Vaccines as drivers of disease emergence: transmission ecology and virulence evolution in Marek's disease
Lead Research Organisation:
The Pirbright Institute
Department Name: Avian Infectious Diseases
Abstract
See Lead Investigator application to NSF
Technical Summary
See Lead Investigator application to NSF
Planned Impact
Global demand for food is rising, both as a result of population growth and due to dietary changes in developing countries. Recent UN FAO report on this issue forecasts that food production will need to increase by over 40% by 2030 and by over 70% by 2050. With close to 55 billion chickens reared annually, poultry meat and eggs dominate animal protein products for human consumption world-wide. In the UK, the poultry sector is thought to contribute around £3.4 billion to the economy. Compared to the other livestock sectors, the modern poultry production methods have the most efficient feed-tomeat conversion ratios with lowest global warming potential. Because of these attributes, the poultry production sector will expand significantly to meet the global demand for food in the coming years. Infectious diseases, particularly caused by a plethora of highly contagious viral pathogens, remain a major threat for efficient poultry production. Marek's disease (MD) caused by the highly contagious and oncogenic herpesvirus, Marek's disease virus (MDV), is one of the major diseases of poultry which causes serious economic losses of up to $2,000 million annually. Control of MD is achieved by the use of more than 22,000 million doses of vaccines, with an estimated value of $400 million. Institute for Animal Health has been in the forefront of research on Marek's disease for over 5o years and was instrumental in identifying the causative agent and development of the first MD vaccine. IAH has been collaborating with the Lead Applicant for several years and have demonstrated the significant potential role of vaccines in driving the virulence. Financial benefits from the research on Marek's disease at the Institute for Animal Health was shown in a recent DTZ study (2009) to be at £297 million since 2003/04 with the potential to save up to £1.4 billion. Similarly, another study (PA consultancy 2007) showed that MD vaccines and validation tests developed at IAH contributes to the total worldwide market value of $400 million. The present proposal examining the transmission ecology and virulence evolution in Marek's disease, together with examining the role of vaccines as drivers of disease emergence will have a major impact on our understanding of the disease, the current methods of control and will help to develop new approaches for intervention.
People |
ORCID iD |
Venugopal Nair (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Baigent SJ
(2016)
Replication defective adenovirus serotype 5 expressing Marek's disease virus envelope glycoprotein as a potential Marek's disease vaccine in chicken
in Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Research
Baijent SJ
(2016)
Replication defective adenovirus serotype 5 expressing Marek's disease virus envelope glycoprotein as a potential Marek's disease vaccine in chicken
in Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Research
López-Osorio S
(2017)
Molecular characterization of Marek's disease virus in a poultry layer farm from Colombia
in Poultry Science
Nair V
(2014)
Avian Immunology
Read AF
(2015)
Imperfect Vaccination Can Enhance the Transmission of Highly Virulent Pathogens.
