Roadmap for the development of candidate vaccine for bTB

What are we trying to achieve and why? What is the problem we are trying to solve?

The development of an effective DNA vaccine for use on its own or in combination with other bovine TB vaccines in a prime-boost combination.

What are the scientific and technological challenges
(knowledge gaps needing to be addressed)?

What approaches could/should be taken to address the research question?

• Establishing the immune responses following immunisation with DNA coding for various protective antigens.
• Challenge experiments involving animals vaccinated with DNA fragments identified from experiments looking at the immune responses.

What else needs to be done before we can solve this need?

• Identifying a combination of protective antigens the genes for which could form part of a DNA vaccine
• Identifying suitable molecular adjuvants to stimulate strong cell-mediated immune responses

Existing knowledge including successes and failures