Proceedings of the XLVI Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Giardini Naxos, Italy - 18/21 September, 2002

ISBN 88-900622-3-1

Poster Abstract - 2.21

PLANT-DERIVED EDIBLE VACCINES FOR ANIMAL USE

BASSO B.

CNR, Istituto di Biofisica / Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Milano

edible vaccines, transgenic plants, veterinary

Plant-derived edible vaccines represent the next generation in the vaccine family. They combine the advantages of subunit vaccines with new peculiar features of great social potential. In fact, they are planned for oral delivery, do not need cold storage and are expected to have an extremely low cost. Furthermore, the accessibility of the basic approaches for their preparation make them suitable for production and management in developing countries.

For these reasons, plant vaccines are stirring great interest also in the veterinary sector, where growing interest is directed to a variety of different animals that need to be protected against those diseases that cause great economical loss.

In some cases, traditional or subunit vaccines are already available, but either they cannot provide a sufficient protection against the pathogen, or they create problems to the animal because of the way of administration.

In other cases problems are basically economic, due to the cost of traditional or recombinant vaccine production in relation with the number of doses necessary for an efficient prophylaxis.

Here we give an overview of the possibilities offered by this research field and, in partricular, we present research lines that are being developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Veterinary, University of Milano.