UNIQUE RESEARCH AT U OF S
Camel virus could be threat to humans
Darryl Falzarano knows it might seem odd for a scientist based in Saskatoon to spend years working on a vaccine for camels aimed at stopping the even-toed ungulates from transmitting a serious virus to humans in the Middle East.
At the same time, the VIDO -InterVac researcher at the University of Saskatchewan said a single infected traveller can have huge consequences, like the related severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak that devastated Toronto’s economy in the early 2000s.
“A few infected people can really impact what goes on locally, and you can never really be prepared for that … I think it’s important to not just be concerned with what’s happening in your backyard,” Falzarano said Tuesday.
First identified in 2012, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is what’s known as a coronavirus, a cousin of SARS that is thought to be transmitted to humans from camels through close contact. Fal- zarano said the fatality rate is about 35 per cent.
The Winnipeg-born scientist grew interested in the virus a few years ago, when he was working on Ebola as a post-doctoral researcher at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont. He came to Saskatoon to study it full time in 2014.
Last month, he was one of six University of Saskatchewan scientists awarded a total of $5.2 million for a wide range of projects, including one aimed at developing therapies for breast cancer and another intended to improve the lives of pigs on farms.
Falzarano’s share of the federal funding — $679,000 — is expected to cover the cost of more researchers for his three-person team and four years of work that could yield a vaccine that prevents camels from contracting and transmitting the disease.
Falzarano said he hopes using alpacas as surrogates for the larger animals will lead to a “vaccine platform” that can then be tested in camels in the Middle East.
“Our goal is to have our first animal trials within the next few months and see how those go — and whether or not we need to make any modifications to our platform going forward, or what we need to do to optimize (it).”
While working on MERS in Canada might seem unusual, he hinted that it carries a moral imperative.
“Why did Winnipeg’s lab spend 10 years developing a vaccine for Ebola when Canada has never seen a case? Because they could and should, where other people couldn’t. I think that’s the case here, too.”