Diseases with Limited Research of Plant-Based Vaccines

Meyers, Ann

There are a number of diseases which are important globally in terms of the effect they have on livestock but for which the development of recombinant plant-produced vaccines is preliminary. For many of these diseases such as bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), bovine rotavirus (BRV), bovine herpes (BoH), transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) in pigs, infectious bronchitis (IB) in chickens, bluetongue (BT) in sheep, Rift Valley fever (RVF) in sheep and coccidiosis in chickens, commercially available live-attenuated or killed vaccines are available. Although most are effective to varying degrees, there are numerous issues with manufacture and potential reassortment of the vaccine strains. For some diseases such as bovine papillomavirus (BPV) infections and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), there are no commercially available vaccines, and limited studies have been conducted on their development. This chapter discusses some of the research developments in plant-produced vaccine candidates which have potential for further development towards commercialisation.