Project Title: Developing a Broadly Protective PRRS vaccine

Institution: Ghent University and Biological Mimetics, Inc.

Outcome/Results: New vaccine technology is being utilized to develop test vaccines for PRRS virus.

Summary: This project is designed to study a completely new approach to developing a new vaccine against PRRS for the pork industry. It is based on a new understanding of how the AIDS virus causes disease in humans and includes the application of a new vaccine technology called “Immune Refocusing”. Both the AIDS and PRRS viruses have envelope proteins that appear to prevent humans or animals from mounting broadly protective immune responses. The project has identified portions of the virus that act as the decoys and has designed vaccine candidates to remove or overcome these decoys. The test vaccines have been made and are ready for testing in animals.