An international team meets in Cordoba to discuss latest reserach developments
An international team meets in Cordoba to discuss latest reserach developments
A scientific team of researchers from Europe, America, Africa and Asia participate as members of the Paravac Vaccines against helminth-infection European project (http://paravac.eu/), funded by the European Commission. Project training activities are coordinated by researcher Álvaro José Pérez Martínez at the University of Cordoba, which is part of the Agrifood Campus of International Excellence ceiA3. The team will present this week in Cordoba recent progress in the development of vaccines for the control of cattle and sheep helminth parasites –commonly known as worms (Fasciola hepatica, Haemonchus contortus, Ostergatia ostertagi, Cooperia oncophora, and Echinococcus hydatidosus Dyctiocaulus viviparus).
This is the third meeting of the international team for this 7th Framework Programme project, which has been awarded a total funding of 12.5 M € and an EU contribution of € 9 million and involves 23 partners in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, as well as several SMEs and the pharmaceutical company Zoetis.
These parasites cause substantial economic losses in the livestock sector (estimated at over 3,000 M € per year worldwide) . Two of them ( Echinococcus and Fasciola) are emerging zoonosis which also affect humans. The continuous use of control drugs is causing an alarming increase in parasite resistance, which, together with climate change, is causing an increase in the prevalence of parasites in animal production. For these reasons the development of vaccines for disease control is now a priority. In the last three decades of research, only one commercial vaccine against a helminth parasite of cattle has been developed. This vaccine is based on inactivated larvae, which is very expensive and impractical, and there is no vaccine against human helminth parasites. This shows the difficulty of producing a protective immunity against complex parasites with a similar genome size to the host.
The PARAVAC project has been successful in developing a vaccine for the control of H. contortus in sheep. This vaccine is now in regulatory phase in different countries. Significant progress has been achieved with other vaccine candidates, confirming that vaccines can be a valuable tool for the control of helminth parasites in cattle and humans.
A scientific team of researchers from Europe, America, Africa and Asia participate as members of the 'Paravac Vaccines against helminth-infection' European project, funded by the European Commission. Project training activities are coordinated by researcher Álvaro José Pérez Martínez at the University of Cordoba, which is part of the Agrifood Campus of International Excellence ceiA3. The team will present this week in Cordoba recent progress in the development of vaccines for the control of cattle and sheep helminth parasites –commonly known as worms (Fasciola hepatica, Haemonchus contortus, Ostergatia ostertagi, Cooperia oncophora, Echinococcus hydatidosus and Dyctiocaulus viviparus).
This is the third meeting of the international team for this 7th Framework Programme project, which has been awarded a total funding of 12.5 M € and an EU contribution of € 9 million and involves 23 partners in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, as well as several SMEs and the pharmaceutical company Zoetis.
These parasites cause substantial economic losses in the livestock sector (estimated at over 3,000 M € per year worldwide . Two of them (Echinococcus and Fasciola) are emerging zoonosis which also affect humans. The continuous use of control drugs is causing an alarming increase in parasite resistance, which, together with climate change, is causing an increase in the prevalence of parasites in animal production. For these reasons, the development of vaccines for disease control is now a priority. In the last three decades of research, only one commercial vaccine against a helminth parasite of cattle has been developed. This vaccine is based on inactivated larvae, which is very expensive and impractical, and there is no vaccine against human helminth parasites. This shows the difficulty of producing a protective immunity against complex parasites with a similar genome size to the host.
PARAVAC project has been successful in developing a vaccine for the control of H. contortus in sheep. This vaccine is now in regulatory phase in different countries. Significant progress has been achieved with other vaccine candidates, confirming that vaccines can be a valuable tool for the control of helminth parasites in cattle and humans.
