With $2.6 million in new support to fight the deadly African swine fever (ASF) virus, a Kansas State University researcher is armed with new ammunition to battle one of the biggest global threats to pigs and swine production, a $57-billion-dollar industry in the U.S.
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) recently awarded a $1 million Seeding Solutions Grant to Waithaka Mwangi, immunology professor in the department of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology in K-State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, to support his ongoing work to develop safe and rapidly deployable vaccines to prevent ASF virus. In addition, Elanco Animal Health, K-State’s Office of the Vice President for Research, Kansas State University Innovation Partners and MEDIAN Diagnostics Inc. provided matching funds for a total investment of $2,645,427, K-State said in a release.
With no commercially available treatment or vaccine for the ASF virus, Mwangi and his team are working urgently to develop and validate a promising vaccine that could protect pigs from the virus.
“Certain proteins inherent within the virus can activate an immune response in swine,” Mwangi said in a release. “My research is identifying which ASF virus proteins induce protective immune responses, the optimal dose, the most effective immunization platform and a way to differentiate infected pigs from vaccinated ones. This FFAR Seeding Solutions grant provides the funds for us to leverage additional stakeholder support needed to fund the necessary research to validate the effectiveness of a prototype vaccine that has already generated promising results.”
Currently, the only way to control ASF is through enhanced biosecurity methods, such as quarantining or culling infected pigs. ASF has existed in Africa for decades, but the virus has started to spread globally, with cases detected recently in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
“Outbreaks in the U.S. would be staggeringly devastating — not just for the pork industry, but also for other agriculture commodities, such as corn and soy, that support it,” K-State said in the release.
Mwangi’s research team is also taking a look at safety concerns and production constraints that would allow regulatory agencies to approve the use of this vaccine.
“Should the virus reach the U.S., outputs from this research could slow the virus’s spread, protect millions of U.S. pigs and safeguard our food supply,” Jasmine Bruno, Ph.D., FFAR scientific program director for Cultivating Thriving Production Systems, said in the release.
Read More About ASF:
New Grant Funds Development of Safe, Rapidly Deployable ASF Vaccines
U.S. Pork Well Represented in USDA APHIS Accomplishments of 2023
