Beef and lamb exports are major industries for New Zealand that will potentially exceed $3 billion for the first time this year. However, a high prevalence of veterinary pathogens causes increased rates of animal deaths and suffering and decreased production. Furthermore, diseases like pneumonia in sheep and mastitis in cows lack effective vaccines.

Associate professors Bridget Stocker and Mattie Timmer from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, are working with AgResearch to help address this problem, developing vaccines to help prevent ovine pneumonia, with promising early results.

Stocker and Timmer lead the immunoglycomics research group within the university's School of Chemical & Physical Sciences.

This is the next step in an ongoing project for the university researchers, who have spent the past few years developing a new class of vaccine adjuvant — an additive to a vaccine that improves the host’s immune response and increases vaccine efficacy. During the development of this adjuvant class, the researchers, along with their doctoral student Amy Foster, worked with immunology expert professor Sho Yamasaki with the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases in Japan.

“To have an effective vaccine, you need the right adjuvant for the right pathogen,” Stocker said. “There is a gap in the market for adjuvants that elicit a strong cellular immune response in addition to an antibody-mediated response. This is a need we are addressing.”

The adjuvant created at Victoria University of Wellington activates a specific immune pathway. This pathway is related to a number of human diseases, such as meningitis and tuberculosis, but it is also related to the pathogens that cause ovine pneumonia.

With the help of Viclink, the university’s commercialization arm, and funding from New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, Stocker and Timmer connected with Drs. Neil Wedlock, Natalie Parlane and Axel Heiser from AgResearch, who are experts in animal vaccines.

“We hadn’t initially considered our adjuvant in relation to animal vaccines, but Viclink suggested this as a possible commercialization pathway,” Stocker said. “So far, our early trials show a lot of promise, and we’re very excited about the next steps.”

“We spend a long time undertaking basic research to understand how particular classes of molecules interact with the immune system. It’s great to be able to take this knowledge from an academic setting to one that could help solve a major issue in the New Zealand farming industry,” she added.

At this point, the research team has worked to refine the adjuvant in the laboratory and develop a vaccine for use in sheep. They have completed the first phase of testing and will enter the second phase over the coming months.

“In the first proof-of-concept trial, the adjuvant performed as good as, if not better than, currently available adjuvants,” Timmer said. “It is still early days, but it bodes well for future testing.

“Science is never straightforward. If it were, there would be no problems left to solve, but we are quietly optimistic, and early indicators suggest we are heading in the right direction,” he added.

Viclink senior commercialization manager Jeremy Jones said he is very excited to be working with the team to progress the technology toward the market.

“Each set of results we get makes us more excited about this project,” Jones said. “The team they have assembled makes our job much easier, as we have all of the expertise we need to generate a very strong data package, and the involvement of the team at AgResearch has accelerated this project, allowing us to gather data in a large animal to bolster the laboratory work done here at the university. On a recent trip to the U.S. to engage with the animal health market, it was clear that there is an imperative from these companies to find technologies that enabled the reduction or elimination of antibiotics from the food chain. An effective vaccination program and use of immunostimulants such as these developed by associate professors Stocker and Timmer and their team are the best line of defense for the industry.”