Rift Valley fever can be transmitted by at least 10 species of mosquito.

Money to fund research and development of vaccine

A project to develop a safe and effective livestock vaccine against Rift Valley fever has been awarded £1.580 million by the government.

Rift Valley fever is an emerging global health threat which has been prioritised for vaccine research and development by the World Health Organisation. 

The vaccine project is a collaboration between the Pirbright Institute, the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi and the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford.

Caused by the Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), Rift Valley fever can be transmitted by at least 10 species of mosquito that are more widely distributed than RVFV is at present. This has led to concern about the potential for further spread of the disease.

Cattle, goats, sheep and camels are highly susceptible to RVFV infection, which is fatal in around 90 per cent of cases. But humans can also contract the disease, either through infected mosquito bites or contact with RVFV-contaminated tissues and fluid.

Currently, there are no licensed vaccines available for humans - and the RVFV livestock vaccines that are widely used in Africa differ in their effectiveness. The livestock vaccines also suffer from other drawbacks, like the need for expensive high-containment facilities during production.

“This project will address an important disease in Africa and provide a tool to aid the control of disease in countries currently free of RVFV that experience outbreaks either through natural causes or by malicious spread,” commented Pirbright's CEO Dr Bryan Charleston.

“It highlights the importance of the many national and international partnerships that we have fostered and how these facilitate our work in fighting existing and potential disease threats to the UK and globally.”

Members of the Jenner Institute based at Pirbright and Oxford have been working for many years on developing a vaccine against RVFV.

“Working with colleagues at ILRI in Nairobi, Kenya, where the disease is endemic, has been very productive and we will build on this successful collaboration," said project leader Dr George Warimwe.

"We have also had positive discussions with the regulatory authorities in Kenya regarding field studies with this new vaccine. If successful this would enable us to register and produce the vaccine in this region and potentially pave the way for registration and use in other African countries as well.

“This project runs in parallel to studies to develop the same vaccine platform for use in humans. The synergy between the two programmes will facilitate progress in the development pipelines for human and animal vaccines.”