Improved Infectious Bursal Disease Vaccine in Prospect
US - New technology is being used at Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) to create a more effective vaccine against Infectious Bursal Disease.
14 January 2014
3 minute read
By: Years of tireless research by OARDC virologist, Daral Jackwood, have given birth to a new technology for making vaccines and diagnostic tests that combat poultry and livestock diseases, safeguarding our food production system.
He has developed and patented LARAD’s first technology: virus-like particles to create diagnostic tests and vaccines for infectious bursal disease virus, a dangerous disease that affects poultry. Ohio’s poultry industry is worth $700 million a year.
This cutting-edge technology has led to the creation of a start-up company, LARAD Inc., which is the first OARDC spin-out into Ohio State University’s BioHio Research Park, an agricultural bioscience technology park based on its Wooster campus. LARAD will commercialise the invention and has the potential to generate high-paying jobs in Ohio.
Dr Jackwood employs molecular biology methods to develop virus-like-particles (VLPs). These VLPs can be used to make vaccines and diagnostic kits not currently available on the market, which increases the technology’s commercialisation potential.
This technology can have a wide range of applications including viral diseases of poultry, swine, cattle, fish, horses, cats and dogs.
“These products will allow the industry to do things it hasn’t been able to do before,” Dr Jackwood said.
LARAD will initially focus on production of VLPs for infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), a highly contagious disease that affects poultry worldwide. Effective control of this disease is critical to the United States, the world’s largest poultry producer with an annual farm value in excess of US$20 billion.
In Ohio, IBDV threatens an industry that supports more than 15,000 jobs and is worth close to $700 million a year. According to Dr Jackwood, LARAD’s IBDV vaccine can be produced at a reduced cost compared to conventional inactivated vaccines currently used internationally. This represents a $17 million-a-year market opportunity.
The vaccine could also replace autogenous vaccines used by the US poultry industry, a market currently worth $3 to 4 million annually and projected to increase two-fold over the next five years, Dr Jackwood said.
