Poster Presentation 12th Australasian Virology Society Meeting 2024

Liposome based vaccine development approaches for African Swine fever virus (ASFV) (#174)

MD Tanjir Islam 1 , Alexander J McAuley 1
  1. CSIRO, East Geelong, VIC, Australia

African swine fever (ASF) is a lethal and contagious pig disease caused by the African swine fever virus (ASFV), which can result in mortality rates of up to 100% in infected pigs. Symptoms of ASF in pigs can range from mild to severe conditions. ASF virus cannot be transmitted from pigs to humans but is one of the highest biosecurity threats to the Asia Pacific regions and Australia. There is currently no licenced vaccine available for ASF, and although live and inactivated vaccines are effective against ASFV, they cannot be successfully commercialized because of side effects. Subunit, live vector and DNA vaccines are less effective against ASFV. The challenge is to develop a safe and effective vaccine against all ASFV strains that can be produced economically, at scale, and can be readily adopted by pig producers. Recent studies reveal that combined cellular and humoral responses tend to be most effective against ASFV. An ideal ASF vaccine should be stable, able to stimulate both humoral and cellular immunity, provide complete protection across ASFV subtypes, have minimal side effects and be DIVA (Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals) compatible. Using novel adjuvants and delivery systems in conventional vaccine strategies can be promising to elicit higher efficacy. Here, our research involves the development of a liposome-based vaccine delivery platform for ASFV. We intend to develop a better ASFV liposome-based vaccine which can stimulate both humoral and cellular immunity with higher immune efficacy. The proposed vaccine construct is cost effective and is expected to be nontoxic and have longer shelf-life.