TVG holds animal trials for ASF vaccine

The Vaccine Group (TVG), a company specializing in animal disease vaccines, has started animal trials for an African Swine Fever (ASF) vaccine candidate. The highly contagious disease has recently caused severe economic damage and livestock loss worldwide. Its mortality rate in pigs is 100%, leading to mass culling and widespread trade disruption. In 2019, an outbreak in China resulted in a 0.8% loss to the country’s GDP. At present, there is no vaccine for the disease, with recent attempts to introduce a live attenuated vaccine in Southeast Asia affected by safety concerns. TVG’s vaccine candidate, developed with The Pirbright Institute and backed by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Industrial Partnership Award, uses a bovine herpesvirus vector to deliver several antigenic proteins from the ASF virus. It is also compatible with a Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals (DIVA) diagnostic approach. During the animal trials, vaccinated pigs will be exposed to a virulent genotype II ASF virus strain under a model developed at Pirbright that mimics natural infection routes. The results of the trials will be made public as soon as they are available.
The ASF vaccine candidate is part of TVG’s broader efforts to develop vaccines for 12 livestock and companion animal diseases. The results of the trials will be watched with interest by the farming industry, given the disease’s global impact on animal welfare, food security, and trade.