USDA Discovers Safer FMD Vaccine
October 30, 2013| |
Scientists at the USDA Agricultural Research Service successfully developed vaccines to prevent food-and-mouth (FMD), a highly contagious disease of cattle, swine, sheep, and goats. Microbiologist Elizabeth Rieder and team identified a virus sequence that, if removed, makes the FMD virus harmless to animals. They used the DNA sequence to manipulate the FMD virus leading them to elucidate how the virus multiplies itself, interacts with host animals, and impedes the animal's defense mechanisms.
The team developed the FMD vaccine which does not need the virulent virus. Instead, it uses a weakened FMD virus that does not cause disease. It is safer than traditional vaccine production methods that use naturally occurring FMD virus strains. Rieder also labeled the virus used in the new vaccine so that it can be differentiated from other naturally occurring viruses. At present, a private company is developing the ARS technology for vaccine production.
Read more at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2013/131024.htm.
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