About Vacdiva
African swine fever (ASF) is a devastating infectious disease in pigs – usually deadly. No vaccine exists to combat this virus. The European Union has laid down prevention and control measures to be applied where African swine fever is suspected or confirmed, either in holdings or in wild boars.
The EU-funded VACDIVA project will provide three safe and effective pilot vaccines for wild boars and domestic pigs that are ready for registration. It will also validate DIVA tests and develop cost-benefit and -effective surveillance and control-vaccination strategies.
Field trials will be conducted in Kenya and Lithuania. Epidemiological modelling of worldwide scenarios will be offered in a portfolio of services to help animal health authorities control and eradicate the disease.
OBJECTIVES
To provide effective and safe vaccine(s) for wild boar and domestic pigs ready for registration.
To develop DIVA test to allow an accurate monitoring of the effectiveness of the vaccine.
To design ASF control and eradication strategies in different epidemiological scenarios worldwide and test the pilot vaccine in real environments (including buspigs and warthogs).
UCM-PROJECT COORDINATION
José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno
Prof. Sánchez-Vizcaíno is Professor of Animal Health at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, carrying out his teaching and research on infection diseases in the Department of Animal Health at the Veterinary Faculty as well as is Director of the OIE-ASF reference Laboratory. In 2013 was nominated as the George Poppensiek visiting professor on global animal health at Cornell University, NY and since September 2018 Adjunct Professor of the Veterinary Population Medicine Department of Minnesota University
The Scientific contributions of Professor Sanchez-Vizcaino have notably contributed to the control and eradication of various animal diseases, among them the African Swine Fever, African Horse Sickness and Classical Swine Fever. All of that thanks to the development of new fast and sensitive diagnostic tests and reagents and new epidemiological models and control strategies.
He has more than 200 publications in journal of high impact and is the director of 27 Ph.D thesis and awarded with the Merit Medal from the World Organization for Animal Health (Paris, May 2009). International recognition to his outstanding services to veterinary science.
Since 2019 Prof. Sánchez-Vizcaíno is in charge of the VACDIVA project, coordinating the work between the different partners of the project including six national EU laboratories , four prestigious ASF research centers and two leader companies in vaccines production and ASF diagnostic kits.