African swine fever vaccine tested at ACDP in Geelong
Scientists in Geelong are at the forefront of the fight against a disease that has killed millions of pigs.
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A vaccine against African swine fever, which is devastating pig industries globally, will be evaluated in Geelong.
CSIRO is working with US biotech firm MBF Therapeutics to test their novel DNA vaccine candidate for the deadly pig disease.
While Australia has never had an outbreak, it has recently spread through Asia and is now found in Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.
The contagious viral disease has killed millions of pigs abroad, and it’s estimated a large-scale outbreak in Australia would cost our economy up to $2bn.
The vaccine evaluation will be done in the secure laboratories at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP), a high biocontainment facility in Geelong designed to safely enable research into the world’s most dangerous diseases.
Dr David Williams, an African swine fever expert at ACDP, said scientists had not yet been able to develop a completely safe and effective vaccine.
“While first-generation vaccines have recently been approved for use in some parts of Asia, these are weakened live virus vaccines, which have potential to revert back to a disease-causing form and can cause side effects in sows and pigs with infections or other illnesses,” Dr Williams said.
“What we’re aiming for is a safe, non-live (virus) vaccine that will protect against different types and variants.”
Dr Williams said the evaluation process had recently started.
Workers at ACDP will test the vaccine on frozen cells from animals that have been infected with the virus, before evaluating it on pigs, he said.
Dr Williams said the vaccine could be distributed through the muscle, nose or mouth, and scientists would also be looking at the “best delivery route”.
An effective vaccine would be hugely significant and potentially have a massive impact on the global pork industry, he said.
He said ACDP was one of the few labs in the world that could safely work with the virus.
“We’ll be bringing all our diagnostic tools, reagents and research capability to this challenge, and learning from the experience for future research,” he said.
MBF Therapeutics chief executive Thomas Tillet said he was excited to work with CSIRO.
“Dr Williams and his team’s expertise in the field of African swine fever, combined with MBF Therapeutics’ innovative T-Max Precision vaccine platform, provides an opportunity to work towards a truly safe and effective vaccine,” Mr Tillet said.
He said the company’s ultimate goal was to create a vaccine that could be used safely in all stages of swine production, including sows, while preventing disease in individual animals and limiting transmission within the herd and environment.
Mr Tillet said its DNA vaccine platform was based on technology adapted from
immunotherapeutic treatment of human cancer, and aimed to eliminate pathogens as they entered the body.
The virus does not pass on to humans, and affected pork is safe for human consumption.
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