Poultry Programmes
Newcastle Disease (ND)
Past activities & Achievements
Two thermotolerant ND vaccines, which are easy to transport and administer to poultry, were among the most successful product development outputs funded during the first years of GALVmed. A LaSota strain vaccine, manufactured in India, and an I-2 strain vaccine, made in Morocco, Uganda and South Africa for the African market, are already in widespread use in both regions. The relative thermotolerance of these vaccines means that they are suitable for the rural environment, where maintaining a cold chain is particularly challenging; their delivery as ocular drops means that they can easily be administered by village-based vaccinators or farmers themselves. Through our partners, about 170 million doses have been sold. As part of the goal, to make ND vaccines more available in resource-poor settings in LMICs, GALVmed supported the registration of an ND I2 vaccine in South Africa, which will be followed by dossier submission to Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.
We have also funded the development of a fast-dissolving tablet form of the vaccine and are facilitating transfer of the technology to commercial partners, which could make this much-needed vaccine even easier to deliver to small-scale livestock producers in remote areas.
To offer field use advice on Newcastle Disease (ND) vaccine storage conditions and vaccination programs, we have conducted several laboratory-based projects. In one such project, the duration of immunity of live and inactivated vaccines against ND was compared in chickens up to one year following vaccination. In other studies, the stability of inactivated and live ND vaccines, which are used in village chickens in Africa, was tested by storing them at high temperatures (35°C to 37°C) before vaccination or before titration in the lab. In addition, GALVmed has been funding experimental work to assess a novel vaccine diluent technology as potential tool to produce a liquid formulation of ND vaccine with improved stability and shelf-life.
Newcastle-Gumboro combination vaccine
Overview and Objectives
GALVmed is funding the development of a combination vaccine containing Newcastle Disease and Gumboro offering efficiency of administration for protection against two important poultry diseases.
Newcastle-Gumboro Programme Activities
A commercial partner successfully demonstrated feasibility or proof-of-concept of the combination vaccine and entered full development with process, manufacturing and clinical activities undertaken. The product registration dossier was submitted in India as of July 2023.
Newcastle-Fowlpox concurrent vaccine
Overview and Objectives
Two field studies, in Tanzania and Nepal, are evaluating if the concurrent administration of commercial live Fowl Pox and live Newcastle Disease vaccines given by non-invasive routes is safe and elicits immunity, indicated by local (for Fowl Pox) or serological (for Newcastle Disease) immune reactions in chicken in extensive small-scale settings. Given the severity of both diseases, data from this project could provide a non-invasive vaccination approach that can be easily adopted by farmers for Fowl Pox and Newcastle Disease vaccinations in the small-scale setting. Data from the field trials will be made available to other commercial manufacturers who may wish to make use of it for product support.
Programme Activities
Results obtained from a Proof-of-Concept laboratory study conducted in 2017 showed that the majority of study birds that were vaccinated against Fowl Pox via feather follicles (as such that a group of adjacent feathers will be plucked, for example from the bird’s thigh, and a vaccine-dipped brush will be rubbed inside the openings of the exposed holes of the feather-follicles) were immunised, as shown by the development of take reactions at the site of vaccine administration. All birds that were vaccinated against Newcastle Disease via eye-drop developed good immunity levels to Newcastle Disease as shown by serology. Immune interference due to concurrent administration of live vaccines was not observed. The field work will evaluate if the benefits seen under laboratory conditions also accrue under field use conditions.