Nanovaccine could prevent future avian flu outbreaks

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine have developed a mosaic nanovaccine designed to target current and future variations of avian influenza.

Doughman Headshot3 Headshot
Doctor using red pen draw circle on avian influenza
Doctor using red pen draw circle on avian influenza
mashi_naz | Bigstock

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine have developed a mosaic nanovaccine designed to target current and future variations of avian influenza.

“Avian influenza can mutate very quickly. This allows it to easily escape the immunity generated by the vaccine,” Adel M. Talaat, PhD, professor of microbiology, Laboratory of Infection Genomics, explained.

“We are one of the few labs in the world trying to use all the sequences that are present in avian influenza in order to develop a vaccine against all of them.”

To create the mosaic vaccine, the researchers collected DNA sequencing data from nearly 20,000 strains of avian influenza. This helped them pick the antibodies most likely to ensure that the resulting vaccine protects against several strains of the virus.

Vaccination vs. depopulation

An effective vaccination program against avian influenza would be more cost-effective than current methods for controlling the virus, Talaat noted.

Once you identify avian influenza in a commercial flock, you have to get rid of the entire flock. This is becoming more expensive, especially as it has gotten more frequent,” he said.

“Vaccination is as better strategy. You just have to make sure it’s the right type of vaccine and make sure that it is done appropriate in order to get full protection. I think this will be less expensive in the long run than test and depopulate.”

Although the vaccine is not yet available commercially, Talaat hopes it will help protect against future avian influenza outbreaks.

Current HPAI outbreak

The U.S. is currently experiencing the worst outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) since 2015. The virus has been confirmed in commercial poultry flocks in 13 U.S. states since the start of the year, including North Dakota, Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Indiana, North Carolina, Minnesota, Kansas and Texas. The virus has also been confirmed in poultry in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia.

To learn more about HPAI cases in North American commercial poultry flocks, see an interactive map on WATTPoultry.com.

Read our ongoing coverage of the global avian influenza outbreak.

Page 1 of 477
Next Page