Cutting-edge technology against livestock parasites

Cutting-edge technology

AGAINST LIVESTOCK PARASITES

Through the Catalyst: Leaders Fund, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research was able to bring Dr Felix Guerrero (United States Department of Agriculture), a world-leader in anti-tick vaccine development, to New Zealand. He has worked alongside New Zealand researchers to initiate a programme for using cutting edge ‘reverse vaccinology’ technology to develop a vaccine against the only tick found in Aotearoa that is a parasite of livestock – the New Zealand cattle tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis. Ticks are blood-sucking external parasites. The New Zealand cattle tick favours cattle but is not completely host specific and can infest deer, sheep, goats, horses, rabbits, hares, domestic pets and even humans! Tick-borne diseases such as Theileriosis (a protozoan that infects white and red blood cells of cattle) already cause large impacts to livestock in New Zealand.

The risk of new tick-borne diseases in New Zealand is high due to greater trade levels increasing the risk of their introduction. Climate change is also likely to increase impacts, as it has the potential for increasing the geographic range for particular parasitic species. The fact that there is only a single tick in the country that infests livestock provides an elegant and efficient solution to both current and potential future disease impacts: manage the tick, rather than specific diseases. Using ‘reverse vaccinology’ technology would allow vaccines to be developed against ticks and tick-borne diseases and, by vaccinating livestock, reduce or eliminate the impacts of these diseases upon New Zealand livestock industries.

Dr Guerrero had travelled to New Zealand several times, trained New Zealand technical staff and directed the sequencing of the tick’s genome, the first step towards vaccine development. The complete sequence of the tick genome was published in October 2019, a momentous milestone. A consortium has been set up with scientists from Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Massey and Otago Universities, AgResearch, United States Department of Agriculture and private consultants to seek research funding to continue the development. A further visit by Dr Guerrero was planned for April 2020 but has been on hold due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

The Catalyst: Leaders scheme supports incoming and outgoing targeted international fellowships for exceptional individuals that cannot be supported through other means. It is administered by the Society with funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

“Using cutting-edge ‘reverse vaccinology’ technology to develop a livestock vaccine against the NZ cattle tick represents a ‘step-change’ in the approach to managing livestock external parasites, as it will reduce the reliance on chemical-treatments, and has potential to be applied to other parasite-host associations such as blow-flies and sheep.”

MANAAKI WHENUA LANDCARE RESEARCH

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