Developing vaccines for insect-borne viruses

Vaccines developed using proteins rather than live viruses can help protect animals and subsequently humans from insect-borne viruses, according to Alan Young, chief scientific officer for Medgene Labs, an animal health company that develops therapeutics and diagnostics, including vaccines. “Platform technologies—that is where our niche is,” says Young, who is also a veterinary science professor at South Dakota State University. Medgene uses advances in molecular biology and technologies licensed from the university. The company’s initial vaccine formulation targets Rift Valley Fever, found in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The viral disease is particularly devastating to sheep, with a mortality rate of 90 percent in lambs and 10 percent in adult sheep. The virus affects cattle, camels and goats similarly, but to a lesser extent. It can be spread to humans in the same manner as animals—through the bite of an infected mosquito. Of the vaccines available, the one produced from a live virus...