Development of vaccines for prioritized exotic and emerging animal diseases
With increasing disease burden and threat of zoonotic diseases, the livestock and poultry sector is under pressure to perform to meet the increasing demand of dairy and meat and sustain the food security of the country. International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has served as platform for inter-sectoral and inter-continental collaboration among countries to develop competencies in various areas of livestock research including animal health. With a national mandate of Research and Development on exotic and emerging animal diseases and with the required bio-containment facilities and expertise in place, ICAR-NIHSAD is currently well-placed to utilize ILRI’s network for development of diagnostics and vaccines for prioritized animal diseases. Development of vaccines for the prioritized animal diseases will reduce disease burden, zoonotic threat and economic losses to the livestock farmers.
Objectives:
- Development of vaccines for African swine fever (ASF), Rift Valley Fever (RVF) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus infection (MERS-CoV).
- Capacity building on novel vaccine/diagnostic technologies such as CRISPR/Cas gene editing, viral vectored sub-unit vaccine etc.
Expected Outcomes:
- Development of candidate vaccines for prevention and control of ASF, RVF and MERS in India.
- Assist policy makers to plan National strategies for effective control and spread of prioritized exotic and emerging animal diseases and to limit the livestock farming losses in the event of incursion of exotic diseases into India.
- Help to minimize the economic losses to the livestock farmers and to reduce zoonotic threat.