ORBIVAC

"Development of Vaccines for bTV, EHDV and AHSV"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The major outstanding challenges of orbivirus 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 multipartner 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 Orbiviruses 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.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Orbivirus diseases are amongst the biggest challenges that European agriculture has to face. A vaccine is therefore long overdue.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Bluetongue virus (BTV), African horse sickness virus (AHSV) and epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) are sources of significant animal suffering and deaths in Europe. These viruses are transmitted by biting midges from animal to animal, inducing high morbidity and mortality.

Existing commercially available vaccines generate an antibody response to all of the viral proteins, thereby making it impossible to distinguish vaccinated from infected animals. In addition, there is a great need for immune responses that protect against all different virus serotypes.

The scope of the EU-funded 'Development of vaccines for bTV, EHDV and AHSV' (http://www.orbivac.eu/ (ORBIVAC)) project was to address these issues and generate multivalent vaccines that offer a broad protective immune response. To achieve this, the ORBIVAC consortium included under its umbrella major industrial companies currently manufacturing vaccines in Europe.

A series of novel vaccines were designed and successfully developed. For BTV, the generated multivalent vaccines conferred complete protection against all virus serotypes in sheep and cattle. Similar efficacy was achieved with protein-based AHSV vaccines that elicited strong neutralising antibodies for all nine virus serotypes.

For EHDV, researchers employed a virus-like particles strategy to express four different antigens during immunisation. Subsequent evaluation in a small animal model demonstrated sufficient immunogenicity.

In addition to these innovative vaccine strategies, the consortium devoted considerable effort to the development of novel diagnostic reagents for use in specially adapted methods that can differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals (DIVA). These include microarrays, real time polymerase chain reaction assays and new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay tests for serotyping.

Overall, the compliance of the ORBIVAC vaccines to DIVA regulations, coupled with their cross-protection capacity against multiple strains of virus, offers a new and promising approach to vaccination. Given the socioeconomic impact of orbivirus diseases, implementation of these vaccines is expected to benefit animal farming and boost Europe's agriculture economy.