Vaccine success sees Moredun head to market

Published on Thursday 10 December 2009 19:15

IT MAY have a somewhat exotic name but the Barber Pole worm was this week called a "nasty blood-sucking piece of work" by the scientist charged with finding a way to eliminating it.

The work of Dr David Smith and his team at the Moredun Research Institute could make a dramatic difference for sheep and goat keepers all around the world. The scientists have now produced a vaccine that can massively reduce the infestation levels of this parasite.

The Barber Pole worm, which as the name suggests has red and white stripes all along its body, is the bane of livestock farmers in many of the warmer parts of the world. In some locations, farmers have given up keeping sheep and goats because it has been very difficult to control the parasite, which lives in the gut of the host.

It is a major concern for sheep farmers in Australia and as climate change takes effect some experts have suggested it could become a problem in this country in the future.

Speaking at the Moredun this week, Smith said the vaccine his team are using is extracted from adult worms. They have found that when this is injected into animals it causes resistance to the parasite.

Trials on goats in South Africa and sheep in Australia have proven the efficacy of this treatment with 80 to 90 per cent reductions in the worm burden.

Scientists are also carrying out trials in Brazil after finding that a related parasite to the Barber Pole worm that affects cattle can be treated by similar methods. It is estimated that most of the 180 million cattle in Brazil are infected with roundworm but a trial has shown a dramatic reduction in the parasitic infection after treatment.

The exciting prospect for Moredun is that the commercialisation of this vaccine could help fund future research. Just how much cash could come from this venture was surrounded by wide approximations this week, but one suggestion was that it could generate more than a 1 million annually.

Until now, Moredun has normally gone to major pharmaceutical companies when it had a successful treatment of a disease, but this time, Professor Julie Fitzpatrick, chief executive, said the institute wanted to take the vaccine through to the market itself.

Apart from the Barber Pole vaccine, the method of treatment is also giving rise to optimism in treating other parasites of animals and humans. Scientists in the US are looking at the same process, which has been patented by Moredun, for treating hook worms, which are a major problem in some parts of the States.