African Swine Fever roadmap:
Vaccines
Roadmap for the development of a candidate vaccine for ASF
Download ASF-Vaccine-Roadmap_Updated_Oct253
Rationally attenuated candidates
Rationally attenuated candidates
Research Question
- Replicating ASFV are likely to give the most appropriate immune response but wild-type virus manipulates the host response. The aim is to reduce the virulence so that the vaccinated animal can mount a protective immune response. (The vaccine should allow the differentiation between infected and vaccinated animals)
Research Gaps and Challenges
- Lack of heterologous protection
- Possible link between immunogenicity and pathogenicity of the virus
- Ensure that vaccination prevents excretion of the organism – both the vaccine strain and wild type virus or any combination of the two that may have been generated
- Achieve long duration and fast onset of immunity
- Development of recombinant ASFV is still laborious
- Candidates will need to comply with safety, quality and efficacy requirements described in the ASF chapter of the WOAH Manual of Vaccines and Diagnostic Tests 2025
- Attenuation should be designed specifically to ensure minimal risk of regain of function through field strain recombination
- Ideally a DIVA element will be incorporated
Solution Routes
- Identify suitable strains
- Create GM organisms lacking virulence and immunomodulatory factors
- Monitor the immune response following immunisation with the various candidates
- Develop improved systems to manipulate ASFV
- Perform challenge experiments with the various vaccine candidates, including challenge with other strains
- Identify more suitable cell lines for ASFV production
Dependencies
- Generate stable genetically modified attenuated organisms
- Identify virulence factors in ASFV
- Identify immunomodulators in ASFV
- Identify gene function ASFV
- Identify correlates of protection
- (Identify DIVA targets)
- Immune response: identify mechanism of immune evasion, and mechanism of protective immunity
- Better understand virus replication
- Develop suitable cell lines for production
State Of the Art
- Pigs immunised with live attenuated ASF viruses containing engineered deletions of specific ASFV virulence/host range genes could be protected to different levels when challenged with homologous parental virus
Projects
What activities are planned or underway?
Vaccines, diagnosis and epidemiology for control and prevention of African swine fever (SE1520)
Planned Completion date 31/12/2028
Source Countries:
UK
Production of Master Seed Virus for Development of Vaccine Against African Swine Fever
Planned Completion date 31/08/2026
Source Countries:
United States