Cattle vaccination studies using novel anti-cattle tick antigens developed during Beef CRC research | 2017

Summary

​Cattle ticks (Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus) cost Australian cattle industries approximately $175m in economic losses through Ill-thrift of cattle, hide damage, tick fever transmission and the cost of treatments required to control infestations. The previous TickGARD vaccine was discontinued in 2010 due to poor uptake by the beef industry in northern Australia where several boosts of the vaccine were required per year to develop adequate protection from tick infestations. The Beef CRC (2005-2012) developed a research program to identify novel tick vaccine candidates and mixtures of vaccines demonstrated promising efficacies in cattle tick challenge trials.

The objective of this project was to screen the components of these mixtures and identify potential lead antigens for development and commercialization for an effective tick vaccine in Australia. Approximately 20 vaccine components were tested in tick challenge cattle trials in various formats, as short protein peptides (majority), some mixtures of short peptides, and as whole large proteins. The highest efficacies observed ranged from 45-66% and mixtures of peptides did not produce synergistic higher efficacies. Future research should determine the best method to produce either a mixture of the top 3 peptides or the whole protein derivatives to obtain efficacies >80% for commercial adoption.