Award details

UK Veterinary Vaccinology Network

Reference	BB/M005224/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Bryan Charleston
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	The Pirbright Institute
Department	Viral Immunology
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	307,370
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/01/2015
End date	31/12/2019
Duration	60 months

Abstract

BBSRC invests approximately 10% of its research budget each year on vaccinology research. Clearly, this large investment has resulted in the establishment of groups carrying out innovative research, but generic technologies in biology, physics and chemistry that could impact on vaccine development programmes are moving at a pace. The veterinary vaccinology network will foster links to academia and industry to maximize the impact of UK expertise and facilities. Prioritization of vaccine development programmes is essential to target research funding most efficiently. The network will help establish a platform to evaluate the financial burden of specific diseases and the potential cost benefit of vaccines to control these diseases based on realistic target product profiles.

Summary

The UK livestock industry including cows, pigs, sheep and poultry is estimated to have an annual value of ~£10bn; poultry alone is £4bn (£85bn globally). The value of farmed fish is in excess of £1bn per annum. Global eradication of rinderpest using vaccination probably saves the economies of Africa ~£1bn per annum. The rapid deployment of vaccines to control bluetongue in 2007 is estimated to have saved the UK economy ~£0.5bn in 2008 alone. There is huge potential to improve animal welfare and economic performance of the UK livestock industries by developing new vaccines for widespread infectious diseases. Endemic and exotic diseases are important targets for new control methods. For example, Mycobacterium bovis represents a currently intractable problem for the livestock industry and a major challenge for vaccine development. Foot-and-mouth disease virus is a constant threat to UK livestock and the shortcomings of the current vaccines limit their usefulness in endemically infected countries and during an outbreak in the UK. There are some recurrent challenges in developing vaccines for a wide range of pathogens, for example, identifying protective antigens especially for large complex pathogens, defining correlates of protection, understanding the most effective antigen delivery methods and related to this stimulating long term protective immune responses. The network will bring together scientists with a broad range of skills and experience to build teams to tackle these difficult problems. A veterinary vaccinology network will provide opportunities to apply the latest developments in basic science to enhance control of veterinary diseases, for example, transcriptomic analysis of protective immune responses, high throughput methods to identify T cell and B cell epitopes and antigen delivery platforms.

Impact Summary

Disease control strategies have a major impact on animal health, for example the eradication of Rinderpest is thought to have economic benefits worth £1 billion annually in Africa alone. There are increasing concerns regarding outbreaks of major pathogens of livestock, due to intensification, which may impact on human health by interrupting food supply and zoonotic infections. These concerns highlight the need to understand disease transmission, pathogen evolution and protective immune responses in more detail to provide a rapid response to these disease threats. Vacccination will be a key tool for controlling these infections. Our network will bring together scientists with a broad range of expertise to establish collaborations to develop vaccinology research in the UK. The network will have a direct impact on at least two of the BBSRC strategic priorities: Global Food Security and Bioscience for Health. In addition to active participation in vaccine-related research,the coordinating group individually and collectively serve on advisory committees or review the policies of a number of bodies including universities, government departments, Defra, the Department for International Development (DfID), EU, FAO, OIE, academic scientists, the UK livestock industry sector, developing countries, companies involved in vaccine and/or diagnostic kit production and hence are well positioned to inform the research agenda as well as public policy on disease control. In addition to the obvious direct benefits from scientific advances in disease control and potential translational opportunities through commercial organisations that will be part of the network, the network will also help develop new tools and resources and train the next generation of scientists in this fast advancing field.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Health, Immunology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Community Research Networks (CRN) [2014-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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