The prevention and rapid control of emerging infectious diseases in production animals has been a global necessity for the past decade. This is due to the emergence and spread of high-threat viruses in the animal sphere such as influenza viruses (H5Nx, H1N1) and covid-19 which made the prevention and control of these emergences a top priority which must be based on an integrated approach between public health, animal health and the environment.
This is best described as a “One Health” approach. Ceva is already involved in this approach and more particularly in the fight against the spread of infectious diseases that can be transmitted to humans by wild and/or domestic animals, such as avian and swine influenza, brucellosis, Q fever and rabies.
Influenza viruses are, along with coronaviruses, the virus family with the highest pandemic risk. There is an urgent need for new tools to prevent the emergence of new animal epidemics more quickly and effectively. In this context Ceva has acquired the latest-generation vaccine platform to prevent these epizootics and/or panzootics which can impact public health.
In June 2021, Ceva responded to a call for projects on the fight against emerging infectious diseases issued by the BPI (French Public Investment Bank). Our project called BioFluARN won the call along with 25 other projects. It will be led by Ceva and implemented in partnership with CIRAD (Centre for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development).
BioFluARN setup a system integrating field surveillance and virus characterization data for avian and porcine influenza viruses, relying on international and national scientific collaborations. This system makes it possible to quickly and efficiently select viral sequences of interest for the vaccines to be developed. BioFluARN also involves the development and study of the efficiency of 5 vaccine candidates of the new RNA vaccine technology.
In addition, with CIRAD, we carry out modelling to optimize the effectiveness of these avian and porcine vaccines in the field. Finally, this project allows our Ceva SSIU laboratory in Angers to establish a strong competence in the field of high-throughput next generation sequencing and bioinformatics, a discipline that allows the interface between field data on circulating viruses for the rapid and efficient generation of vaccines. Collection of field and sequence data allows for Artificial Intelligence development which in turn, will eventually be able to generate a prediction of vaccine efficacy. On the aspect related to our Angers laboratory, this project aims to strengthen and boost the French and European sector of development and production of RNA-based biotherapies, also funded by the BPI.
The BioFluARN project is based on a long-standing collaboration between Ceva Santé Animale and CIRAD. In fact, Ceva and CIRAD have been working together since 2013 to evaluate vaccination strategies in the context of avian influenza control in several countries.