Trials begin of new ASF candidate vaccine

Scientists have begun clinical trials of what they hope could be a new vaccine against African swine fever (ASF).

The collaboration between The Pirbright Institute and the Vaccine Group (TVG) will see vaccinated pigs exposed to what project leaders describe as a “virulent” strain of the virus through a model intended to imitate natural infection routes.

Chris Netherton, Pirbright’s ASF vaccinology group leader said the project offered “exciting potential for vaccine development” and its results would be published as soon as possible.

News of the tests comes amid growing concern about the scale of the potential threat posed by the spread of ASF globally.

‘Global issue’

According to figures from the World Organisation for Animal Health, 64 countries and territories have reported the presence of ASF between January 2022 and March 2025, leading to the loss of more than two million pigs, mostly in Europe.

The threat from the virus has also fuelled political debate in the UK about investment in the APHA’s Weybridge headquarters and Dr Netherton added: “This massive geographical expansion makes ASF a truly global issue and the risk of further dissemination into disease-free areas is considered high.”

The institute and TVG have been collaborating on ASF for more than six years and the latest tests follow the presentation an Industry Partnership Award from the UK Research and Innovation Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council last year for collaboration on a bovine herpesvirus-vectored vaccine against the virus.

DIVA compatible

TVG chief executive Jeremy Salt said: “The vaccine delivers several antigenic proteins derived from the ASF virus and is inherently compatible with a DIVA approach to diagnostics and surveillance.

“The development of an effective vaccine has enormous value from an animal welfare, food security and commercial perspective.

“There is no widely available vaccine against ASF even for the genotype II that is the cause of the current global epidemic.

“Recent limited introductions of a live attenuated vaccine in south-east Asia have been associated with some safety concerns, an issue that TVG’s vaccine would address.”