About This Project

Avian influenza (AI) threatens poultry worldwide. Existing vaccines are expensive, require injections, and cold storage, limiting large-scale use. We aim to create a low-cost oral vaccine by engineering yeast to express conserved H5N1 antigens and a mucosal adjuvant. After heat-inactivation and drying, the yeast will be mixed into feed, enabling mass vaccination without injections or refrigeration. This strategy offers a simple, scalable, and affordable way to protect poultry from AI outbreaks.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Avian influenza (AI) is a serious threat to poultry farming, causing major economic losses and food shortages. Highly pathogenic strains like H5N1 have led to mass culling and rising egg prices. Traditional methods like culling and biosecurity are often insufficient. Existing vaccines are costly, require injections, and depend on cold storage, making them impractical for large farms. Rapid virus mutations also limit vaccine effectiveness. To overcome these challenges, we propose an oral vaccine using yeast engineered to express conserved H5N1 antigens with a mucosal adjuvant. After heat inactivation and drying, the yeast powder can be mixed into feed, allowing easy mass vaccination without injections or refrigeration. This approach could provide a scalable, low-cost solution to protect poultry health, reduce economic losses, and strengthen global food security.

What is the significance of this project?

This project addresses a critical need for affordable, scalable vaccination against avian influenza (AI), which continues to cause severe outbreaks worldwide. These outbreaks result in poultry loss, economic damage, and rising food insecurity. We propose a yeast-based oral vaccine expressing conserved H5N1 antigens with a mucosal adjuvant. The vaccine is heat-inactivated and dried, allowing easy mixing into feed without the need for injections or cold storage. This reduces labor and cost, enabling mass application on large farms. Targeting conserved regions may offer broader protection against AI variants. The platform can be adapted to other livestock diseases, supporting long-term food security and outbreak response.

What are the goals of the project?

The main goal of this project is to develop a low-cost, feed-based oral vaccine candidate against avian influenza (AI) for poultry. We aim to engineer Saccharomyces cerevisiae to express conserved regions of the H5N1 virus’s hemagglutinin (HA2) and neuraminidase (NA1) proteins, which are less variable across strains and involved in viral entry and release. These antigens will be fused with a mucosal adjuvant (PltB), and the yeast will be heat-inactivated, dried into powder, and mixed into poultry feed. This project focuses on constructing the synthetic gene, confirming expression in yeast, producing a stable powder, and verifying feed compatibility. Animal testing is not included in this phase but is planned for a future project to evaluate vaccine efficacy.