A new emergency vaccine against classical swine fever
CSF has mostly been eradicated by vaccination, but backyard pigs and wild boar are still at risk. These animals serve as reserves of the disease, which could cause outbreaks in the future. The EU-funded 'Improve tools and strategies for the prevention and control of classical swine fever' (CSFV_GODIVA) project addressed this concern. The project set out to develop and test a vaccine candidate, as well as a more effective vaccine delivery system and accompanying diagnostic tests. Indeed, an attenuated live marker vaccine against CSF was developed and tested, and researchers are currently in the process of registering it. As an emergency response, the new vaccine was found to be more effective than the current vaccine. Researchers also tested various delivery methods but these efforts did not produce any major new findings. They thoroughly investigated various diagnostic options as well, including genetic and immunology tests, and a cheap and portable colorimetric test. They found the colorimetric option to be the most effective for field testing, while a type of genetic test worked best in the laboratory. CSFV_GODIVA thus succeeded in advancing and validating a new emergency response vaccine for CSF, with accompanying diagnostic tools. In time, this new vaccine is expected to reduce treatments costs and to prevent the mass destruction of infected pigs.
