Funding to protect piglets hailed

Project gets money for work to tackle bacterial pathogen that can devastate herds

An €800,000 (£707,000) funding award to enable Scottish and Swedish researchers to advance the development of a vaccine to protect piglets against a potentially devastating infection has been welcomed by industry leaders.

The targeted problem is Streptococcus suis (S.suis), a bacterial pathogen that can cause severe infections in pig herds with devastating results for the industry. It is also a potential zoonosis, although cases in humans are rare in the UK at one-toeven cases a year, according to figures released by Public Health England in 2016.

Work to produce an innovative vaccine against S.suis has been progressing for some time as part of a joint project involving Moredun Scientific in Edinburgh and the Swedish biotechnology company Intervacc.

Now, the opportunity to further advance the development of the vaccine has been made possible by the release of funding by Eurostars-2, a programme co-funded by the European Union and 36 national funding agencies.

Moredun and Intervacc’s current project budget is set at approximately €1.6 million, with the Eurostars-2 award projected to cover 50% of project costs.

“This is excellent news,” said Andy McGowan, chief executive of Scottish Pig Producers. “Streptococcus suis is one of the major disease challenges for pigs in Scotland, particularly for younger age groups and a piglet vaccine would be a fantastic tool to have available.

“The involvement of Moredun Scientific, meanwhile, exemplifies the world-class research and development facilities that are available on our doorstep to help the Scottish farming industry.”

The Eurostars grant will fund a number of project steps, including preclinical efficacy studies in piglets, analysis of the immune response and vaccination of pregnant sows. Moredun Scientific also plans to develop new models of S.suis infection, which will be added to its disease models portfolio and made available for use in client studies.

Chance of new vaccine has been welcomed by Andy McGowan, of Scottish Pig Producers.