in PLoS biology
Description | Through the major publication 'Imperfect Vaccination Can Enhance the Transmission of Highly Virulent Pathogens' as part of this grant, we have demonstrated that vaccines against avian diseases can enhance virulence of pathogens. This publication received extensive press coverage and became a major discussion point (see below) •The Washington Post: "Imperfect vaccines could make viruses more dangerous, at least in chickens" 27 Jul 2015 •Science/AAAS: "Could some vaccines make diseases more deadly?" 27 Jul 2015 •ScienceDaily: "Some vaccines support evolution of more-virulent viruses" 27 Jul 2015 •ouest-france: "Some vaccines boost the dangerousness of certain viruses" 29 Jul 2015 •PBS Newshour: "This chicken vaccine makes its virus more dangerous" 27 Jul 2015 •Newsweek: "'Leaky' Vaccines May Create Stronger Viruses" 27 Jul 2015 •WorldPoultry: "Study: Poultry at risk from 'leaky' Marek's vaccination" 3 Aug 2015 •Sixactualites: "Vaccines may render more dangerous viruses" 20 Aug 2015 •Vincent Racaniello: "Permissive vaccines and viral virulence" 30 Jul 2015 •Poultrymed: "Leaky vaccines: Vaccination could prompt the evolution of more virulent pathogens" 27 Jul 2015 •Slashdot: "Study: Certain Vaccines Could Make Diseases More Deadly" •This Week in Virology: "TWiV 348: Chicken shift" |
Exploitation Route | The findings from the project could be used to examine this other vaccines and in developing next generation vaccines that stops/reduces shedding. A new grant application to explore the advances in 'transmissible vaccines' has been submitted as part of the EEID call. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Healthcare Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
URL | http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/health/2015/150729-pr-imperfect-vaccines-individuals-greater-risk-severe-illness/ |
Description | Our findings showed the importance of vaccines in the fight against diseases and helped to alleviate some of the vaccine hesitancy |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
Title | CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing pipeline for generation of recombinant herpesvirus vaccines or targeted editing |
Description | CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing pipe line was established for rapid generation of recombinant herpesvirus vaccines, which involves the use of stable Cas-9 expressing cell lines or through transient Cas9 expression |
Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The major impact of this will be enabling advanced research in developing new innovative vaccines for successful and effective control of avian diseases for enhancing global food security |
URL | https://www.jove.com/video/58193/generating-recombinant-avian-herpesvirus-vectors-with-crisprcas9-ge... |
Description | OIE Reference Laboratory |
Organisation | World Organisation for Animal Health, France |
Country | France |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | As the Reference Lab, we have contributed to the diagnostic procedures and preparation of manual |
Collaborator Contribution | Collaborators has published our activities and prepared the book |
Impact | Publication of the Manual on diagnostic tests |
Description | AN INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR VENUGOPAL NAIR |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Professor Venugopal Nair is a Research Group Leader at The Pirbright Institute, a visiting Professor of Avian Virology at the Department of Zoology, and a Jenner Investigator at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford. He is also a member of the Microbiology Society, and in this interview, he tells us more about his research into viral diseases of livestock. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://microbiologysociety.org/membership/meet-our-members/focus-area-viruses/an-interview-with-pro... |
Description | Chaired the Poultry Disease group meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Poultry Disease group is a forum of veterinary practitioners to discuss the advances in poultry diseases that could be translated from research labs to the farms |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Interview for CGTN on the importance of poultry disease control in China and the significance of collaboration |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | It was an interview by the editor for CGTN on the contribution of Pirbright and the Chinese collaborations on controlling poultry diseases and improving avian health |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-28/British-and-Chinese-scientists-join-forces-to-fight-avian-di... |
Description | Invited talk on 20th World Vaccine Congress Washington on 28th September 2020 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited talk on 'Novel vaccine technique to target multiple poultry diseases using CRISPR/Cas9 system' at the 20th World Vaccine Congress in Washington |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.terrapinn.com/conference/world-vaccine-congress-washington/index.stm |
Description | Invited talk on 28th September 2020 on ''Challenges and opportunities for control of infectious animal diseases including zoonosis' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | International Webinar of 'Epistemological approaches to animal disease control programmes with special reference to rabies' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Poultry Health Course (Pirbright) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The course is organised for participants from Brazil to understand the current advances in poultry diseases. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.poultryhealthcourse.com/ |
Description | UK-Malaysia Vaccinology Workshop (Malaysia) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This workshop aimed to build long-term and sustainable links between scientists in the UK and Malaysia working on/have interests in veterinary vaccines. This workshop has encouraged early career researchers from veterinary, biological and social sciences to understand the ever-increasing threats to global food security from infectious animal diseases and their control using next generation vaccine strategies. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://ukmalaysiaworkshop.co.uk/ |
Description | V Nair was invited to talk a the Poultry Health Workshop and Conference on 19th-20th Nov, 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | more than 100 stakeholders from different sectors of the Poultry industry and academia attended the meeting. There was engagement from the different sectors for initiating a combined approach for finding solutions |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | http://www.cmdn.org. |