Tuesday, January 7, 2025 1/7/2025

US-UK Collab: The consequences of transmissible vaccines on disease ecology and pathogen evolution: Marek's disease virus as a case study

Award Number: R01GM140459
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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Vaccination can be one of the most efficient and effective tools for controlling infectious diseases, but in many settings, including wildlife and farm animal diseases, logistical and economic hurdles make it impractical to vaccinate large enough fractions of hosts to achieve herd immunity. Transmissible vaccines, defined as vaccines capable of disseminating from vaccinated to non-vaccinated hosts, offer one potential solution to these challenges by amplifying the impact of vaccination campaigns. However, transmissible vaccines are not without risk. Reversion to virulence or recombination with wildtype pathogens could cause transmissible vaccines to make matters worse or complicate elimination efforts. This proposed work will for the first time quantify the effects of transmissible vaccines on disease ecology and evolution using an economically important, naturally transmissible vaccine currently in widespread use on poultry farms. Marek's disease, a poultry-specific disease that is a threat to sustainable poultry production, is currently controlled by the "Rispens" vaccine, a live, attenuated vaccine that has been widely used for two decades. Recent experiments have found that this vaccine is capable of efficiently transmitting from vaccinated to non-vaccinated birds. These results are consistent with recent field surveillance studies that have found vaccine isolates in cohorts that have not been directly vaccinated. In addition, advances in whole genome sequencing have revealed recombination between the vaccine virus and the wildtype virus, which is concerning given that the vaccine virus harbors highly virulent forms of the oncogenic meq gene. Together, these observations demonstrate that the Rispens vaccine is a transmissible vaccine capable of evolving and potentially facilitating adverse evolution of wildtype Marek's disease virus. Our primary objective is to quantify the consequences of transmissible vaccine use. Specifically, we will: 1) Develop a general model of transmissible vaccination to identify key knowledge gaps, 2) Characterize vaccine transmission and its impact on wildtype virus transmission, 3) Characterize the genetic evolution of wildtype virus and vaccine virus, 4) Model the overall impact of Rispens vaccination on Marek's disease virus and its vaccine


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $184,927 )
2024	2024	THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY	201 OLD MAIN	UNIVERSITY PARK	PA	16802	CENTRE	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	5	5/21/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$184,927
														Subtotal = $184,927

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $369,851 )
2023	2023	PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	201 OLD MAIN	UNIVERSITY PARK	PA	16802	CENTRE	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	4	5/19/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$369,851
														Subtotal = $369,851

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $369,851 )
2022	2022	PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	201 OLD MAIN	UNIVERSITY PARK	PA	16802	CENTRE	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	3	5/11/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$369,851
														Subtotal = $369,851

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $369,851 )
2021	2021	PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	201 OLD MAIN	UNIVERSITY PARK	PA	16802	CENTRE	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	2	4/15/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$369,851
														Subtotal = $369,851

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $369,851 )
2020	2020	PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	201 OLD MAIN	UNIVERSITY PARK	PA	16802	CENTRE	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	001	1	8/1/2020	NEW	$0
2020	2020	PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	201 OLD MAIN	UNIVERSITY PARK	PA	16802	CENTRE	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	1	7/21/2020	NEW	$369,851
														Subtotal = $369,851

Grand Total All Awards = $1,664,331

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US-UK Collab: The consequences of transmissible vaccines on disease ecology and pathogen evolution: Marek's disease virus as a case study

Award Number: R01GM140459

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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