Developing the next generation of oral vaccines for salmonids using plastids in plants

The following programme will develop a new concept of oral vaccines for fish using plastids as bio-factories in plants. The technology will allow the insertion of any gene or combination of genes into a plant plastid genome, resulting in a high level prot ein expression (approx 20% of total cellular protein content). This represents a >100-fold increase in protein expression over existing technologies. The programme will focus on providing specific proteins to protect against infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) and salmonid alpha virus (SAV). These diseases are causing increasing commercial impact in many operating regions. During 2007 over 80 sites were affected with SAV (1million euros per site); over 200 sites affected with IPNV (Anon 2007). Fur ther losses and economic impact are also being experienced in other operating regions. These novel vaccines will offer improved efficacy, reduced side effects as well as provide a more efficient and economic route of administration, compared to traditiona l injection vaccines. By delivering large doses utilising cost effective production processes they will be able to provide orally administered vaccination to large seawater fish. This has previously been prohibitively expensive due to the large dose / lon g duration required of traditionally produced antigens. The programme deliverables will be 1. Plastids containing single and multiple antigens for purification at various levels (cell, plastid, pure protein), 2.Technology and methods that preserve the int egrity and immuno-genecity of specific antigens throughout the feed production process, 3. Oral delivery systems deploying functional antigens to fish hindgut, including use of advanced nano-technology 4. Evaluation of protection under controlled challeng e. The project partners (EWOS Innovation, Veterinary Institute and Plastid) lead the field in feed production technology / functional feeds, immunology / vaccine characterization and vaccine plant-plastid technology