whooo$h catalyst/csiro 15 years exp in avian vac.

Dr Warwick Lamb, Managing Director of Imugene. “The gene used is the correct
protective gene and once we get correct expression of this gene, we expect
effective protection against the Avian Influenza.”


The research team aims to deliver a trial vaccine against the virulent H5N1 strain of the
disease, within a matter of months. Once developed the vaccine could be used to
safeguard Australia's poultry industry.
CSIRO's Dr Chris Prideaux says that even if development of a vaccine is too late to help
control the current outbreak in Asia, it would still be possible for researchers to quickly
adapt it to deal with new strains of avian influenza.
"In this way, if we are successful in creating a more effective vaccine, this would then
provide a new option for controlling avian influenza outbreaks if and when they arise,
either in Australia or overseas," he says.
The research will utilise Imugene's Adenoviral Vector Delivery System (AVDS) - which
originated from CSIRO research - to deliver a small portion of the flu genetic material to
poultry to stimulate the birds' immune response and provide protection from the flu virus.
Imugene's Managing Director, Dr Warwick Lamb, says the platform AVDS allows a new
potential vaccine to be constructed quickly at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health
Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong - one of the world's leading animal disease diagnosis and
research facilities.
"The CSIRO research team have been working with the AVDS and its use with poultry for
over a decade and have relevant experience with chicken viruses," Dr Lamb says.
"Vaccines based on the AVDS only use a portion of the viral structure of the flu virus,
making them safer than a live attenuated vaccine approach. With the latter approach,
there is some risk that the vaccine could mutate or combine with naturally occurring
influenza virus, resulting in potential new strains that are not covered by the existing
vaccines. The AVDS vaccine would avoid this problem."
However, because different vaccines are required for each strain of the influenza virus, a
new AVDS vaccine would only be effective against the strain of the virus (H5N1) it is
designed to target.