Poultry parasite vaccine research gains financial boost

Development of vaccines to help control parasitic diseases in food animals has been boosted by a grant of EUR 9 million (US$9.8 million) via the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
The PARAGONE project will focus on new vaccines to combat major parasitic diseases that have a significant impact in both poultry and ruminant production systems worldwide. It is being led by the UK’s Moredun Research Institute, and involves 17 international and industrial partners working collaboratively.
Currently, control of parasite infections relies almost exclusively on anti-parasitic drugs, which is not a sustainable option due to the increasing development of drug resistance among parasites as well as consumer concerns about chemical residues in food.
An alternative is to develop vaccines to help prevent disease and reduce the impact of parasite infection in food animals, providing a more sustainable, safer and environmentally friendly approach to disease control.
Vaccine development against multicellular parasites is a major challenge in human and veterinary medicine, with only two commercial veterinary vaccines currently available, Moredun says, and this lack of accessible vaccines is indicative of the difficulties associated with generating protective immunity against these complex pathogens.
Despite these hurdles, a number of prototype multicellular parasite veterinary vaccines have shown promise recently. In the PARAGONE project, previous successes will be built on, and extensive expertise and knowledge brought together to develop at least two further parasite vaccines towards commercialization.

International research into parasites receives funding boost

A consortium of research and academic institutions spread across Europe, Latin America, Africa and Australia is to receive funding from the European Union to carry out a series of research projects into parasitic worms over the next three years.
The consortium is being led by Edinburgh-based Moredun Research Institute and amongst priorities will be vaccines for parasitic diseases such as roundworms, tapeworms and fluke.
Some Euro 9 million (US$11 million) will come from the EU’s Framework 7, the EU’s research programme, and will go to Moredun to fund projects with help from 20 academic partners. The consortium will include 11 groups from the EU, three from South America as well as Africa, two from Asia and one from Australia.
Commenting on the funding, Catherine McLaughlin, animal health and welfare adviser with British farming association, the NFU, said: “Research such as this can help farmers and growers meet the increasingly challenging demands of producing more food while impacting less on the environment.
“There is growing concern at the levels of resistance which these parasitic worms are acquiring to conventional wormers. This has serious implications for the health and welfare of our animals and therefore we look forward to the results of these studies as solutions to this growing threat.”