Research/Vaccine antigens from C. perfringens and C. jejuni
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Project Title: Vaccine antigens from C. perfringens and C. jejuni
Project Leader: Rob Moore at CSIRO funded by Poultry CRC (Poultry CRC Project 05-09)
Duration of Project: 1 November 2005 to 31 October 2008
Contents |
Project overview
Clostridium perfringens is the major cause of necrotic enteritis in chickens and Campylobacter jejuni is the most prevalent cause of human food poisoning caused by contaminated chicken products arising from improper preparation. Whole genome bioinformatics analysis and high throughput recombinant protein production and screening methods will be used to identify candidate antigens for evaluation in vaccine trials.
Project objectives
- Identify vaccine antigens from the bacteria C. perfringens and C. jejuni.
Project progress
Bioinformatic analysis of the genomes of C. perfringens and C. jejuni has defined a set of candidate antigens for testing as protective vaccine antigens. The candidate antigens represent all those proteins that are predicted to be exposed on the cell surface or secreted from the bacteria and hence accessible to the host immune system. Large scale PCR amplification, cloning, expression and recombinant protein purification has been carried out to produce experimental vaccines for use in the infection models that we have established. Trials investigating the immunogenicity of a range of antigens have shown that the vaccine protocols being used are capable of inducing an easily detectable antibody response. Initial vaccine trials have identified a number of C. perfringens antigens which appear to offer a level of protection against the development of necrotic enteritis lesions. Trial work is continuing to confirm these results and test the full range of antigens that we have available.
