Double vaccine to control livestock diseases
Citation
CTA. 1996. Double vaccine to control livestock diseases. Spore 61. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Permanent link to cite or share this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/47244
External link to download this item: http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jcta61e/
Abstract/Description
Two of Africa's most crippling livestock diseases will soon be controllable by a single vaccination. Rinderpest and capripox (lumpy skin disease of cattle, sheep pox and goat pox) cause serious loss of productivity and can lead to mortality rates...
Notes
Two of Africa's most crippling livestock diseases will soon be controllable by a single vaccination.
Rinderpest and capripox (lumpy skin disease of cattle, sheep pox and goat pox) cause serious loss of productivity and can lead to mortality rates that can exceed 90%. Vaccines have been available to control rinderpest and they are effective, but because of their poor thermal stability in the tropics, they have not led to the eradication of the disease. A capripox vaccine is widely used to vaccinate against sheep and goat pox. It is also effective in protecting cattle against lumpy skin disease.
Researchers at the Pirbright Laboratory of the Institute of Animal Health, in the UK, have taken the capripox vaccine and added into it two genes from the rinderpest virus, to create what is known as a recombinant vaccine. These two genes produce proteins which play an important part in developing immunity against rinderpest. The genes are known as the Fusion or F gene, and the Haemagglutinin or H gene. Either the F or H gene are spliced into the genetic make-up of the virus that causes lumpy skin disease, making two recombinant vaccines. These recombinant vaccines continue to protect cattle, sheep and goats against lumpy skin disease as well as producing either the F or H proteins which give protection against rinderpest. Thus one injection will provide protection against both diseases.
The researchers have also achieved better shelf-life with the new vaccines than the old rinderpest vaccine. This means they will not be dependent on refrigeration, so their distribution in tropical Africa will be easier.
A mixture of the recombinant capripox-rinderpest F and the capripax-rinderpest H vaccines is now under trial with the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute at Muguga.
Institute of Animal Health Ash Road Pirbright, Woking Surrey GU24 ONF, UK
Regions
AfricaOrganizations Affiliated to the Authors
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural CooperationCollections
- CTA Spore (English) [4421]