Apicomplexan vaccine

About

BACKGROUND Apicomplexan parasites are responsible for some of the most serious, debilitating and economically important diseases of humans and animals, including Coccidiosis, Toxoplasmosis and Neosporosis. The vaccines that have reached the market against a few of the Apicomplexan diseases use live organisms, that are fraught with problems including limited shelf life, logistics, storage, importation, and reversion to virulence. A non-live vaccine would remove many of these problems. TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW We have developed a method of producing a non-live vaccine that has the potential to treat diseases caused by Apicomplexan parasites. Vaccines for the bovine market are most advanced. A study using pregnant ewes demonstrated that the novel Apicomplexan vaccine was efficacious in the protection of ewes from T.gondii associated abortion. The vaccine significantly reduced the number of abortions in ewes and significantly increased the number of viable lambs born following challenge in a T. gondii ovine infection model.