Research/A new virulence factor in Clostridium perfringens causing Necrotic Enteritis in chickens - a route to vaccine development
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Photo Frank Filippi, CSIRO
Title: A new virulence factor in Clostridium perfringens causing necrotic enteritis in chickens - a route to vaccine development
Project Leaders: Anthony Keyburn and Julian Rood at Monash University funded by Poultry CRC (Project 07-15)
Duration of Project: 1 October 2007 to 31 December 2009
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Project overview
The Poultry CRC and the poultry production industries are seeking alternative treatment strategies for necrotic enteritis beyond the current in-feed antibiotics. It has been claimed that, globally, necrotic enteritis may cause losses of up to US$2 billion annually.
The Poultry CRC is currently supporting a project (05-09) that aims to identify potential protective antigens by using a bioinformatic approach to predict secreted and surface exposed proteins from Clostridium perfringens and then use high throughput methods to determine the vaccine potential of such proteins. Anthony Keyburn's PhD project has been investigating fundamental aspects of C. perfringens virulence, in particular the role of known and newly discovered toxins.
The approaches taken within project 05-09 and the Keyburn PhD project produced data that led simultaneously and in combination to the identification of a new pore-forming toxin, NetB. This toxin has the potential to form the basis of a number of different sorts of vaccines.
Project objectives
- The objective of the project is to use our recently acquired knowledge regarding a novel toxin, NetB, produced by Clostridium perfringens, to develop a vaccine against necrotic enteritis.
Project progress
See also
- Necrotic enteritis
- Poultry CRC Project 05-09: Vaccine antigens from C. perfringens and C. jejuni
- Poultry CRC Project 03-04: Dietary manipulation post hatch
- Poultry CRC Project 05-03: Phenolics for inhibition of gut microorganisms
- Digestive system
