Tick vaccine
Tick vaccine - Beef CRC - Beef Genetic Technologies
| The high costs associated with controlling cattle ticks in Australia and internationally, together with the impact of the use of chemicals to control ticks on food safety and the environment, have meant the cattle industry and governments worldwide have identified the development of a tick vaccine with 12 month’s immunity duration and 90% efficacy as a very high priority. Development of such a vaccine is the target of this project. Successful development of a vaccine to control cattle ticks is contingent on the successful outcome of an in vivo study and two animal trials. Although the project is on track with all its milestones to date, the degree of difficulty in achieving viable vaccine candidate(s) is extremely high. If Beef CRC identifies effective vaccine targets through its animal trials it will still require very significant additional funds and several more years to develop the vaccine into a fully registered commercial product available (by way of example, it took 9 years for two vaccines developed in CRCI to pass through all national registration requirements and become commercially available). Industry use: An effective tick vaccine will require an initial immunisation and possibly a booster vaccine within 4-8 weeks of the initial vaccination. It will also require that each animal is vaccinated annually thereafter to maintain ongoing immunity. Economic benefit: The Australian cattle (beef and dairy) industry incurs losses of ~$175m per annum due to the impact of ticks and tick-borne diseases and costs of treatment to ensure compliance with regulatory protocols for interstate and international livestock movement. The Queensland Government expends $3.3m p.a. to maintain the tick line. |
| Test for Acaricide Resistance |
| In addition to the tick vaccine reseasch the Beef CRC has also developed a simple tool that can be used primarily by tick regulatory authorities to identify ticks that are resistant to synthetic pyrethroids, It was delivered to Queensland’s tick control agencies in 2008, replacing the cumbersome and time-consuming larval packet test. |
