus from the Institute of Animal Health in Pirbright and the University of Oxford.
The model was built using rapid prototyping technology, often used in mechanical engineering to embody three-dimensional parts and assemblies of machines and other products in the material.
(About a dozen similar images can be seen in a press release on the University of Warwick - VM website.)
Unlike methods of removing excess material from the workpiece, such as milling or turning, this technology allows you to obtain the final product by layering the material layer by layer. Thus, even the most complex parts can be made in a very short time.
The exact model of the virus created by scientists exceeds the size of the original by more than five million times. It will help veterinarians develop more effective drugs to combat the spread of infection.
The virus currently poses the greatest threat to sheep bred on farms in Britain, the number of sheep in which there are 34 million heads. In the second year of its spread in Belgium, this virus claimed the lives of thirty thousand animals. Spreading it across the UK can deprive the British of up to 20% of the total livestock.