Donor Name

Canada

Agency Name

International Development Research Centre

Year

2017

Flow Name

ODA Grants

Recipient Name

South of Sahara, regional

Categories

Classified as not health-specific activity

Health-specific Disbursement in million US$

0.00675087

Health-specific percentage of total disbursement

100

Health-specific Commitment in million US$

0.0449982

Project Title

Development of a novel vaccine for contagious caprine pleuropneumonia based on a fast-growing Mycoplasma feriruminatoris chassis

Short Description

DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL VACCINE FOR CONTAGIOUS CAPRINE PLEUROPNEUMONIA BASED ON A FAST-GROWING MYCOPLASMA FERIRUMINATORIS CHASSIS

Long Description

Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) is a severe respiratory disease of goats and sheep and is caused by a bacterium, Mycoplasma capricolum subsp capripneumoniae (Mccp). CCPP is transmitted by infected aerosol and is characterized by fever, coughing, severe respiratory distress and high mortality. Infected animals become very sick and mostly die within 7-10 days. CCPP mortality and morbidity can reach 70% and 100% respectively. Clinical CCPP occurrence has been reported in 40 countries in Africa and Asia, with isolation of causative organism confirmed in half of these. The Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines (GALVmed) estimates that every year, CCPP causes economic losses of up to US $ 507 Million in endemic areas. Goats and sheep are an important source of income for women and CCPP severely affects their ability to provide for their children and family needs. Vaccination remains the most effective and affordable method to control CCPP since antibiotic treatment does not eliminate the bacterium and sanitary measures are not feasible in smallholder settings. The current CCPP vaccine is killed whole bacterium formulated in saponin adjuvant. The vaccine is safe but its protection is short-lived (less than 1 year). It is also expensive due to tedious production because high volumes cannot be achieved as the bacterium grows slowly and fastidiously resulting in low yields. The objective of this project is to develop a novel CCPP vaccine based on the fastest-growing Mycoplasma species to date, Mycoplasma feriruminatoris (M.feri). M. feri was isolated from wild goats and has a generation time of less than 30 min. To use the M. feri backbone as a vaccine for Mccp, M. feri genes encoding virulent factors will be deleted. This will create space for insertion of Mccp genes that encode known and predicted vaccine candidate antigens. Goats will be vaccinated with the inactivated or live new recombinant vaccine then experimentally infected with Mccp to determine whether the vaccine is protective. Thus this project will use cutting-edge Synthetic Biology tools to construct a vaccine for CCP that will grow efficiently, express protective Mccp antigens and which can be used either as a live or inactivated vaccine.This 24-month project is a collaboration between University of Bern, Switzerland, Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)-University of Bordeaux, France and J. Craig Venter Institute, USA. This project is funded through the Livestock Vaccine Innovation Fund, a partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Affairs Canada and Canada's International Development Research Centre.