Launch Meeting of the Veterinary Vaccinology Network
The first meeting of the BBSRC UK Veterinary Vaccinology Network was held at the ICC in Birmingham on 16-17 February 2015. The meeting was organised around four themes comprising: (1) Epidemiology and Economics; (2) Novel Tools and Technologies; (3) Protective Immunity; and (4) Immunogen Design. The meeting was attended by 130 delegates from a wide variety of backgrounds including academia/research institutes, veterinary pharma/private sector and funding bodies. The invited speakers also represented these backgrounds and gave expert and diverse perspectives on the successes and future challenges of both veterinary and human vaccinology.
The talks were interspersed with breakout sessions in the form of 'Case Studies' based on selected talks. In these sessions, smaller groups of delegates were encouraged to discuss opportunities, barriers to progress and potential solutions relating to specific areas of veterinary vaccinology. Rapporteurs were identified for each group with the purpose of capturing the key discussion points and reporting these back to the collective delegation in the form of one slide. The breakout sessions provided an excellent opportunity for the delegates to interact in an informal setting and generate ideas to progress vaccine development. They also helped the Network Co-ordination Group identify topics for further meetings/workshops and indicated to funders of gaps in capability and how these might be addressed.
The programme of the meeting can be found at here and a copy of the presentations can be found on the highlights of the Veterinary Vaccinology Network Conference 2015 page.
Across the four major sessions of the meeting some common themes emerged:
Vaccination is one component of disease management and comes at a cost. The development and implementation of vaccines should be evaluated on a cost-benefit analysis. Several examples were provided where the evidence-base for vaccination in disease prevention and control was very strong.
Control of disease in animals has a positive impact on global economies and human health in multiple ways: reducing zoonotic infections, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving food security and enhancing food safety;
Prevention is better than cure and vaccination is a desirable and sustainable alternative to the use of antibiotics and anthelminthics. The impact of vaccination on reducing antibiotic usage was shown very succinctly in aqualculture. This not only reduces the likelihood of antibiotic resistance developing, but also reduces the likelihood of antibiotic residues in food animals and the environment.
The 'low hanging fruit' for vaccine development has gone and empirical 'trial and error' approaches to vaccine design have been exhausted. We now need creative and concerted efforts between epidemiologists, structural biologists, chemists, bioinformaticians, immunologists, social scientists, industry and regulatory authorities in consultation with stakeholders to develop the next generation of deployable veterinary vaccines.
Finally, there was a very notable and perceptive 'buzz' throughout the meeting between delegates. There are very positive and clear indications that the Network is providing a forum that promotes inclusive and inter-disciplinary discussions on veterinary vaccinology for scientists, industry and funders and by nourishing these interactions we should improve animal health and welfare, food security and economies at a national and international level.