Source: MEATINGPLACE, 10/17/11

British researchers said they are a step closer to developing a potentially safer and less expensive vaccine to protect chickens against coccidiosis, a parasite that attacks poultry worldwide.

A vaccine based on proteins from the coccidiosis bug rather than a live parasite could be produced on a larger scale than current vaccines, according to a news release from the U.K.-based Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, which is funding the study.

Coccidiosis currently is treated with antimicrobial drugs or a vaccine derived from a live parasite, but both methods are problematic due to drug resistance and the relatively high cost of the vaccine. Vaccines based on single proteins can be safer and produced more cheaply and quickly on an industrial scale, the researchers said.

"Finding a target protein that could form the basis of a new type of vaccine for coccidiosis has been the holy grail for researchers combating coccidiosis for some time,” said Professor Stephen Matthews of Imperial College London.

The research uncovered protein molecules secreted onto the Eimeria parasite that allow it to invade cells in a chicken’s gut. When purified and used to inoculate chickens, one of these molecules provided the birds with some protection against coccidiosis, showing promise as the basis of a new vaccine, the group said.

Scientists from BBSRC, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust collaborated in the study, which is being published in the journal PLoS Pathogens. Research was conducted at Imperial College London, the Institute for Animal Health, the University of Oxford and the Royal Veterinary College.

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