Development of an improved frozen substitute for chilled tick fever vaccine for cattle

Summary

The Tick Fever Centre (TFC) of DPI&F was established in 1966 with ACBRC/AMRC support to develop and produce a tick fever vaccine. Since then, more than 35million doses have been supplied. Most of the vaccine is dispatched in chilled form and suffers from a number of deficiencies, notably biosecurity risks and convenience (short shelf-life). In an attempt to overcome these limitations, a frozen vaccine was developed but a trial conducted at the end of 2005 showed it met the needs of only 25% of users owing to distribution issues and short shelf life once reconstituted.
Tick fever vaccine is produced by DPI&F, although considered to be not core government business. The service is not profitable but is provided because of the importance of tick fever to livestock industries and the lack of alternative means of control and / or vaccine supply. A key driver for DPI&F is the need to develop an improved frozen vaccine which will improve both production efficiency and biosecurity. Successful delivery will potentially allow the service to be maintained without serious implications for users in terms of cost and availability. 
This project is designed to assess producers requirements for tick fever vaccine and to develop the capability to meet these requirements in a cost-effective way. It will involve a number of trials, each being determined by the key outcomes of the previous one with the ultimate aim being an end-product that is user-friendly, effective and cost-effective to produce. A feature of the project is the reliance on use of cooperator properties as opposed to the more traditional pen trials.