Location: Exotic & Emerging Avian Viral Diseases Research
Project Number: 6040-32000-081-041-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Aug 26, 2024
End Date: Aug 25, 2029
Objective:
1. Characterize highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses in poultry, including turkeys, goats, cattle and other species.
2. Develop vaccines and evaluate commercial vaccines for the control of the virus in poultry and ruminant animals.
Approach:
Vaccination can be used to prevent disease and control the spread of the virus. Although vaccines are available for vaccination in poultry, further improvements are needed to vaccinate poultry in the field and determine optimal methods to have sustained protection from vaccines, particularly in turkeys. New vaccines will be developed and/or commercial vaccines will be evaluated to potentially allow better mass vaccination strategies.
The immune response in cattle will be evaluated to both natural infection and vaccination to try to identify markers of protection from challenge. A small ruminant model will be developed in dairy goats to allow a more cost effective model for testing vaccines.
