Novel Vaccine Delivery Technology

Infections of the respiratory and GI tracts are among the most common diseases of piglets worldwide and cause substantial economic loss to swine producers. Effective immunity to these infections needs a specific response at the surface of the tract (Bozic et al., 2002). However vaccine formulation and delivery to these surfaces remains a major challenge. Recent evidence of this type of immune response in the intestinal mucosa, using a unique animal model system developed at VIDO, supports the importance of delivering antigen directly to the site (targeting) where an effective immune response is desired (Gerdts et al., 2001). An alternative mucosal immunization can be achieved by aerosol delivery to the upper respiratory tract and by including immuno stimulatory (CpG) DNA in the vaccine (Alcon et al., 2003).