Past activities and Achievements

There are existing vaccines available in Africa against CBPP, but there is great scope to develop a more effective, accessible system of integrated disease control. Our first work towards this was to test the BEN-1 cattle vaccine, used to eradicate CBPP in China, in an African context.  Coordination of a consortium led by the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, which originally developed the vaccine in the 1960s, trialled three batches of vaccine in Africa, which were found to be effective, but no more effective than the existing vaccine.  Additionally, data on the use of two modern antibiotics for the treatment of clinical cases of CBPP will be incorporated into an integrated control programme model.

Overview and Objectives

A current project with a commercial partner has supported the development and registration of a combination vaccine of CBPP and Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), offering significant potential value to small-scale livestock keepers as a single administration. The option of concurrent Rift Valley Fever (RVF) vaccine administration with the CBPP-LSD vaccine offers enhanced inter-epidemic use of RVF vaccine (if epidemiologically appropriate). The target geographies for the vaccine are East, Central, West and Southern Africa.

Past activities and Achievements

A past programme with AU PANVAC in Ethiopia aimed to improve the overall volume of the existing inactivated CCPP vaccines on the market through improvements in production yield and quantification assays. The product development effort for CCPP has focused on a novel live vaccine approach, which could eventually be included in a combination vaccine for other goat diseases.

Overview and Objectives

Multi-valent vaccines offer pragmatic and cost-effective disease control tools for the small-scale livestock keeper. A current project with a commercial partner has supported the development of a small ruminant systemic multivalent vaccine addressing several major small ruminant diseases (CCPP, Sheep & Goat Pox (SGP), Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), in a single combination vaccine. This product will offer considerable scope to expand vaccine coverage for key small ruminant diseases in affected regions.  It is believed that the utility and cost effectiveness (likely to be substantially cheaper than the constituent monovalent vaccines) of the product will result in buoyant small-scale farmer demand.

Programme Activities

Working with a commercial partner, GALVmed has supported the development of a multivalent vaccine addressing CCPP, SGP and PPR.  A product registration dossier was successfully submitted, and the vaccine has achieved market authorisation.

Past activities and Achievements

A limited project was undertaken with the WOAH Reference Laboratory for LSD at Sciensano, Belgium to determine the comparative merits of different commercially available and prototype LSD vaccines, both live attenuated and killed. It was clear that duration of immunity was longer for the live attenuated vaccines used in the study.

Overview and Objectives

A current project with a commercial partner has supported the development and registration of a combination vaccine for CBPP and LSD, offering significant potential value to small-scale livestock keepers as a single administration. The option of concurrent RVF vaccine administration offers enhanced inter-epidemic use of RVF vaccine (if epidemiologically appropriate). The target geographies for the vaccine are East, Central, West and Southern Africa.

Past activities and 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, and 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, in which 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.

Overview and Objectives

GALVmed is funding the development of a combination vaccine against Newcastle Disease and Gumboro offering efficiency of administration for protection against two important poultry diseases.

A commercial partner successfully demonstrated feasibility or proof-of-concept for the combination vaccine and entered full development with process, manufacturing and clinical activities undertaken. A product registration dossier was submitted in India in July 2023 for the vaccine and a market authorisation has been granted.

Overview and Objectives

Two field studies, in Tanzania and Nepal, determined 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.

The study was published in a peer-reviewed journal in 2022.

Past activities and Achievements

The multivalent vaccine for PPR and SGP in sheep and goats, developed by GALVmed’s commercial partner MCI Santé Animale in Morocco, is a convincing example of the advantages of combining protection. The two diseases affect many of the same animals in the same regions, and are not, in fact, easy to distinguish. Many farmers vaccinate against the more frequently occurring SGP, but not against the less common, but more deadly, PPR. By organising market priming and acceptability trials in three African countries, however, GALVmed has been able to show that small-scale livestock keepers are willing to purchase a combination vaccine that is cheaper than vaccinating against each disease separately.

Our work with a British biotechnology company Arecor, which specialises in liquid formulation for therapeutic protein stabilisation technologies, has identified a novel liquid formulation that has successfully demonstrated long term stability of PPR and SGP vaccine strains.

GALVmed has worked closely with AU-PANVAC to develop thermotolerance criteria for PPR vaccines. The aim of this work has been to provide manufacturers of PPR vaccines with guidance on pragmatic thermotolerance requirements against which AU-PANVAC will be able to assess PPR vaccine batches as part of their role in testing and issuing vaccine test certificates.

Overview and Objectives

GALVmed has two projects for the development of further combination vaccines for small ruminants that incorporate antigen which will offer protection against sheep and goat poxvirus infection. One of these projects is with a commercial vaccine manufacturer in India to develop a bivalent PPR/SGP vaccine that will replicate what has been achieved in Africa previously but in this case the virus strains used are specific for the Indian market.

GALVmed has a second project incorporating SGP antigen in a combination product with a second commercial partner to develop a small ruminant systemic multivalent vaccine addressing several major small ruminant diseases (CCPP, SGP, PPR), in a single, combination vaccine. This product will offer considerable scope to expand vaccine coverage for key small ruminant diseases in affected regions. This multi-valent approach will maximise disease protection coverage using distribution networks operating effective cold chains. It is believed that the utility and cost effectiveness (likely to be substantially cheaper than the constituent monovalent vaccines) of the product will result in buoyant small-scale demand.

The negatively marked PPR vaccine has recently completed the development phase with a commercial partner and dossier compilation and review is underway.

Past activities and Achievements

Together with a commercial partner GALVmed has focused on a cattle vaccine to protect against RVF infection using the RVF strain known as Clone 13, which has demonstrable effectiveness but a short shelf life. Stability improvements have extended its shelf life beyond 12 months, providing the possibility of establishing a strategic reserve of the vaccine which can be quickly deployed across Southern Africa to prevent epidemics. Parallel work developing a rapid pen-side diagnostic test to track the disease in the field easily was also completed.

Overview and Objectives

A current project with a commercial partner has supported the development and registration of a combination vaccine of CBPP and LSD, offering significant potential value to small-scale livestock keepers as a single administration. The option of concurrent RVF vaccine administration with the CBPP-LSD component offers enhanced inter-epidemic use of RVF vaccine (if epidemiologically appropriate). The target geographies for the vaccine are East, Central, West and Southern Africa.