New Grant Will Help Develop Vaccine Delivery System for Tilapia Lake Virus
The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) has joined in the war against the tilapia lake virus (TLV) with a US$790,326 Seeding Solutions grant award to the University of Florida in support of the development of a vaccine delivery system for halting the spread of the disease. UF startup and UF Innovate | Sid Martin Biotech resident company Curtiss Healthcare has also provided matching funds to bring the total investment to US$1,830,312.
FFAR said although TLV has yet to be reported in North America, there is a risk that if it arrived it could pose harmful consequences – exacerbating mortality rates in fish farms which have already climbed to an all-time high of 50 percent or more.
The university’s researchers, led by Roy Curtiss, a professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases & Immunology at UF, will base the vaccine delivery system on “weakened and programmed self-destructing bacterial strains, which can be applied through the mucous membranes and enable complete protection against the virus.
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