£400,000 grant to support vaccine work targeting global cattle diseases

Innovate UK has awarded a coveted Smart grant to Plymouth-based The Vaccine Group for its research to create vaccines for several important infectious diseases in cattle worldwide.

The £400,000 award, which is for its partnership with The Animal and Plant Health Agency, will support a 19-month project.

Technology has been developed by scientists at The Vaccine Group’s laboratories in Plymouth to create candidate vaccines and this project will look to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology on vaccines for two diseases.

Bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) impacts 1.9m calves and costs £54m each year. Lumpy skin disease (LSD), which has has spread dramatically outside Africa and the Middle East in the last decade, is now causing severe disease in eastern Europe, south-east Asia and the Far East.

Dr Jeremy Salt, chief executive at The Vaccine Group, said: “For cattle farmers around the globe infectious diseases are a major cause for concern and can lead to significant losses – both in terms of animal health and welfare, and in financial terms.

“Our goal in developing a viral vector platform for use in cattle effective vaccines is to overcome some of the deficiencies that affect the current commercialised vaccines.”