Poultry

SBC has developed multiple and multivalent in ovo DNA vaccine.

Our multiple and multivalent recombinant vaccine is a patented concept for immunizing poultry and will together with in-ovo administering technology ensure safe and non-contagious immunization practices.

Our technology is under further development. Specific information will be made available at a later date.

Technology Background

Bio Security
It is becoming increasingly usual to find complete value chain integration in the poultry sector. Food retailers run strict quality assurance schemes and view the business from an industrialized perspective. Husbandry systems are large, fully automated and the manpower for the production is kept at a minimum. Vaccination programs are automatically initiated throughout and with the in-ovo administering technique.

Three primary forces are pushing for value chain integration.
- Market ownership and margin control
- Bio-security and total quality management control
- Economies of scale and optimisation of capital resources.

Bio-security implies protection of poultry from pathogens. Good bio-security minimizes such detrimental influx of diseases on the production. A majority of economically significant diseases are transmitted vertically; pathogens present in the chicks are present as the chicks mature. Consistent policy of hygienic control at all levels of the integration is very important as well as ensuring that the birds are free from the major poultry diseases via proactive vaccination programs.

Poultry Diseases & Vaccines
The disease profile for the four breeding groups Broiler, Layer Breeder, Commercial Breeder and Broiler Breeders, follows in general the same pattern.

Four targeted diseases are dominant:

Marek’s Disease (MD)
- a herpesvirus-induced neoplastic disease characterized by inflammation and gross enlargement of the nerves and tumors of the visceral organs, skin and muscles.

Infectious Bronchitis (IB)
- an acute, highly contagious spreading Corona-virus-infection of chickens characterized by respiratory signs often complicated by secondary infections.

Newcastle Disease (ND)
- a paramyxovirus-infection (PM-1). Affected birds are depressed, anorectic and show respiratory signs, by concurrent or closely following CNS involvement (star gazers).

Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) or “Gumboro”.
- an acute, highly contagious disease of young chickens characterized by diarrhea, vent picking, trembling.

The In Ovo Vaccination Method
Although the animal health industry has developed a variety of treatments for the prevention of poultry diseases, these treatments are not always administered to the birds in ways that ensure effective and consistent results as the conventional applications. Many such treatments require multiple post-hatch vaccinations and field boosts and involves costly guesswork. The result is often inefficient, inconsistent vaccine delivery.

In-ovo vaccination is the vaccination done to the egg, prior to the hatching of the bird, normally at day 18 of the 21 days incubation period. The vaccine is injected into the egg. The vaccination method is very efficient with a capacity up to 50,000 eggs per hour, cause no stress related side effects and is very safe.

The in-ovo vaccination procedure is necessary for industrialized hatchery systems and is extremely cost effective.

DNA vaccines
DNA vaccines are different in structure from traditional vaccines. They consist of plasmids, small rings of double-stranded DNA originally derived from bacteria, totally unable to produce an infection. The plasmids used for immunization have been altered to carry genes specifying one or more antigenic proteins normally made by a selected pathogen; at the same time, they exclude genes that would enable the pathogen to reconstitute itself and cause disease.

The DNA vaccines will preserve all the positive aspects of existing vaccines while avoiding their risks. In addition to activating both arms of the immune system, they will never be able to cause infection, because they will lack the genes needed for a pathogen's replication. As a bonus, they are fairly easy to design and to generate in large quantities using commonplace recombinant DNA technology. They are far more stable than other vaccines when stored. The DNA-vaccines are relatively inexpensive to manufacture and easy to distribute widely.

Advantages of DNA vaccines

- Provides long-lived immune responses, unlike many component vaccines that require multiple inoculations to maintain immunity.

- Vaccines for multiple diseases can all be given in a single inoculation.

- All DNA vaccines can be produced using similar techniques. The ability to use generic production methods greatly simplifies the vaccine development and production process.

- DNA vaccines can be stored under a vast array of conditions either dried or in a solution. No need for the "cold chain" required maintaining a vaccine during distribution.

- Candidate vaccines can be recovered from diseased tissue. Microbial DNA can be isolated from the tissue of an infected animal, purified, amplified and screened for vaccine candidates.