Pigs Vaccinated with Edible Vaccines
"Protection from TGEV proves that this technology can address animal and human health at a time when fewer therapeutics, such as antibiotics, are available," said Joe Jilka, ProdiGene vice president of product development. "Edible vaccines will give pork producers several distinct benefits. Because the vaccines are fed instead of injected, they are not so labor-intensive. Meat quality would be improved, since there would not be a needle mark in the carcass. Other advantages are improved delivery of the antigen and potential for higher efficacy of mucosal disease vaccines.
"But perhaps the most important benefits are that edible vaccines will be less expensive and easier to administer," Jilka said. "Feeding a vaccine is much less stressful to the animal."
Benefits Beyond TGEV
Potential benefits of administering oral plant-based vaccines go beyond protecting a few pigs from TGEV. Such vaccines could protect animals against other diseases, especially intestinal viruses. ProdiGene hopes the edible vaccine for swine TGEV is just the first of many innovative products from this technology. The company is discussing future products, for other animal diseases, with several animal health industry companies. ProdiGene claims to have more pipeline-stage products for both animal and human health.
Corn, depicted in this Van Gogh masterpiece ("The Cornfield"), can be bioengineered to produce antigens to animal pathogens.
In addition to benefiting the livestock industry, plant-based animal vaccines open opportunities to farmers who contract to grow grain-based vaccines. According to Dan Hammes, ProdiGene vice president of operations, the preliminary trials used corn enhanced to create the protein that stimulates the TGEV antibody.
Swine TGEV can potentially be a major cause of sickness and death in young pigs, particularly in areas with high concentrations of pork production. It is a highly contagious disease that causes high mortality in pigs less than two weeks of age.
"These trials proved that we could deliver the antigen in edible form to an economically important animal and see protection in the animal," Jilka added. "`Now, our work will focus on how much corn to deliver and the correct level of antigen concentration."
For more information: Dan Hammes, VP of Operations, ProdiGene, 101 Gateway Blvd., Suite 100, College Station, TX 77845. Tel: 409-690-8537. Fax: 409-690-9527.
Angelo DePalma