A new European project, called "Vax4ASF," was launched last week, as reported by PigProgress.

The project aims to develop a vaccine against African Swine Fever (ASF) and brings together 17 stakeholders from the international swine health industry.

The full name of the project is "Vax4ASF – New technologies for African Swine Fever (ASF-PPA)." The project is supported by the European Union under the Horizon Europe program.

Its goal is to provide a definitive, efficient, and safe solution against the ASF virus that affects pigs and wild boars. The project aims to innovate based on previous vaccination approaches and successful potential strategies.

Led by the Spanish pharmaceutical company Hipra, the project brings together 17 partners from European countries, the USA, and Kenya, forming an international consortium.

The consortium had its first meeting at the end of January. The consortium's idea is that the complex nature of the ASF virus "has been the main factor hindering the development of the ASF vaccine; therefore, despite intense research on different vaccine approaches, complete commercial vaccine candidates are still lacking."

Controlling ASF Virus Replication Level

The project proposes that "Controlling the level of virus replication for the next generation of ASF vaccines will be crucial to change the current paradigm of vaccine development and disease management. Virus control will be supported by the generation of specific diagnostic tests as well as by co-creating ASF surveillance and control strategies by all key stakeholders."

"The project will not only work to facilitate pioneering improvements in the development of next-generation vaccines for effective virus control globally, but will also propose innovative policies for ASF control and management by continuously involving all key stakeholders."

Participating Companies and Organizations

Apart from Hipra, the companies and organizations participating in the consortium are:

• Severo Ochoa Center for Molecular Biology, Spain;
• Sabiotec, Spain;
• Anprogapor, Spain;
• Interporc, Spain;
• Zabala Innovation, Spain;
• Ludwig-Maximilians University, Germany;
• Pirbright Institute, Scotland, UK;
• International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya;
• Swedish Veterinary Agency (SVA), Sweden;
• In3diagnostic, Italy;
• Wageningen Bioveterinary Research – WUR, the Netherlands;
• Institute for Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation of the MATE University, Hungary;
• Profil, Romania;
• University of Life Sciences in Timișoara, Romania;
• National Veterinary Research Institute PIWet, Poland;
• Kansas State University, United States.

(Photo: Freepik)