Acronym Louse off 2
Category
Marine Biotechnology
Title Cost effective sea lice vaccine; development and efficacy evaluation Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Søren Grove Coordinator email soren.grove@vetinst.no
Coordinator institution
NVI - Norwegian Veterinary Institute (Norway)
Institutions involved
NA - PHARMAQ AS (Norway) ,
SINTEF - SINTEF (Norway) ,
Start year 2017 End year 2021 Funding (€) € 748,074 Website https://prosjektbanken.forskningsradet.no/en/project/FORISS/269027?Kilde=FORISS&distribution=Ar&chart=bar&calcType=funding&Sprak=no&sortBy=date&sortOrder=desc&resultCount=30&offset=180&ProgAkt.3=HAVBRUK2-Stort+program+for+havbruksforskning&source=FORISS&projectId=268051 Summary Louse off 2 (LO2) aims to develop an ectoparasite vaccine that protects salmon against sea lice infestations. The project builds on the NRC-supported project Louse off (LO1) where the goal was to identify protective sea lice antigens (Ag) through a high through-put combined in silico, in vitro and in vivo screening pipeline. The LO1 project has until now identified three protective vaccine antigen candidates against salmon lice (Lepeophtheirus. salmonis). Their ability to protect salmon against sea lice infestations have been demonstrated in repeated vaccination and challenge experiments. This is a major breakthrough in parasite vaccine research and suggests that developing a protective sea lice vaccine is indeed possible. Current test-vaccines and vaccination regimes in the project have however been optimized to achieve maximum protection in experimental challenge models. This includes expensive small-scale protein production, a vaccine formulation with only short-term protection and two injections (boost vaccination). All these factors are problematic for vaccination to be commercially feasible. LO2 will focus on developing larger scale protein production systems and a formulation that results in sufficient long-term protection after only one injection. It is important to establish a high yield Ag production process in order to fulfill the potential future demand for sea lice vaccines. The vaccine dose price is substantially lower in aquaculture compared to domestic animal and human vaccines, which challenges the need for new innovative solutions in efficient recombinant Ag production and purification. The vaccine formulation will be based on one or more of the protective antigens that were already identified in LO1. These antigens showed a level of protection in monovalent form of around 30-50% reduction in fecundity. LO2 will explore how this efficacy can be increased to a commercially feasible level by using different adjuvants, increasing antigen dose and/or mixing several antigens into multivalent vaccines (several sea lice components).
Data from LO1 also indicate that development of an in vitro potency model (for batch release) by quantification of antigens is feasible. This work is in accordance with the new ethical guidelines of reduced use of experimental animals. LO2 will continue to develop this model.
Finally the project aims at evaluating long term efficacy of the new vaccine candidate-formulations in a small-scale field experiment. This study will be the "proof of concept" for a protective sea lice vaccine and will give vital information regarding the commercial potential of a sea lice vaccine. The reservoir for salmon lice in Norway is mainly farmed fish. It is therefore expected that a reduction in parasite fecundity due to vaccination will have an effect on the whole population. The project will use competences in epidemiology for the optimal design and data evaluation from this trial to better characterize this effect. A protective sea lice vaccine will be an international break-through in vaccinology that will help the industry towards reduction of chemical treatments.
Keywords
Salmon;
Parasite;
Engineering;
Genetic;
Disease;
Vaccines development;
Fish;
Fish health;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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