Roadmap for the development of candidate vaccines for FMD

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

The development of a safe effective vaccine that gives broad cross-protection based on a recombinant replicating
organism. A replicating organism presenting the protective antigens to cross-protect against a number of strains

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

• Prevent the development of immune responses to the vector
• Antigenic variation
• Ensure rapid onset of immunity
• Ensure safety in cattle and pigs
• Improve efficacy in cattle and pigs
• Improve potency standardisation

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

• Identifying the most appropriate vector
• Monitoring the immune response following immunisation with the various candidates involving single/combination of antigens
• Challenge experiments with the various vaccine candidates
• Development of vaccine platforms
• Identify most appropriate route of administration (parenteral/oral/nasal).

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

• Identity of protective antigens
• Identity of virulence factors
• Identity of immunomodulators

Existing knowledge including successes and failures

The Ad5-FMD vaccine platform is in the development phase represented by the lead vaccine candidate, Ad5-FMD subtype A24. The Ad5-FMD vaccine platform has several advantages over conventional FMD vaccine platforms. Similar to conventional FMD vaccines, the Ad5-FMD vaccine platform provides serotype-specific and subtype-specific protection against FMDV disease as early as 7 days post-vaccination. Purity, potency, safety, and efficacy testing
are still underway