Development of Vaccines for bTV, EHDV and AHSV

The major outstanding challenges of orbi-virus vaccine research is to develop vaccines that can afford a broad protective immune response against as many serotypes of each virus as possible, and to develop a high throughput DIVA assay (e.g. an ELISA). This project will use a coordinated multi-partner approach to address these issues, to develop new experimental prototype vaccines and diagnostic approaches.

It will build on specific expertise and reagents that are only available within the consortium and will link out to other international efforts in USA and South Africa to develop improved vaccines for these diseases. The consortium includes a number of industrial partners who are already active in vaccine manufacture for these and other veterinary diseases, in order to ensure that the findings of the research are transferred as soon as possible into commercial vaccines for European livestock. The project also includes two SMEs, who will be specifically involved in the development of DIVA compatible diagnostic tests.

In summary, the specific objectives of the project will be: to develop multivalent vaccines using different approaches for Orbi-viruses responsible for livestock diseases, in particular, Bluetongue Virus (BTV), African Horse Sickness Virus (AHSV) and Epizootic Haemorrhagic Disease Virus (EHDV); to understand the best vaccination strategy to elicit multi-serotype protection for these viruses in livestock and analyze immune responses for each of the novel vaccines developed for breadth of protection against multiple serotypes; and to develop DIVA compatible diagnostics that will work with the new vaccines developed in order to differentiate between vaccinated and infected animals.