To produce safe, immunogenic, and efficacious non-replicating adenovirus (ad)-vectored vaccines to protect layer and broiler chickens from diverse H5 hpai clades, when given in OVO, at 1 day of age,…

The Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service awarded a $1.988 million Cooperative Agreement to the University of Maryland, College Park on February 2, 2026, to develop safe, immunogenic, and efficacious non-replicating adenovirus-vectored vaccines protecting layer and broiler chickens from diverse H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza clades under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025).

The recipient will evaluate vaccine immunogenicity and efficacy across a range of doses, routes of administration, ages, and chicken breeds, testing vaccines administered in ovo following prime-only or prime-boost regimens. Work includes head-to-head benchmarking against the conditionally licensed H5N2 vaccine, comprehensive assessment of both humoral and cellular immune responses to determine mechanism of action, and development of tools, reagents, and standard operating procedures for evaluating avian immune responses. The award also supports vaccine capability to accommodate rapid updates to different subtypes such as H7 if needed.

Performance runs through February 1, 2029, in Maryland. The University of Maryland, College Park acts as prime recipient with Dr. Andrew Broadbent leading poultry virus expertise. A sub-recipient award dated June 17, 2026, supports the University of Maryland, Baltimore through Dr. Lynda Coughlan, who provides specialized expertise in adenovirus-vectored vaccine development. The project benefits American chicken producers, poultry veterinarians, agricultural vaccine companies, epidemiologists, and researchers studying poultry immune responses and avian influenza.

Activities

To achieve this goal, we will evaluate the immunogenicity and efficacy of non-replicating ad vaccines at a range of doses, routes of administration, in different ages and breeds of chickens, and we will test vaccines in OVO following prime only, or prime:boost regimens. Importantly, we will benchmark our results against the conditionally licensed H5N2 vaccine (ZOETIS). Furthermore, we will perform a comprehensive head-to-head evaluation of both humoral and cellular immune responses, to dissect out the mechanism of action of our vaccines. Deliverables and expected outcomes: we will develop safe, immunogenic, and efficacious non-replicating ad- vectored vaccines to protect chickens from diverse H5 hpai clades. In addition, we will develop a suite of tools, reagents, and standard-operating-procedures to evaluate the magnitude and breadth of avian cellular and humoral immune responses. Intended beneficiary(IES): this proposal will benefit america N chicken producers, poultry veterinarians, agricultural vaccine companies, epidemiologists, and researchers studying poultry immune responses, vaccines, and avian influenza. Our project will also benefit the state of maryland by capacity building. Subrecipient AC tivities: this proposal brings together two researchers with complementary, distinct and highly-relevant expertise to address the hpai poultry innovation grand challenge: DR. Andrew broadbent (university of maryland, college park (UMCP)), an expert on poultry viru SES, and subrecipient, DR lynda coughlan (university of maryland, baltimore (UMB)), an expert in ad-vectored vaccines, with extensive experience evaluating novel universal influenza virus vaccines in pre-clinical and human clinical trials. The facilities to conduct both immunogenicity studies at BSL-2 and efficacy studies at BSL-3 in chickens are located at UMCP, and the subaward to UMB will provide access to the novel ad vaccines, as well as unique reagents to evaluate antibody breadth and crossreactivity, such as customized recombinant H5 proteins spanning diverse H5 clades and highly conserved headless H5 proteins.