Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent infectious disease outbreaks in aquaculture. Long-term duration of vaccine protection often requires several vaccines doses, however, we do not understand how the interval between prime and boost vaccines impacts the duration and quality of the immune responses elicited by these vaccines. This project will use cutting-edge immunological methods and leverage new findings in the field of fish mucosal immunity to fill important knowledge gaps in the field of troutvaccinology with the goal of improving the sustainability of the aquaculture industry in the US.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
40%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
THe major goals of this award are to determine optimal prime and boost vaccine combinations for rainbow trout. Vaccination regimes will compare different delivery routes, mostly mucosal, as well as different interval times between the prime and boost doses. The hypothesis is that interval time is critical to determine the duration and quality of the protection, as measured by the binding affinity of the specific antibody response generated. A second major goal of the project is to understand how the first time of vaccination impacts duration and quality of the immune response to vaccines. Specifically, we will compare two age groups, one where mucosa-associated lymhoid tissues are not developed yet, and the other age group where these structures are already formed. The outcomes of these experiments will significantly advance the field of rainbow trout vaccinology and immunology and improve fish healthvia optimizeddisease prevention.
Project Methods
The methods of the project include in vivo vaccination experiments using different routes (injection, intranasal, immersion), challenge experiments to determine survival,microscopy techniques, immunostaining techniques, ELISA, surface plasmon resonance and next generation sequencing