December 21, 2022

African swine fever vaccine candidate developed by USDA and University of Connecticut

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the University of Connecticut (UConn) have developed African swine fever vaccine candidates, which are "promising" according to independent researchers, the University of Connecticut reported.

One of those vaccine candidates, ASFV-G-DMGF, was recently granted a commercial development licence by Zoetis, a division of Pfizer.

The USDA and UConn's Technology Commercialization Services (TCS) collaborated to facilitate a deal that gave the USDA the authority to negotiate licences with animal health firms like Zoetis, in order to eventually market this vaccine. TCS collaborates with academics and researchers to hasten and facilitate the conversion of discoveries made at UConn into goods and services that benefit society.

The Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (CVMDL) director and professor of pathobiology at the University of Connecticut, Dr Guillermo Risatti, is optimistic about the potential of the vaccine candidate. One of UConn Extension's active service centres, CVMDL collaborates with regional veterinary organisations to improve disease surveillance and response.

People have experimented with live attenuated vaccines, killed vaccines, and various protein concoctions that the virus expresses as a defence mechanism, according to Risatti. But it never manifested as a candidate in any way.

This vaccine candidate was developed by Risatti in collaboration with Dr Manuel Borca and Douglas Gladue of the USDA.

Trials have been conducted on wild boars using edible bait containing the vaccine and on domestic swine using a more conventional method—injection into the muscle—by researchers from Zoetis and the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) in Germany. Both methods demonstrated the vaccine's effectiveness against ASF.

-      University of Connecticut